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0:04
President Joe Biden has always gone pretty
0:06
hard during pride months. We have
0:09
more LGBTQ plus people than
0:11
any administration or every administration
0:13
combined. No, I really
0:15
mean it. But this June, he's
0:17
in full campaign mode, launching out
0:19
for Biden Harris and dispatching icons
0:21
such as Vice President
0:24
Harris. As the great
0:26
Harvey Milk once said. And
0:29
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, no
0:31
video found to
0:33
talk to the American people. His
0:35
campaign may be rattled by some
0:37
survey data suggesting that Biden's support
0:40
among LGBTQ plus communities, solidly, solidly,
0:42
solidly, democratic communities may be slipping.
0:45
Coming up on Today Explained, our
0:48
reporter with some surprising findings. Every
1:01
day we see videos on social media of
1:03
people who don't seem to know they're being
1:05
filmed. Maybe they're acting out on a plane
1:07
or doing something awkward in the gym. Sometimes
1:09
they're just shopping at Walmart. And
1:11
we're left with this question. Does the person
1:13
know that they're part of a viral video? In
1:16
this country, you are literally allowed to film
1:18
anything in public, which I think is extremely
1:20
important. But like, I think that's why this
1:22
is such a matter of ethics and etiquette
1:24
rather than a legal question. This
1:26
week on Power User, we're talking about the
1:29
ethics of filming strangers in public. In
1:34
difficult times, one of the
1:36
more useful things we can do is turn
1:38
to history's greatest thinkers for wisdom. This
1:41
week, we revisit Albert Camus' writings
1:43
on the French-Algerian War and apply
1:45
some of those lessons to the
1:48
ongoing conflict in Gaza. He's
1:50
trying to explain when
1:53
we lose sight of
1:55
those individual lives. We've
1:58
lost sight of what it is. It
2:00
is that makes us fully human. Hear
2:03
more on this week's gray area, available
2:05
wherever you get your podcasts. 2020,
2:09
2020, 2020.
2:11
It's today Explained. I'm
2:16
Noelle King with Vox Senior Politics reporter
2:18
Christian Paz, who recently wrote a piece
2:20
titled, Are LGBTQ Voters About to Abandon
2:22
Biden? Joe Biden is still leading in
2:24
the polls with this block, but there's
2:26
some evidence that this year queer voters
2:29
have many of the same concerns as
2:31
the general electorate. There have been a
2:33
few surveys actually that don't necessarily ask
2:35
about the head to head between the
2:37
candidates, but ask about issues and the
2:39
way that they're thinking about 2024. And
2:42
the thing that comes up again and again in those surveys
2:45
is it's the economy, inflation, kitchen
2:47
table issues that are significantly influential
2:50
in the way that these voters are thinking about 2024.
2:54
And that kind of makes them
2:56
look a little bit like voters
2:58
from other demographic groups, whether we're
3:00
thinking about Latino and black voters,
3:03
whether we're thinking about non-college educated
3:05
voters, things that they prioritize
3:07
also tend to be the
3:09
economy, inflation, affordability, prices. And
3:12
especially for LGBTQ voters, that's
3:14
significant because that's coming in
3:16
significantly higher than concerns
3:18
over LGBTQ rights or equality.
3:21
And that's one of those interesting pictures that kind of complicates
3:24
2024, since it suggests that
3:27
LGBTQ voters are kind of behaving in
3:29
ways similar to other voters. We've
3:31
covered some of this this election season
3:33
with respect to black voters, which you
3:35
mentioned. And there's a thing
3:37
that I always wonder, Christian, which is if
3:40
a group is beginning to behave
3:42
like the rest of the electorate,
3:44
if a group is saying we
3:47
have other issues beyond just like
3:49
what our identity is, why
3:51
is that such a problem for
3:53
Democrats? It's definitely a problem
3:56
for Democrats when you think about what
3:58
it is that by groups
4:01
of voters together and make some work
4:03
and operate as a voting bloc that
4:05
gives a significant margin of
4:07
support to one party in this case
4:09
obviously Democrats because usually when
4:12
you have groups of voters that begin
4:14
to behave a little bit more like
4:16
other voters it means that they're becoming
4:18
more persuadable swing voters and
4:20
more open perhaps to considering the other
4:22
side or to reconsider what
4:24
it is that binds them to one
4:27
party and so with LGBTQ voters
4:29
and black voters those are actually two
4:31
of the most loyal voting groups
4:33
and the Democratic coalition you're
4:35
starting off with such high levels
4:37
of support that any drop-off in that
4:39
level is sure to have some kind
4:41
of effect on the overall vote share
4:43
within a given state you know within
4:46
a given district or just across the
4:48
country with the popular vote I
4:50
imagine Democrats are looking at the same polling and
4:52
realizing they may have a problem so what are
4:55
they doing about it yeah
4:59
they're definitely revving up the
5:01
outreach efforts for Pride Month obviously
5:04
we're in June a lot of it
5:06
looks like emphasizing how much this party
5:08
has done in terms
5:10
of increasing visibility for LGBTQ
5:12
folks they're bringing out secretary
5:14
of transportation people to judge
5:16
my marriage and my family
5:18
and the two
5:20
beautiful children that my husband Chasten
5:23
and I are raising that that
5:25
marriage only exists by
5:27
the grace of a single vote on the
5:29
United States Supreme Court that expanded
5:31
our rights and freedoms back
5:34
in 2015 and made
5:36
it possible for somebody like me to
5:38
get married they're you know elevating members
5:40
of Congress like representative Robert
5:42
Garcia from California as a key spokesperson
5:45
even though he is a freshman representative
5:47
everyone is Congress and Robert Garcia we're
5:50
here in Tucson Arizona with all this
5:52
amazing people launching out provided they're
5:54
bringing out Vice President Harris
5:56
to talk to specifically LGBTQ
5:58
media outlets They're bringing second
6:01
gentleman Doug Emhoff out to Pride
6:03
events to talk about the accomplishments
6:06
of the Biden administration. Another thing
6:08
that they're doing is trying to,
6:10
quote unquote, lay out the
6:12
stakes. Donald Trump is
6:15
a bully. He is
6:17
dangerous to the LGBTQ
6:19
community, to our families.
6:22
They're emphasizing the threats to IDF
6:24
and threats to
6:26
trans rights and gender-affirming
6:29
care for trans folks.
6:32
And one of the other interesting things to point out
6:34
is that, again, LGBTQ people
6:36
are not monolithic. They understand the
6:38
importance of those stakes. But at
6:41
the same time, they want both
6:43
parties to focus on some
6:45
of these everyday issues of affordability. And
6:48
so that is one thing that I think
6:50
is missing from some of this messaging during
6:52
Pride Month is it's very, very specifically
6:54
focused on LGBTQ identity and rights. But
6:56
perhaps there's a little bit less of
6:58
a focus on some of the things
7:00
that are making these voters think like
7:03
the average voter. Where
7:06
are Republicans at? And what
7:08
are they doing? It's interesting
7:10
because it's dependent on whether
7:13
it's Donald Trump himself, who
7:15
is not necessarily somebody who
7:17
speaks the most about LGBTQ identity or rights,
7:19
or even while the
7:21
rest of his party was very
7:23
directly going after trans identity and
7:25
going after books
7:28
and LGBTQ visibility.
7:31
It took him a while to actually weigh in
7:33
on that. Let's talk about same-sex marriage.
7:35
You said a few years ago that you were evolving
7:38
on that issue. Where are you? I'm
7:41
traditional marriage. It is changing rapidly. But
7:43
what do you say to
7:45
a lesbian who's
7:47
married or a gay man who's married who says,
7:50
Donald Trump, what's traditional about
7:52
being married three times? Well, they
7:54
have a very good point. And even then, it doesn't
7:57
seem like those social issues are the ones that he's
7:59
doing. is the most concerned about,
8:01
which is maybe why it's easier for
8:04
a lot of Republican
8:06
and conservative-leaning LGBTQ groups to
8:09
try to make appeals to LGBTQ voters,
8:11
rooted a little bit more in some
8:14
of those kitchen table concerns, talking about
8:17
affordability, talking about prices, talking about inflation,
8:19
with some appeals to other factors
8:22
like immigration and crime. But it's
8:24
interesting to see that even though
8:26
President Trump himself doesn't necessarily talk
8:28
a lot about LGBTQ issues, he's
8:30
kind of turned to his family
8:33
as ways to make those appeals
8:35
in his stead. So famously back
8:37
in 2016, his daughter
8:39
Tiffany Trump attended a
8:41
few LGBTQ for
8:43
Trump rallies. And people
8:45
can say whatever they want to say, but I'm
8:48
here because I support my father. He supports all
8:50
of you, and we are here to
8:52
fight for equality and democracy. And
8:55
this year, actually, in April,
8:57
former First Lady Melania Trump
8:59
appeared at a fundraiser for
9:01
the Log Cabin Republicans. That's
9:03
the major conservative Republican-aligned LGBTQ
9:05
group in the US. And
9:08
she was there to kind of announce
9:10
additional investments that the campaign and allied
9:12
groups would be making to partner with
9:14
Log Cabin Republicans to reach out to
9:17
LGBTQ conservative and Republican voters. A
9:19
few of those details haven't yet been announced. But
9:21
even like saying that that's something
9:23
that they want to do is interesting because
9:26
historically, the Republican Party hasn't necessarily thought
9:28
of this voting group as a group
9:30
that is necessarily the most fruitful for
9:33
them to try to make investments in
9:35
because that creates some tension with the
9:37
core social conservative evangelical base of the
9:39
party that they've needed for so long.
9:42
But it looks like we're seeing a
9:44
little bit of even the Republican Party
9:46
itself considering just how much to reach
9:49
out to these voters because they're also
9:51
seeing this polling. They're also seeing indications
9:53
that Trump improved in 2020 compared
9:55
to 2016. So why not
9:57
maybe try to peel off a few more votes?
10:00
on that side. And what
10:02
makes that so interesting is that there
10:04
is still obviously a fairly broad vein
10:06
of what can be described as homophobia
10:08
in the policymaking. This
10:11
has not been solved within the Republican
10:13
Party. Oh, it's definitely not been
10:16
solved. And if anything, what we've seen
10:18
is a pretty big cleavage. Even
10:21
in 2022, you still had a significant
10:23
number of Senate and House Republicans voting
10:25
in favor of codifying same-sex
10:27
marriage protections. And then
10:29
later that year also, we see the rise of
10:31
Ron DeSantis and the relevance
10:33
again of these don't-say-gay law
10:36
efforts. This morning, the Florida
10:38
law critics dubbed the don't-say-gay
10:40
bill is expanding. Gender ideology
10:43
has no place in our K-12 school
10:45
system. And we've made
10:47
that very, very clear. It is wrong for
10:49
a teacher to tell a student that they
10:51
may have been born in the wrong body
10:53
or that their gender is a choice. And
10:56
it seems like somewhere around 2022,
10:58
we have a pretty sharp return
11:01
to old-school homophobia, where
11:03
for that last year, it seemed
11:05
like it was a specifically focused
11:07
attack on trans Americans and trans
11:09
rights. According to the Human Rights
11:11
Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, lawmakers
11:13
in 28 states are
11:15
considering 93 bills targeting the rights of
11:17
transgender Americans. And then it expanded a
11:20
bit more from there. And
11:22
it's a sharp contrast to the
11:24
way we saw the party kind
11:26
of change a bit from when
11:28
the first efforts
11:30
to repeal Don't Ask, Don't
11:32
Tell, the military policy that
11:34
prohibited LGBTQ service
11:37
members from serving openly in the military, that
11:40
was repealed in 2011. And
11:44
from then to 2022, we saw a general
11:46
march along a
11:48
path toward greater acceptance tolerance definitely
11:51
within the Democratic Party and
11:54
a slight kind of shift toward
11:56
the center among Republicans and then from 2022.
12:00
on, we definitely see a sharp pivot
12:02
against, definitely with
12:04
the rise of Republicans
12:07
to the right on social
12:09
issues compared to Donald Trump and
12:12
kind of pulling Donald Trump in that direction. And
12:14
what we're seeing, especially since
12:16
the 2020 election, is
12:18
one party continuing as
12:21
Milquetosis, some
12:24
of these outreach efforts might seem,
12:26
it's still relevant that the
12:28
Democratic Party is elevating folks
12:30
like Pete Buttigieg when
12:32
the other party is actively
12:34
turning against them. What
12:37
do you think in 2024, what do
12:39
you think the story of this community and
12:41
this election will be? It's
12:44
definitely going to be a nuanced picture
12:46
that develops because a lot of
12:49
history for, we're thinking about
12:51
other marginalized groups and experiences that other
12:53
voting blocs have had that has kind
12:56
of made them become less of a voting
12:58
bloc and more of just a swing group.
13:01
And here I'm thinking about Catholic voters, Italian
13:03
and Irish American voters, more recently
13:06
something that's happening among Hispanic and Latino voters
13:08
potentially, where they used to also be a
13:10
pretty significant voting bloc on
13:12
the Democratic side and are now much
13:14
more persuadable and swingable. There is a
13:17
lot of history there that suggests that
13:19
something similar would be in store for
13:21
LGBTQ voters, combined that with an unpopular
13:24
Democratic incumbent, combined that with a generally
13:26
still sour mood on the economy and the status quo.
13:30
And you see kind of a recipe
13:32
for a pretty significant shift
13:34
happening. And yet we're
13:36
also going to see something that is
13:39
maybe just unique to LGBTQ voters, that
13:41
these shared experiences are still really, really
13:43
relevant, that they're still really important, that
13:46
they're still significant enough to make them
13:48
not even consider the opposite party. And
13:53
so we're going to see just
13:55
how relevant and influential this voting
13:57
group becomes and get some
13:59
indications as to to whether
14:01
or not their experiences and
14:03
that shared sense of identity is strong
14:05
enough to overcome some of the other
14:08
factors that might otherwise suggest that they
14:10
become less loyal to the Democrats. Coming
14:15
up, a California congressman on Out
14:17
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Well, I said this is for when we go to
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have never been to Italy. Okay.
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And thank you, as always, for your support. This
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week on The Pitch, the dreaded error
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message. It
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looks something like, sorry, we're currently
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experiencing issues. Please try again later.
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So who gets called when that problem arises?
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We do. The question is,
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can the machine learning-based scaling
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don't have a bad day. And your models
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have you two divided up your own responsibilities
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in the company? Well,
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That's this week on The Pitch. Go
17:11
right now and subscribe to The Pitch
17:14
wherever you listen to podcasts. Hi,
17:16
gay. Happy Pride Month. We
17:19
are sashaying away with... Today Explained.
17:22
Congressman Robert Garcia, Democrat of
17:24
California, one of nine openly
17:26
LGBTQ House members, is
17:28
working with the Biden campaign to get out the
17:31
queer vote. I began by asking the question that
17:33
we were here to discuss today. The
17:35
question that we're here to discuss today is this. Can
17:38
President Biden count on LGBTQ
17:40
support in the 2024 election?
17:44
I mean, I think he can. I mean, first, let's, we've
17:46
got to be real honest. I think traditionally, LGBTQ
17:50
plus people have been strong
17:52
supporters of Democrats,
17:55
of progressives. The
17:58
vast majority are progressive. and
18:00
the president and the vice president have a
18:02
great record on gay rights and
18:04
the advancement of rights for
18:06
queer people. And so I expect very
18:09
overwhelmingly that our community is gonna come
18:11
out for the president and the vice
18:13
president. Let's not forget that
18:15
President Biden was the first person as
18:18
vice president to actually come out in favor of gay marriage
18:20
and he actually nudged at the time President
18:22
Obama. I am vice president of the United States
18:24
of America. The president
18:27
sets the policy. I
18:29
am absolutely comfortable with the
18:31
fact that men
18:33
marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual
18:35
men and women marrying men are entitled
18:38
to the same exact rights, all the
18:40
civil rights, all the civil liberties. And
18:42
quite frankly, I don't see much of
18:44
a distinction beyond that.
18:46
So I think his advocacy is
18:49
really well noted in the community. Let
18:51
me shoot you some numbers and ask you what you think,
18:53
okay? So according to exit polling in 2020, President
18:56
Biden won 64% of the queer vote. Trump,
18:59
Donald Trump, candidate Trump won 27%. Recent
19:03
polling from the Independent Center showed that in
19:05
a Biden-Trump matchup in 2024, it's
19:08
about 56% for Biden, 28% for Trump and
19:12
another 16% were undecided. What
19:16
do you think that 16% undecided are trying to
19:18
decide? Well,
19:20
I think first, I think like any election,
19:22
these numbers will harden when the actual
19:25
choice is in front of voters. And so I
19:27
think that we'll find when all of a sudden done
19:29
in this election that you're gonna see a
19:32
significant number of voters who are actually gonna
19:34
be with President Biden. I think that will
19:36
match or exceed the last election. And
19:39
so I'm not overly concerned. I think there are
19:41
obviously, there's a lot of issues going on right
19:43
now in the world and the
19:45
way people feel about the economy as
19:47
it continues to improve. And so it's not
19:49
super surprising that all of the
19:51
president's numbers haven't hardened with all communities. I
19:53
think you're seeing that across communities, not
19:56
just ours. But
19:59
I'm not super concerned. I think Donald Trump
20:01
is a con man and
20:03
a criminal. He is going to be on
20:05
the ballot. He is anti LGBTQ plus.
20:08
He says horrible things about the
20:10
trans community. So those are all
20:12
issues that we're gonna get out
20:14
there. We're gonna remind voters what
20:16
the difference in the records are. And as we
20:18
do that, I think those numbers will
20:20
harden and shift. Donald Trump
20:23
hasn't changed a lot over the years. He hasn't
20:25
really changed the way he talks. He hasn't really
20:27
changed the way he presents. What has
20:29
changed here is the numbers. It's at 16%.
20:32
And I hear you saying you're not concerned.
20:35
Why not? Donald Trump does have a tendency
20:38
to win groups that people say he can't
20:40
win. Well, I think first, I mean,
20:42
let's also be clear. I mean, President Biden is
20:44
gonna win the LGBTQ plus community. I mean, that's
20:47
a fact that he's gonna win it on election
20:49
day and he'll win it overwhelmingly. But I think
20:52
the point about the legal
20:54
predicament that Trump's in, I mean, the
20:56
fact that he has now has these
20:59
convictions and will have more is
21:01
a good reminder of the community that someone that can't
21:04
be trusted and that wants to harm our
21:06
community. I also think that the election, I
21:08
mean, we're comparing some numbers. One
21:11
is at election day and the
21:13
other is, you know, still many
21:15
months before the election. And I
21:17
think the numbers at the end of the day
21:19
when election day is here, those
21:21
numbers will strengthen because we'll be in
21:23
a full blown campaign. We have, you
21:25
know, I helped the campaign launch out for
21:27
Biden, which is a national campaign
21:29
to engage LGBTQ plus voters. I was there
21:32
at the launch. I've done events. I was
21:34
just in Tucson, Arizona, launching
21:36
out for Biden there. And so I'll continue to
21:38
do that work across the country, activating
21:40
our base. And it's not just me,
21:43
it's other national LGBTQ plus
21:45
groups that are out there doing the
21:47
same kind of work. And so we're
21:49
never, we shouldn't take our voters for
21:51
granted and we shouldn't just assume that
21:54
they're gonna be good Democratic voters all the time. We
21:56
have to put in the work and remind folks
21:58
about the record. And that is
22:00
why I don't have a huge
22:03
concern about somehow Trump winning over more
22:05
of these votes. We're going to
22:07
remind our community how horrific Donald
22:09
Trump is for queer people.
22:12
His transgender ban leaning
22:14
into Project 2025, which
22:18
essentially wants to roll back the rights of
22:21
gay people in this country, his
22:23
extreme Supreme Court justices.
22:25
So these are all important
22:27
and certainly we're going to lean into them
22:29
really, really hard as election
22:31
day gets closer. Tell
22:33
me about Out for Biden's message, where you've
22:36
been, what you're telling folks. Right.
22:38
I mean, first we want to remind
22:40
people that, you know, it's been President
22:42
Biden that signed the Respect for Marriage
22:44
Act. It's been President Biden that has
22:46
put forward really strong judges across the
22:48
country that support our rights. It's been
22:50
President that, you know, that reverse Trump's
22:54
misguided attacks on trans people. So
22:58
we're going to remind them of that, but
23:00
we're also going to lean in to the
23:02
fact that what's next? I mean, the Equality
23:04
Act, we need a president that can sign
23:06
the Equality Act into law. That's going to
23:09
be President Biden. We need a president that
23:11
is going to kind of push back on
23:13
some of these states that are passing these
23:15
horrific anti-LGBTQ plus laws. That's going to be
23:17
President Biden. So there's a lot to remind
23:19
people of, and we need to encourage all
23:21
those voters to vote Biden Harris. We
23:24
heard in the first half of the
23:26
show that polling shows this block is
23:29
not just motivated by rights and equality.
23:31
In fact, they're also very interested in
23:33
jobs, in the economy, in inflation.
23:37
You didn't mention that as part of Out
23:39
for Biden's message. Should it be?
23:41
Why isn't it? No, well, I mean, it is. I
23:43
mean, I think I've obviously been focusing on
23:46
the LGBTQ plus broader themes, but Out for
23:48
Biden focuses on the entire Biden Harris record.
23:51
And you're absolutely right. I think that
23:53
queer people absolutely care about the
23:55
economy and they absolutely care about other issues
23:58
like reproductive rights for women. And
24:00
they absolutely care about student loan
24:02
relief. They absolutely care about climate. And
24:04
so on all of these issues, the
24:07
president is on the right side. And so we
24:09
have to remind voters of
24:12
all of that. And so I think that's really,
24:14
really important for voters. I've talked to some voters
24:16
and I was in Tucson about the
24:18
president lowering prescription drug prices. These are senior
24:22
LGBTQ members of the community. That was something
24:24
that was important to them. And
24:27
so we've got to remind everyone
24:30
about the record, but especially for
24:32
our community, we
24:34
can't walk away from the fact that Trump would
24:36
be a complete disaster for our rights. And
24:39
he is fueling this extreme
24:41
kind of white nationalism, this
24:43
extreme view of authoritarian
24:46
worldview where he's the
24:48
guiding master of our country and
24:50
can just roll back these rights
24:52
and make people feel unsafe, give
24:55
people vehicle to bully in our schools.
24:57
And we're seeing this happening right
25:00
now. And so I think a lot of
25:02
that stake for our
25:05
community, for gay voters, and we have to
25:07
be aware of what the stakes are, it
25:09
is a very clear contrast. And
25:11
we've got to ensure that we make that contrast
25:14
in the months ahead. Congressman
25:16
Robert Garcia, Democrat, California,
25:19
thank you so much for your time. Vox's Christian
25:21
Paz is back with us a
25:23
little unusually for today explained. Christian
25:25
was listening to our interview with
25:27
Mr. Garcia. Congressman Garcia didn't seem
25:29
too concerned, Christian, with that undecided
25:31
16%. Do
25:34
you think that is the campaign putting
25:36
on a brave face? Do you think
25:38
that is the campaign making an assumption
25:40
that I think in the past has
25:42
hurt Democrats that, yeah, of course we're
25:44
gonna get this voting block. They're saying
25:46
it now, but come voting day, we
25:48
got them. There's definitely a little bit
25:50
of both. I don't think
25:52
that there's much data or even
25:54
anecdotal information that leads us to
25:57
suggest that Donald Trump will win.
26:00
significantly larger chunk of the LGBTQ vote
26:02
or a majority. What I think I'm
26:04
a little more hesitant, and this is
26:06
maybe a little bit of just campaign
26:08
speak here, is the assumption
26:11
that there'll be a significant increase
26:13
in support for President Biden, given
26:15
that all signs kind of suggest
26:17
that there's general dissatisfaction across the
26:19
Democratic base and across the American
26:22
electorate as a whole. And
26:24
so on that front, I do think that there's maybe
26:26
a little bit of wish casting,
26:29
but then also recognizing
26:32
that there is plenty of time left in the
26:34
election and that there will be a lot
26:37
that the campaign does to try to reach out to
26:39
these voters and plenty of time for them to fine
26:41
tune their message as well. Christian
26:46
Paz covering the 2024 election for Vox. Thanks
26:49
for hanging out, Christian. Thank you. Today's
26:56
show was produced by Amanda Llewellyn and
26:58
edited by Amine El-Sadi. It was fact-checked
27:00
by icons Laura Bullard and Matthew Collette.
27:02
It was engineered by Rob Byers and
27:05
Andrea Kristin's daughter. I'm Noelle King. It's
27:07
Today Explained. It's
27:28
today. It's today. It's today.
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