My Mom on Why She’s Undecided in North Carolina
35:59 Share

Everybody lies. But most of us don't like to talk about the lies we tell. Until now. From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Brian Phillips. In my new podcast, Truthless, I'm talking to people about their best tales of deception. From changing an entire family history to building an award-winning Hollywood career on a lie.

You can listen to Truthless on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts on October 15th.

This episode is brought to you by Coca-Cola Creations. You love the taste of Coca-Cola and love the cookie crunch of Oreos. But what happens when the best drink and the best cookie in the world get together? The best becomes besties. Try the new Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Oreo Limited Edition. Besties for a limited time. Taste it while it lasts. Copyright 2024. The Coca-Cola Company. Copyright 2024. Mondelez International Group.

This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. If you want to take control of your finances, Apple Card is where it starts. It's a credit card that can give you up to 3% daily cash back

on every purchase. And I've had it for a few years. First of all, great if you're buying anything from Apple, iPad, computer, whatever, phone. But this daily cash just pops back up. All of a sudden you're like, wait, what's that balance? I'm going to use that. Super easy to use, super easy to make payments, and super easy to understand that 3% daily cash back on your purchases is a really nice perk. Apply for an Apple card today. It's easy.

Hi, I'm Tara Palmieri. I'm Puck's senior political correspondent, and this is Somebody's Gotta Win.

This is a special bonus episode of the podcast with the woman I have been talking about for the past month, my mother, Yolanda Palmieri. And, you know, the latest news out of Axios today is that there are still 13% of persuadable voters out there. And all of the political gurus believe that this election will come down to about 15%.

6% of voters in seven swing states and what they decide to do. Well, one of those undecided voters, one of those persuadable voters, just so happens to be my mother.

And she lives in North Carolina, one of those seven swing states. So mom, you call me from time to time, generally in a panic or just nosing around for, you know, deep intel, political intel that only I can give you as you decide on this very, very important decision. Who knows? It could come down to a few thousand votes and perhaps even in your home state of North Carolina. So I just kind of want to like do a sort of unscientific focus group, if you will, and sort of

just get what it's like to be living in North Carolina right now, just to understand what issues are most important to you, what your media diet is like, what kind of messaging are you getting, what's appealing and not appealing from both candidates, and just talk about everything. But first, I feel like we need to explain a little bit about our family history and where we've lived, because we've lived pretty much in swing districts the entire...

time I've been alive. So we started in Mikey Sherrill's district, the 11th congressional district in New Jersey that forever was a Republican district, but then recently switched to Democrat during Trump's term. Mikey Sherrill, she's a blue dog Democrat. She may even run for governor in New Jersey. But

forever was a Republican stronghold. So we were kind of around a lot of people that were, you know, conservative. Then you moved to Branchburg in the 7th Congressional District. It's actually very close to Trump's Bedminster Golf Club. And it's currently being represented by a Republican, Tom Keene, but it's another swing district. And he's in a razor thin race against a woman named Sue Altman. So, you know, we've sort of always been in this area of

usually Republican districts that kind of swing both ways. Right now, you're in the 10th Congressional District of North Carolina that was represented by Patrick McHenry. He was very senior. He is very senior in Congress right now, but he's decided he's so tired of Congress and the craziness of it all that after 20 years, he is retiring. And he was actually seen as someone who could be Speaker of the House. He was in the line of succession. So it's kind of interesting. And I'm sure where you live right now, since it stretches from the district stretches from

Appalachia to the suburbs of Charlotte where you live, it'll probably end up being a Republican district again. But, you know, it's just funny because I, you know, I saw Kristen from high school just this past week. She was cutting my hair and she now lives in Nassau County in Long Island, which was George Santos's district. It's another swing county. And she was telling me like she doesn't know how she's going to vote.

and she wanted to vote for RFK Jr. because he's all about health. But once he dropped out, she didn't know what to do. And I don't know, like every time I talk to these political gurus, they're like, who are these undecided voters? They're not real. They're not real. But then every time I talk to people that I know who I grew up with, they're all undecided. What do you think, mom? Why do you think that is? I think that your group, we consider you a millennial, are more educated.

I think that you're not you think things out. You want more. You want a government that works together, not all this polar stuff.

polarization that is going on right now. Yeah, I mean, I would say that. But I also just think a lot of my friends aren't really paying attention, to be honest. Like in the case, like with Kristen, like she was like, I don't really pay attention to politics. She's like, she didn't really know who her congressman was. And I was like, you should probably vote because the entire House, like who controls it, hangs in the balance based on the seats in New York and California. And she was like, oh, I had no idea. And like, we were just talking about it now. I don't blame her. Like she's dealing with her own thing. She's got two kids. Politics is like

in the background. You know, I talk to people that I grew up with and all the political gurus I'm around right now, they all think like undecided voters are crazy. But then the people I grew up with and the people I know, they're all sort of undecided, which I think is sort of interesting. So I don't know, mom, I think we need to talk about you just so like people can understand you as like a voter profile. How old are you? How old am I? Yeah, I know it's not the best question to start with.

I'll be 62 at the end of the month, but I'm 61. So I'll take that. Yeah. Hold on to 61. And you consider yourself to be white, right? I think so. Yeah. Okay. Blonde hair, blue eyed. Yes. Okay. So you're, you're white. What would you consider your socioeconomic level to be?

I'm middle class, retired husband. I have a, you know, a job. Yeah. And you work at a law firm as a legal assistant, right? Legal practice. Yes. Legal assistant. And your education level is? I have an associate's degree and I have some undergrad work.

And your story is kind of interesting because you immigrated to America when you were a child from Poland. And then you became a citizen in what year was it? Oh, after your brother was born, because I finally said I've had it.

Because I said, I have to vote. So what was that? 2000? 2001? 2002? So you wanted to vote and that's why you became an American. What did you want to vote for? At the time, I was leaning more Republican. But as time has... I voted both ways. So what are you registered as? I did register as a Republican in Jersey. In Jersey. But I did not...

When I registered in North Carolina, I did not have to pick a party. You registered as an independent. I guess I'm not sure if we had independent as a choice, but I did not register under any party affiliation. And I've been bombarded by text messages from the Trump campaign and also the Democratic side. It must be you, Paul.

blasting about your mom here. No, no, no, mom. I think it's actually funny because that was my next question. Like, what has it been like living in North Carolina? What are the ads like? Well, if I watched cable TV, I would see a lot of both of them bashing each other.

the um now i'm a streamer i like to watch netflix and then i watch some uh free stream services which do have some political you know um advertisements on them and on those they were pretty intense they're pretty you know they're well like i think one is uh kamala harris uh

Supporting taxpayer money for operations for prisoners, transgender. So, yeah, you know, they bash each other. It's pretty. I listen to NPR in the morning. Yeah. OK, so when you're like when you saw that transgender government funding. Yeah. And they call her like dangerously liberal. Right. Isn't that the words they're using? She's with they them. I'm with you. Is that the one that you keep seeing? No.

Oh, it's Kamala Harris supports this, you know, and. OK, yeah, that one. What do you think when you see that? Well, it doesn't really sit well with me using taxpayer money for that. My reason might be to vote for Kamala is that, you know, what that Roe versus Wade, even though it was the Supreme Court that threw it back to the states, it's just that kind of angered me that.

The conservative side of our country has that much power in the states, in certain states. They should have just left that alone. I don't think government should be involved on both sides about women's health.

a woman's body. So that's really a big deal. And do you see a lot of advertisements about abortion? I haven't, Tara, because I don't watch a lot of mainstream TV. I mean, I don't watch football games because dad doesn't like that. Yeah. You know, like I like 60 Minutes. I watch that. You know, I watch certain platforms. Do you watch local TV there in North Carolina? Not really. Yeah.

put it this way. I go to work in the morning. I work all day. And then when I get home, the last thing I want to do is, you know, watch any, like I like to watch a streaming thing. So that's not me. My, I get my news from reading articles, the wall street journal, other, you know, reputable,

newspapers, including my daughter's. And then I just read and I listen. And I'm also surrounded by people. There's so much false stuff going on.

So much false information being spread. It's really disgusting for someone who is a, you know, everyday person. Another thing we should mention is like you just moved to North Carolina, what, two or three years ago? How long has it been since you moved? Three and a half years ago. Yeah. Okay. So you just moved there from New Jersey and you kind of live in a newer neighborhood that just...

new development that a lot of people probably from like New York and New Jersey moved to, right? Here? No, not in my development. Not where I am. But there are a lot of people from up north that have moved down. Yes, there are a lot of transplants. Midwest, California. Yeah. Okay. So when you drive around, do you see more Harris signs or Trump signs outside? More Trump signs. Our Delacarney, which is next to Mecklenburg, is more Trump. So do you get the feeling like most of your neighbors are voting for Trump?

Most people I know are voting for Trump, even the people from New Jersey that I know, which is really, you know, so I don't know what to say. All right. So media diet is like NPR in the morning and you're not hit with ads. I guess they don't do political ads. Do they do political ads on NPR? No, they just report. So you're saying your friends, your coworkers, your family...

Pretty much everyone's voting for Trump around you. Almost, not all. We know my crazy father. I know, Mr. Maga. I know, and your crazy brother. He's very conservative for a young guy. Basically, my father sounds like he would be your crazy uncle, and my brother is one of those podcast bros that...

that Trump talks to through Ben Shapiro. Yeah, he likes Seth Rogen and all that stuff. Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan, sorry, Joe Rogan. But I've had to sit in the car and listen to that. So, yeah. You know, I'm not saying that some of them don't have valid reasons, but it's just, you know, I just feel that what I want in a leader is someone that'll bring the country together.

And that's why I'm on the fence. I think that Kamala Harris would be more stable than me, than President Trump. He just like I watched the debate. I watched the debate. He lied.

You know, he just throws his stuff out there and, you know, it has consequences. Did you ever vote for him? I did the second election and he lost. Thank God. Oh, you voted for him in 2020. OK, I didn't know that. I thought you voted for him in 2016. The first time when Hillary was running. You voted for Hillary. I did.

Okay. I didn't know that. I thought you voted for Trump and then Biden. Why did you vote for Trump the second time? Because I thought Biden was too old. You were right, actually. I know, Tara. It was a

It was a toss. Trump won the toss that time. Thank God he didn't win the second time. Even after everything, I don't know why I did that. I guess... You have regrets about voting for him? Oh, the second... Oh, yeah. Him. Yeah, the second time. The first time I didn't vote for him. Oh, yeah. I guess that was a family secret because you didn't want to upset Daddy by not telling him that you voted. No, but he swore I voted for Biden, so, you know. That's why I probably thought that the family folklore was that you voted the other way. Because I don't...

Don't tell them I voted Hillary Trump. OK, so when you watch the debate, you thought that Kamala won and you thought that Trump lied. Absolutely. She's much more intelligent than him. She's much more, you know, the stuff that he says.

But, you know, there are people in our family who, you know, say he loves this country. He's just not a good, you know, speaker. I think he's dangerous for this country. OK, but like what's still appealing to him? Nothing's appealing at the moment, except for that. What is this one point that they make is that, you know, conversation.

Kamala, you and Joe Biden have been running the country for the past four years. My money doesn't go very far. Inflation is high. So it's like pocketbook issues. It's hard for a middle class person to save money because even to buy a car these days, everything's so expensive. You know, it's just so I guess is that what is it? It's your pocketbook. That's why most of my friends are leaning towards Trump because

Because they felt like it was better days under Trump. Like there was, they had more money or the inflation was lower. That's what they feel. Inflation was lower. Remember we had COVID a lot of that time too. Yeah. I don't think he's good for the deficit. I don't think either one of them are good for the deficit. It's all of a sudden the deficit isn't a factor in this election, really. I think that,

That they have to be a Congress that they all should be fiscally responsible, just like we have to be fiscally responsible with our finances. Are you still watching to learn more about the candidates? I am. I'm listening. Yes, I am. And what do you think about Kamala Harris's rollout this past week with the media? Here's the rumor mill. They said that 60 Minutes was edited, her interview on 60 Minutes. Yeah, I had to explain this to a friend earlier. So when you promote something...

When you do an interview that's taped, it was not live. It was a taped interview. You have discretion over what you clip and what you don't clip, what you what you write around and what you just play. And so they advertised a line from her and then they didn't use it in the piece. But I don't think they were being surreptitious. But obviously, in a piece like that, editors have discretion. I don't think that CBS did anything wrong. I know that it looks that way. And like, I've had to explain this to friends, but I really don't think CBS did anything wrong.

They used one clip to advertise it. And then they and then when you actually watched it, they they wrote around it. Like I've done interviews with politicians like I when I was at ABC. And sometimes you don't play every minute of an hour interview. But you see. So now Trump's campaign is using that. Of course. Yeah. OK, so it's disinformation. And where are you seeing that on Facebook?

One of my friends sent me a snippet of it, you know, from someone else, a third party. Oh, yeah. I forgot to ask you about digital ad. What do you use? Like, is it Instagram or Facebook? Like, what's your social media that you use? I use Facebook. I use Instagram. And do you get a lot of digital ads? Political digital ads? No, I get a lot of religious ads too. They track what you're looking at. Yeah. So what are the most important issues for you this election? Rank them from top to bottom. Well...

Roe versus Wade. So abortion is the number one for you. I just don't think abortion should be a political thing. It should not be a government thing. The government should not be involved. This should be a personal thing. You're not pro-choice, but you're not anti-abortion. That's right. Is that your number one issue or is it pocketbook issues like the economy and...

Well, that really is an issue that a law that was there for so long has been overturned because I'm a woman and there are other, you know, there are reasons why people have

An abortion. Yeah. They could be rape. You know, this should not know. Nobody else should be dictating that. That's between them, their doctor and their and God, what they do. So on abortion, you trust Kamala Harris, right? On that. Absolutely. Okay.

And on inflation economy, you trust Trump. I hate to say that. Yeah. Do you care about migration and crime? I do. I care a lot about crime. I care a lot about immigration. Yes, I do. I think that we have...

too much crimes. And I think that as relating to immigration, I think that we just can't keep bringing everybody in and letting them just, you know, I think it's too much on this infrastructure. No other country does that. But you came here as an immigrant. I did, but I came through. Remember that when I came, our family had to show that they had money and

to sponsor us. You didn't just walk across, you know what I'm saying? You had to come here, you had to apply for a degree. It was chain migration. Yes, Tara. But you had to, yeah, but you, there was a process, a legal process. You weren't crossing over a fence. And then the issue of democracy, do you think about that at all? I do. And who do you think is better on democracy? I think that Kamala Harris would keep the status quo. I forgot to ask you, who do you think is better on migration and crime?

I don't think Trump did such a great job. They say the wall, but I don't think he did. What did he do? He threw people in a room and separated families. Yeah, he had detention. That's not the answer. I think that it's that they're going to have to work. Congress is going to have to work and they're going to have to figure this out. OK, so you don't trust either of them on migration or crime. Is that what you're saying? No. Do you think Trump was really good on crime?

when he was president? I don't know. Honestly, I don't feel crime one way or another. You don't, but you're in New York. So if you're telling me you don't feel it, so that's good because the rumor mill says that New York is falling apart and people are getting. Yeah, that's what Trump says all the time. Yet he's here every week at Trump Tower. My girlfriend

to something in New York and she said that in Central Park there's like people on motorcycles stealing and robbing people is that in fact there was always crime in New York I don't know it doesn't feel like that to me but then again it doesn't seem like there's more of it now no I don't know I live in Brooklyn like it's hard to say I also don't like I don't want to take the subway at night anyway you think before you take do something I don't know I mean we're careful don't

I don't, maybe I'm lucky that I live in a nice neighborhood. You know what I mean? I can afford to live in a nice neighborhood. If I lived in an area that wasn't safe, then I would think about it more. I think that's probably part of it, but I'm not afraid to go to any part of Manhattan. Manhattan is fine. Even most of Brooklyn. I think this woman underneath me that was living there, like in the neighborhood said someone tried to attack her once and she got spooked. And I just feel like, I don't know. It's hard to say. Okay. But I just want to go back to this because

How you rank these topics, inflation, abortion, immigration and crime and democracy. And keeping this country together, bringing people together, being able to compromise, being able to work across party lines. Those are important things for me. Based on how you rank them is probably how you're going to choose who your candidate is, right? Right. So what is your number one thing that you care about?

Probably working, both parties working and doing something productive for this country. I think Kamala will probably do a better job at that. But you're still like not really sold on her. So what's, what is... I'm not sold on her. And why are you not sold on her yet? Because I don't know too much about her. She's only been out, what, a couple of months? And you're worried about the ads that you've seen about her being very liberal, right?

Well, she's been very liberal. I've seen her do some Senate hearings in the past. I don't remember what she was grilling someone on, but I do remember that. So the problem is that you don't know enough about her. If you saw her on TV every day until the election, do you feel like you would know her better? That will never happen because I'm not going to spend that kind of time. Do you feel like you'd rather pick the devil you know than the devil you don't know? Is that why? No, I know that devil. I've seen that devil. I

Tara, I mean, I'm probably leaning towards Kamala, but I just, you know, I don't know, Tara. It's a really tough call. I'm going to pray about it. How do you like that, Tara?

Do you want change from the last four years? I want to see more progress, not so much change, but progress. OK, and which candidates you think would bring more progress? I think it's going to depend on who has the House and the Senate. It's not just the president. It's every you know, it's all three together. They all you know, they're willing to work. What I saw while President Trump was president was pretty scary. You know, we had a lot of civil unrest.

Right. We had COVID. He had a swinging door with his cabinet. You know, we had the riots. Those things are not, you know, they don't bode well. I still remember them. They're still it's still all clear there, you know, in my mind what happened then. So I don't I don't think I'd want him based on that. But then I'm not like crazy about her either. If Biden was still running, would you have voted for him? Well, I I thought he was too old.

I don't think either one should be running, but here's the reality. We have Trump for the Republicans and Harris for the Democrats. I would have liked to see someone like Joe Manchin on the Democratic side. Like a centrist. A centrist. Yeah. And also on the Republicans.

Republican side, I would have liked a centrist. But our country's not like that anymore, Tara. It's just everybody like, look at your father and me. We can't talk politics in the house. Yeah, daddy's crazy, though. Do you think that Trump will be a dictator on day one? Well, your analyst says he just wants to be the best president in the book. So I don't know. That's her thing. Oh, he just wants to do the best thing for us. He wants to go down as the best president. But basically, like, do you take him literally when he says that? Did

Did he say that? Yeah, he said, I'll be a dictator on day one. I'll deport, I don't know, all the illegal immigrants on day one. That's what he said. He'll deport all the... How can he? He said he was going to build a wall. I mean, he didn't finish it. And he didn't finish it, yeah. But who knows? Maybe he can. If he has control of the House and Senate, he might be able to do it. I mean, it's a tall task to deport everyone. It would be very expensive to...

to round people up and it would be scary. And you don't know who's not legal and who's not. A lot of people live around us and you don't know if they're legal or if they're not. So it's, I know I did not hear him say that, but that's very disconcerting.

OK, I've heard his lies. I haven't heard him say he's going to be a dictator. Where did he say that, Dara? He said it's a Sean Hannity, mom. Oh, he said it on Sean Hannity. I'm surprised you haven't seen an ad that shows him saying that. So I think the Democrats would want you to see that. Maybe they think you're like district is just whatever a bunch of Republicans, not even worth putting out ads there. But it's also if I were watching.

TV, local TV, which I'm not. Okay, so you're not watching local TV. What do you think's at stake in this election? Well, it's our democracy. If you're telling me he's going to be a dictator, he wants to be a dictator and deport people. That's not the rule of the law. It's land. That's not the law of the land. I don't know, Tara. I just want to get through the next four years. Here's the deal. I'm going to wake up. Someone's going to win. I'm going to have to deal with it for four years. And then

than someone else. So you don't think whoever wins is going to have that much of impact on your life? Financially, they may, but you know, no. Look at how many presidents we've lived through, right? Some were better than others. I remember as a child when they had, when you had to stand on line for gas, certain days you could fill your car up in the seventies with the oil embargo. So I've been through quite a bit. So I've seen it all.

But it's still the best country in the world to ever. Is there anything that Trump could do that would make you feel differently about him? If he didn't lie, if he didn't like bash people, if he was more, you

you know, of a, he, when he does those things, he's not being a, it's not, it doesn't make him look smart. It doesn't make him look, you know, it doesn't make you make him attractive. Is there anything that Kamala Harris could do to win you over or make you think differently about her? No, she's doing what the best she can.

But she does, but I will say something. She does evade some questions when she's asked. She doesn't really answer them. She kind of like... Dances around it. Yeah, kind of dances around. You just feel like she's not confident enough when she's asked questions. Is that the problem? And the facts are the facts, how we're living, you know?

Inflation is still high, Tara. And you kind of blame her for that because she was a part of the Biden administration. Well, they've had that, you know, but I guess, you know, you have to be patient too sometimes. Do you feel like the economy is getting better? I personally, I'm doing okay. But it is costing me. My pocketbook is getting, you know, I have less money.

That's the reality. But I'm at a different stage in my life. But if I were starting out, you know, it's crazy. Okay. Have you heard about this crazy guy, Mark Robinson, who's running for governor?

In North Carolina? Oh, yes. What do you think about him? He should walk away. Do you ever see signs for him? Like, are people still supporting him where you live? He's still talking and, you know, doing his thing. But he he should just step away. Is there any way you'll vote for him?

Absolutely not. So you'll split ticket if you decide to vote for Trump. You will not vote for him. My ticket's going to be split. Yeah, I'm voting for I'm going to look up all the candidates. I'm going to do my research and I'm going to go into the polls and make a decision. All right, mom. This was interesting. Is there anything left you might want to talk about or say after this conversation? Do you feel like you've kind of thought about it and have are leaning one way or another? Are you still undecided?

been leaning more towards one way but um you know but then my friends barrage me with all their information and you know it's all pro-trump information you're pro-trump even though you work at a big law firm in in in north carolina we don't talk politics at work no these are like these are your friends yeah it's crazy it's it's amazing how we see things what's their problem with kamala harris do you think it's sexism or do you think it's they just like

like, don't like her? Do you think there's racism in it? Like, what do you think is... Well, some of them really think Trump did a great job with the economy. I think that was it. They think that he's more on board with how they feel. Immigration, they like that with him. They just...

Did you vote for Obama? I did. Okay. So you voted for him twice? Yes. Are any of your friends, former Obama voters that are now Trump voters? I don't think they voted for Obama. They always bashed him, but he really, but you know, in the end, I did get them to agree that he did a good thing. You know, that's another,

another thing we didn't mention was that Trump wants to appeal that affordable health care. The ACA? The ACA, the affordable health care. What do you think about that? The fact that he wants to appeal that? Absolutely not. I think that was a good thing for a lot of people. It could be insured if you're sick, you know? So this, like in North Carolina right now, it's not like a men versus women thing that you're seeing right now.

like the rest of the country where women are pro Kamala and men are pro Trump. A lot of them still like Trump, but not, not all my friends, like, you know, but a lot of them do. Yeah. Well, I go to what, you know, my church there. Cause you're kind of around, you're around, I guess, what are they? What's it? What kind of church is it again? It's a evangelical Christian church. So you're around evangelicals essentially that,

Love Trump. Doesn't make any sense. They do. They do. Even though he's like, has no morals at all. Are we reading the same book? He's probably never read the Bibles that he sells, but sure. Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Now they read the Bible, Tara. No, no. I'm talking about Trump, mom. Do you think Trump's ever read the Bible? Right. No. Do they pray for Trump at church? No. No.

We don't talk politics in church. It's just, you know, when they get together for their discussions, it comes up. It's funny that you're Catholic turned evangelical. I guess you kind of have to when you lived... There's probably no Catholic churches around there, are there? There weren't, Tara. Oh, really? You just decided to go evangelical? But even in New Jersey. All those years of Catholic school. Right. But I was actually...

You know, I've been with the evangelist. I've been more like that. I know more about the Bible than I did as a Catholic. So my faith is important to me. So that's where that comes from. And there's nothing. I did my research, too, on the abortion in the Bible and stuff. And, you know, hey, people...

People just spew stuff out and people just buy it. You really have to fact check stuff. You really have to look at stuff. And I think that a lot of people don't. And they spread stuff, rumors about this one and that one. I don't like I know politics is dirty. I just can't stand that part of it. I can't wait till this is all over. So if you gave me a percentage chance that you're going to vote for Trump or Harris, what would it be right now?

I'm going to vote for Harris probably. I heard that whisper. I know. You don't want daddy to know. I get it. I know, but if your brother hears this podcast, he's going to know. He doesn't listen. The only reason he heard me was because Ben Shapiro picked up the podcast and played parts of it.

He's like, I heard you on Ben Shapiro. I was like, I wasn't on Ben Shapiro. He's like, oh, he played you. As we know, he's very supportive of my journalism. All right. Mom, thank you so much for being on the show. This was fascinating. Yolanda Palmieri.

in North Carolina's 10th congressional district, giving us the readout. Right now, depending on the poll, you see Kamala's up one point or Trump is up one point in North Carolina, essentially tied. But I don't know. What does your gut say? He's probably going to win North Carolina, right? Democrats haven't won North Carolina since 2008. Let's be honest. Yeah, I get we have a lot of counties. Do you know how many counties we have in North Carolina? How many?

100. And you are luckily not in the ones that were hitting that was hit by a storm. So that could actually impact the election, too. All right, mom. This was fun. OK. Love you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Love you, too. Bye.

That was another episode of Somebody's Gotta Win. I'm your host, Tara Palmieri. I want to thank my producers, Christopher Sutton and Connor Nevins. If you like this podcast, please share it with your friends, rate it and subscribe. If you like my reporting, please go to puck.news slash Tara Palmieri and sign up for my newsletter, the best and the brightest. You can use the discount code Tara20 for 20% off. I'll be back on Tuesday. ♪