The Excerpt podcast: Ron DeSantis drops out of 2024 race
On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. What's this mean for New Hampshire, and beyond? Paste BN 2024 Campaign Reporter Karissa Waddick looks at how wealthy voters might help Nikki Haley in New Hampshire. Paste BN National Correspondent Trevor Hughes explains how Taylor Swift may impact the 2024 election. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again says no to a Palestinian state. The Kansas City Chiefs break the Buffalo Bills' hearts again, as the NFL's Championship Weekend matchups are set.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Monday, January 22nd, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, what's next for the GOP Presidential field, as Ron DeSantis drops out? Plus, we look at how one demographic in particular could help Nikki Haley in New Hampshire, and how might Taylor Swift play a role in this year's election.
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Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, dropped out of the presidential race yesterday, two days before tomorrow's New Hampshire primary. In a video, he acknowledged that he did not have a clear path to victory, and DeSantis did not mince words about who he's endorsing.
Ron DeSantis:
Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear. I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honor that pledge.
Taylor Wilson:
DeSantis narrowly beat out former South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley, in Iowa by two points, despite polling that anticipated he would finish third, but he failed to narrow Donald Trump's lead, finishing 30 points behind the former president. After the announcement, Trump told Fox News Digital he was honored to have the endorsement and that he looks forward to working together with DeSantis to beat Joe Biden. According to the latest Suffolk University, NBC10 Boston, Boston Globe daily tracking poll out yesterday, Trump increased his lead over Haley by two points, now leading 55 to 36%. You can find more polling data with a link in today's show notes.
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With Ron DeSantis out of the GOP presidential field, it's now essentially a two-person race between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, ahead of tomorrow's New Hampshire primary. I spoke with USA Today 2024 campaign reporter, Karissa Waddick, about Haley's chances and how a key demographic in the state might help her. Karissa, thanks for making the time.
Karissa Waddick:
Always, always.
Taylor Wilson:
So Karissa, let's start here, what does polling tell us about wealthier voters' support of Nikki Haley in New Hampshire?
Karissa Waddick:
So our most recent USA Today, Suffolk University and Boston Globe poll, it shows her garnering a large portion of her support with people in the state who are earning over $100,000 a year, so six figures. And honestly, she's earning an even larger chunk among those who are earning over $140,000 or higher.
Levels of education are also often correlated, are often tied with wealth, and Haley is unsurprisingly also doing the best with voters who have a college degree or an advanced degree. New Hampshire is a pretty wealthy state as it is, Taylor. It has a median household income of about $90,000, which is over $10,000 higher than the national average. So all things considered, it's clear that Haley is really relying on this wealthy state and the wealthy demographics within the state to propel her forward.
Taylor Wilson:
And she got a big endorsement from Governor Chris Sununu. How might that help with this demographic group that we're talking about?
Karissa Waddick:
Sununu himself is kind of part of this wealthy demographic group. He's an MIT graduate, his family owns this big ski area. He ran it before he entered office, and he's really touted fiscal responsibility, both in his own campaigns and through the policies he's pushed as governor. It's part of the reason he's been so successful in the state. He's one of the most popular governors across the country.
And to give a little bit of an anecdote about how he could help Haley, there's this town called Bedford, and it was once a Republican stronghold. In 2020, though, in the general election, it went for Joe Biden. At the same time, the residents of this town overwhelmingly voted to reelect Chris Sununu. That town is largely made up of these kind of affluent voters we're talking about, so Sununu's support there could really be instrumental in towns like Bedford in turning out voters for Haley over Trump in the primary.
Taylor Wilson:
Haley appears to also have the backing of big business. How does this play into her support?
Karissa Waddick:
In one way, this backing of big business definitely helps her with donations and funding, right? A lot of these large corporations supporting her. On another end, we've talked to a lot of local business owners in the state of New Hampshire who are often kind of in this group of more well-off citizens, and they say that they really like Haley's business background.
I talked to one voter who owns a coat manufacturing company in the upper part of the state. He used to work for Goldman Sachs, he was a vice president there, and he says that, "Haley's background in business gives him hope that she will know how to manage the country, run the country," and she has all of those characteristics that they're looking for there. So, that background and that backing is going to really help her with that group, I think.
Taylor Wilson:
And Karissa, we saw Nikki Haley surge in polling ahead of Iowa, only to then narrowly lose out to Ron DeSantis for second and well behind Donald Trump for first, what's the forecast there in The Granite State for Haley? And what essentially would need to happen for her to pull off the win and beat out front-runner, Donald Trump?
Karissa Waddick:
Things are looking really tenuous here. So in order for her to win and move that dial, she needs to do a few things. She needs to turn out independent voters who make up about 40% of the state's total registered voters. And a lot of these voters say that they're going to support Nikki Haley. She has a large backing among them, these more modern minded voters, but she's going to need to turn those out on large numbers.
She's also going to need to bring in some of the supporters who used to support former New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie. He dropped out of the race last week. A lot of his supporters were some of these independents who leaned liberal. And so she's going to need to make sure that she galvanizes them, make sure that they still want to go to the poll. These are really those never Trump supporters. At the same time, she's going to need to convince some of Trump's supporters that she's also the best candidate. And of course, then there's the typical conservative that makes up the bread and butter meat of the party.
Taylor Wilson:
Karissa Waddick has been covering the New Hampshire primaries for USA Today and doing a great job doing so. Now into the final stretch before tomorrow's big day. Thank you, Karissa.
Karissa Waddick:
Thanks, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Taylor Swift helped register voters last year. And in an election when the youth vote could again be crucial, the pop star might play a major role. I spoke with USA Today national correspondent, Trevor Hughes, for more. Trevor, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.
Trevor Hughes:
Hey, good to be here.
Taylor Wilson:
So Trevor, how did Taylor Swift convince thousands of people to register to vote last year?
Trevor Hughes:
Taylor Swift is one of those incredibly unique talents. And she is so talented and so clever and such an amazing performer, and she has really, really engaged her fan base. And that fan base listens very carefully to what she has to say. And they listen to her songs, they follow her romantic interests, and they very much listen to what she says when it comes to the outside world.
In this case, she partnered with vote.org, which is a nonpartisan voter registration group, to persuade people to register to vote. You have to bear in mind, Taylor Swift's fan base tends to be younger, and so there's a lot of 17-year-olds who will be eligible to vote by the time this election rolls around. And she reached out and said, "Hey folks, you should vote."
Taylor Wilson:
So, had we seen Swift get political at all before that moment?
Trevor Hughes:
We've seen Taylor Swift get political from time to time, but it's not been a huge part of her image to be a very politically-driven person. She really got involved in the 2018 Senate race in Tennessee where she's from, and then in 2020 she tweeted that she wanted Trump to lose that election.
But she's also very aware and mindful of her position. She's very close with the band, formerly known as The Dixie Chicks, The Chicks as they're known now. And they got a ton of flak back under the George Bush presidency for speaking out against Bush and the Iraq War. And the Chicks saw their careers really tank. And Taylor Swift has seen that and she's actually lifted them up, I think in part because of what she saw happen to them. She cites them as a huge influence on her own music.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah. So you mentioned that a large portion of Swift's fan base is on the younger side, Trevor. So how important will the youth vote be in the 2024 election?
Trevor Hughes:
Young people often have this reputation for not caring, for not being engaged, and in many cases, it's sort of valid. For a very long time, young people didn't vote in elections. They could, they just didn't. As you get older, you're more likely to vote in elections. And so more than 70% of folks who are 65 and older, a little more than 75%, 70% of them vote. But for young people in the last presidential election, it was only 50%, and that was an improvement over the previous presidential election. So, there are millions of young people who just choose not to participate.
Taylor Wilson:
So Trevor, has there been any pushback to Swift on this?
Trevor Hughes:
There has been some concern among conservative circles, in part because Taylor Swift's fan base is young and young people tend to vote liberal or Democratic. And so I think there's this concern that she is swaying the electorate in a certain way, which is of course her right as an American to tell people how she thinks they should vote.
But what's really fascinating, is that you have to bear in mind when we talk about elections, and we have this idea that elections are decided by millions of votes, in some cases, they're decided by fewer than 1,000 votes. Here in Colorado where I am, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, she won her last reelection by fewer than 600 votes. So, in some cases, every single vote does matter.
Taylor Wilson:
So we've talked about Taylor Swift. Do voting advocates plan on partnering with any other stars to try and get out the vote this year?
Trevor Hughes:
Oh, yeah. I don't know if any of our listeners remember Rock the Vote from MTV. This is a longstanding effort by nonpartisan groups to get young people engaged in the political process. And vote.org has partnered with any number of influencers in music and social aspects to push this idea of young people voting. And they also reach out to a lot of young people using what we call micro influencers, people who have a relatively small following on social media, but hit very specific targets, like students at historically Black colleges and universities.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, Trevor Hughes, great story and great info as always. Thanks so much.
Trevor Hughes:
Happy to be here.
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Taylor Wilson:
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, doubled down yesterday on his refusal to support a Palestinian state in Gaza. The US, Saudi Arabia, and much of the world have been urging Israel to agree to a two-state solution as part of a long-term deal for peace in the region. Netanyahu though has stood firm on demands that Hamas be destroyed and Gaza disarmed, and that Israel should oversee security in the territory. He said, "I will not compromise on full Israeli security control. As Prime Minister, I stood firm on this position in the face of heavy, international and domestic pressures."
He also rejected a Hamas de man that Israel surrender in exchange for the release of hostages believed to be held by militants in Gaza. The US, Egypt, and Qatar meanwhile are pushing Israel and Hamas to join a phase diplomatic process that would start with a release of hostages and lead to an end to the war, according to involved diplomats who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. You can stay up on updates from Gaza and the region with a link in today's show notes.
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And then there were four. Conference championship game matchups featuring the final four in the NFL are now set. In the NFC, the top seed 49ers took down the Packers this weekend, and the Lions beat the Buccaneers to make their first conference title game in more than three decades.
In the AFC, the number one seed Ravens beat the Texans. And last night, the Chiefs, in front of fan, Taylor Swift, beat the Bills on a frigid night in Buffalo. It was the latest heart-wrenching playoff loss for Buffalo, who had a chance to tie the game and possibly force overtime in the final minutes before missing a field goal. The Bills have still never won a Super Bowl. Next week's winners will play in the Super Bowl in February in Las Vegas.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.