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00:00 — Opening: Primary Day in Florida
Walworth, Cannon, and Bevan preview Florida’s primaries, focusing on Byron Donalds’ gubernatorial campaign and the state’s long-term shift toward the Republicans, which has enabled a new right-leaning map, GOP Rep. Cory Mills’ reelection fight, and Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s quest to stay in Congress after being shifted to a newly drawn majority-Black district.
RCP Average: 2026 Florida Governor – Republican Primary | Donalds +31.8
RCP Average: 2026 Florida Governor – Donalds vs. Jolly | Donalds +5
“Florida is a remarkable GOP success story,” Bevan said. “In 2018, Democrats had a quarter-of-a-million registration advantage, and now the registration advantage among Republicans is 1.5 million.”
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08:17 — Alaska’s Ranked-Choice Mess
The panel turns to Alaska’s primary, where ranked-choice voting could shape the Senate race involving incumbent Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola.
RCP Average: 2026 Alaska Senate – Sullivan vs. Peltola | Peltola +2
“Ranked-choice voting kept Sarah Palin out of Congress. That’s pretty clear to me. And that’s kind of what it was designed to do,” Cannon said. “I don’t mean it was aimed at Sarah Palin particularly, but it’s designed to get candidates who are everybody’s second or third choice. In other words, you may not love them the most, but you don’t hate them the most.”
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17:11 — Flock Cameras Catching Heat
The panel debates public safety vs. personal privacy in response to backlash against the rapid spread of “Flock cameras” — a license-plate-reading scanner network larger in scope than anything we’ve ever seen. “Does it really make us safer?” Cannon asks. “How much liberty are we willing to sacrifice to have security?”
Ned Ryun, RealClearPolitics: Is This the Future We Really Want?
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25:11 — Pritzker’s 57% Toll Hike
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s proposed toll increases, with Tom Bevan arguing that the plan clashes with Democrats’ affordability message and Carl Cannon criticizing tolls and gas taxes as regressive. They also discuss how toll revenue is used beyond road maintenance and joke about the increasing sophistication of dynamic and potentially means-tested road pricing.
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36:03 — c
AEI’s Nick Eberstadt joins the show to discuss President Trump’s decision to scale back participation in U.S.-South Korean military exercises and his renewed interest in talks with Kim Jong Un. Does Trump see Kim as “the deal that got away”?
Eberstadt argues that Kim Jong Un is negotiating from a much stronger position than he was during Trump’s first term, perhaps the best strategic situation it has seen since the end of the Cold War, and they have masterfully lured the president back to the negotiating table. “They’re very, very good negotiators,” he said. “They gave a masterclass in trying to hook the American president and get him hungry about making a deal with their dictator.”
He also discusses the tension this is causing with South Korea, which he characterizes as “a crisis waiting to happen.”
“The North Korean side seems to be convinced that the South Koreans are gutless, pampered, and afraid, and that if push comes to shove, they would be the winner,” he warned.
“We can infer that there’s a certain sort of Ahab-meets-white-whale sort of relationship here,” he said about Trump’s view of North Korea. “The president looks at North Korea as an opportunity? — as the one that got away, and thinks that there is a deal to be made with the North Korean dictator.”
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