Sean Kernick

Anderson Cooper: “for more on other closely watched races, i want to bring in senior chief data analyst harry enten. so what are the races are you looking at right now?” Harry Enten: “yeah you know, obviously you mentioned that south carolina call earlier today, and that takes us from 253 for the democrats upwards to 254 as they climb the stairway to electoral heaven. you know we're speaking about south carolina. let's go right there. we'll go to the charleston area, anderson, and you know, tight race, but you know what? nancy liqueur wins it. nancy liqueur wins it. this is yet another flip for the democrats as they climb, as i said, that ladder, getting closer and closer to 260. now one thing i do want to note is we focus so much on the senate and on the house, but for me what's so interesting is the united states governorships, the governorships which have not gotten nearly as much attention. and why do i point that out? because right now democrats are leading, anderson, in enough races that they could get 30 governorships by the end of this election cycle, which in fact would put them in their best position in governorships since the early 1990s. one race in which they are leading that is uncalled at this hour is in kansas. look at this. the democrat ahead by a little bit less than a percentage point. and then the other one i will note is in alaska. the last time that a democrat was elected governor of alaska, anderson, was all the way back in 1998. it hasn't happened this century. that gentleman was tony knowles.” Anderson Cooper: “we've been talking about the the massive gains democrats made nationally. what does it look like among young male voters that helped propel the president back to the white house?” Harry Enten: “yeah i, this to me is one of the great switcheroos that we have seen, anderson. you know when we're talking about the senate races, right, and we're talking about how how well democrats did, young men help propel them in both the house and in the senate. so what are we talking about? well let's take a look at the vote margin in the house. i mean my goodness gracious, look at this shift. look at this shift. donald trump carried young men, those under the age of 30, by 14 points back in 2024. look at how much dems won in the house vote among young men. they won by 25. they won by 25. that is a 39 point switch, a route. it's one of the biggest shifts that we saw in the entire electorate. turns out that the young men said, you know what, we don't exactly like what donald trump is doing in office. now beyond that, what about specific races? well let's talk about texas. let's talk about texas, sanders. look at this in texas. you want to know one of the reasons james tallarico won is because of young men in texas. look at this. donald trump carried young men, those under the age of 30, by 24 points. james tallarico won him by 34 points. wow is exactly right. a 58 point shift that helped propel him to be the first democratic senator elected from texas since 1988, anderson.” Anderson Cooper: “all right, harry, have a good weekend. thanks very much. i want to get perspective now from the nyu professor and podcast host scott galloway. scott, you call the election results a political earthquake that triggered a tsunami, and you said that young men were the at the the earthquakes epicenter. how do you explain the the massive swing among young voters away from the president after supporting him in 2024?” Scott Galloway: “well first off, let's talk about the earthquake here. the three groups that pivoted hardest from red to blue in 28, where hispanics, 28 point swing, all young people, 30 point swing, and young men, a 38 point swing from red to blue. what the exit polls show is that this was largely a repudiation of the president, and 89 percent of exit polling said that they were focused on affordability. the surprise in the exit polling, anderson, was that just above, just above affordability, at 90 percent, was corruption, or concerns over corruption. but i think that the plates colliding, what actually caused this earthquake, this offshore earthquake that created this tsunami, is one basic statistic, and we've been talking about this for the better part of the last five years, and that is for the first time in the nation's history, a 30 year old isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at the age of 30. and that just creates tremendous shame and rage across households, not only among young people but among their parents. and in 24, trump offered young men sort of a vision of masculinity and grievance, but it wasn't helping paying their rent. and they saw this vision of masculinity as coarse and cruel. and wow, did they repudiate and swing back.” Anderson Cooper: “what do you think democrats elected tuesday need to do to to keep young men and young voters in general showing up for them in the future? because it's not necessarily love the the can't, you know, love the democratic party all of a sudden.” Scott Galloway: “yeah this was churn. this wasn't, this was dumping your relationship, not because you're in love with someone, but you've just had it with the current relationship. the way i would argue is that, where i would say is, a young men are the swingest of swing voters, and that is you could easily lose them. in the way i've been talking to a lot of democrats about this, there, just because you have a lease doesn't mean you have a mortgage. you're renting these folks right now. you don't own it. you're dating them. you don't have a marriage. and i would argue that there's a lot of rhetoric around accountability, retribution, and all the hearings that the democrats are planning, and i understand that, but i would argue, in my advice to democrats would be, for every ounce of that you need a pound of specific proposals to help young people do a few things. get a house, get a job, have more ability to form a family. because while that, the hearings in the retribution and the accountability, makes for great c-span and a populist, you know, tickles the censors of democrats who feel like they've been abused for the last several years, what is going to hold on to these voters is a concrete plan, quite frankly, for economic prosperity. so minimum wage, job training, housing credits, a sense that you can form a family. young men are not neanderthals. they they care about social issues, but they're not, that's not what animates them.” Anderson Cooper: “i also want to get your reaction to elon musk pumping 500 million dollars into, or so, into campaign spending this cycle, particularly in texas, where obviously he's relocated so many of his businesses, and coming up basically with nothing to show for him. and i know it's a tiny percentage of his wealth, but how do you think he kind of washes out in all of this?” Scott Galloway: “well you get reference to keep going here, and that is i think in the last 20 years, 40 years, we've been talking a lot about how to accumulate wealth. i think the next 10 years we're gonna have a serious conversation around the responsibilities of wealth. and when you think about 500 million dollars, it just sounds staggering, but if you're a trillionaire, that's like being a millionaire who's decided if he gets the local assembly person elected that his car wash will do better, get favorable treatment from a local council member. for a millionaire, that would be donating 500. so the real question is, should we have trillionaires who can spend literally a negligible amount of their money to try and swing an election? the other observation is the following, and this is the good news of the bright spot. the roi on political spending appears to be plummeting, because for 500 million dollars he couldn't, he couldn't buy a senator. i mean that's just, it's hard to believe that much money couldn't move the needle. and that's the good news. i would also argue, anderson, and some of your viewers may not like this, i think it would be a mistake to go after musk's companies in sort of a retribution or a vengeance. i think states led by democrats need to show that they are focused on economic growth, that they are open for business. i'm not suggesting there should be sweetheart deals, and i'm sure there have been, that need to be uncovered, ndas around data centers. but i think the worst thing democrats could do right now is be seen as very anti business and start going after companies punitively. i think they need to show that they are actually pro-growth and focused on growing our economy, so we can pay for our navy and food stamps and some of the many promises that democrats will immediately begin making around restoring medicaid cuts and things like that.”