What the Democrats need to do to win, With Virginia Congressman Don Beyer. [20:20-25:22]

Granger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Granger offers millions of products and fast, dependable delivery. So you can keep your facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. Call one 800 Granger, click ranger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. We're back on today's podcast. Delighted to welcome to the podcast. A good friend, Congressman Don, by representing Virginia's eighth congressional district that's North Virginia right across the Potomac. Congressman, welcome back. Big governors race in Virginia this year. The off year is always Virginia and New Jersey. And we always look for signs of what they might tell us about the mood of the American electorate. How do you see the race in Virginia? I'm really optimistic about it, Bill. Abigail Spanberger. I served with for six years in the house. Great background. She was a law enforcement officer for the Postal Service. She was an undercover CIA agent in Europe. She's a Virginia board and bread from Richmond. And she's won a lot of elections in Trumpy type places. We're in Virginia, called Pepper County. And I think she's going to do great. She also has a very damaged Republican opponent that the party seems to have abandoned. I think she's going to do terrific. By the way, Virginia has a tradition going back all the way to Lyndon Johnson with only one exception that we elected governor of the opposite party. The president we just elected. Donald Trump in office, Abigail Spanberger immediately cheered up. So I think we can sweep. And we have a narrow margin in the Virginia house, 5149. And yet we have, I think, eight or nine seats that Kamala Harris won, currently held by Republicans. So we're going to do our damage to try to make that a 60-40 house. So our mutual good friend, Terry McCullough, former governor, told me he thinks Spanberger is going to win by 15 points. Do you want to place your bet right now? It's looking like 15 to 17 points. So they racist and the narrow at the end. I'll be thrilled with 50.1. And the last thing I think Abigail is very aware that she doesn't want to take this race for granted and doesn't want any of us to either. That you need to run through the tape. Yeah. Which she is doing, right? Yeah. She's doing very well. It wasn't that long ago, Congressman, that we consider everybody considered Virginia a purple state. Is it still, or do you think it's now classified as blue? Now, it's still pretty purple. Our house is 6 to 5 in the US house representatives. We do have more clients in Cain who are terrific US senators. But they're, again, they're purple senators too. They're not Bernie Sanders. They're sensible. Mark Warner has always described himself as a raging moderate. It could go back and forth. The only way we can win is to put up really good people. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, we saw it go back, if you will, with Glenn Youngkin, when we thought Terry would get reelected. So what isn't about Democrats in Virginia knowing how to win in some of these reddish or purple districts, that Democrats nationwide ought to look to, do you think, Congressman? Every state is different. We, the long history, at least my adult history with Virginia Democratic leaders, Chuck Rob, Jerry Bilalos, Doug Wilder, Terry McAuliffe, Mark Warner, Tim Cain. There was always a sense that you had to have a really strong economy. This spent a lot of, Jerry Bilalos used to tell me, this is back 1980s. He was spent 80% of his time trying to develop Virginia business, staying close to the business community, working for economic opportunities everywhere. So they had the money to do the other 20% to do all the stuff for families with children with disabilities for investing in our education system. We have a very strong educational system that we put a lot of money in too. But you can only do that because we also have a great employment base and lots of strong, healthy companies. And sometimes Democrats forget that we need to be Democratic capitalists in order for things to work. It's also a fairly lean government, which I think is helpful. I'm proud to be a Virginia. I love the way we govern. But it's looking at the polls nationwide while some Democrats are very highly regarded. The Democratic brand, Congressman, rates pretty low right now. So do you agree that Democrats have to maybe not reinvent themselves but message do the better job of messaging? And what do you think that message has to be? If I go back, so I'm now a young 75, right? And if you asked me 50 years ago, I was a Democrat.