Jennifer Palmieri — former Obama and Clinton communications director and host of Crooked Media's Long Play, the documentary series traveling six Southern states — joins the Chuck ToddCast to argue the South is now the epicenter of American politics and Democrats have spent years writing it off. One-party rule has bred civic disengagement, she says, and the region gets treated as a monolith when it's anything but. Her sharpest point: Democrats are overinvesting in Maine and underinvesting in Mississippi, where Scott Colom has a real path. She also makes the case that if Greg Abbott loses, it'll be over education, that Gina Hinojosa is running a smart campaign, and that religion remains the biggest obstacle Democrats face in a region where life is faith, family, and football. 

Timeline:

00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction

02:15 Why the South became the epicenter of American politics
06:45 The South isn't a monolith — and Democrats keep treating it like one
14:15 No opposition, no primaries: what one-party rule does to a state
20:45 Georgia's civil rights legacy and the decisions still shaping it
23:30 Mississippi's path, and why Democrats are investing in the wrong places
30:45 The Latino vote and the transformation of Texas
32:30 Education, Abbott, and the Hinojosa campaign
38:15 Faith, family, football — and the Democratic communication problem
47:30 Talarico, the rising floor in Texas, and the brand problem
55:15 Why Jon Ossoff has had a very good 2026

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