S15 EP156: Hour 3 - The State of Play in the Senate

Erick Erickson walks the whole 2026 Senate map, refusing to back off his warning that Ken Paxton is a bad general election candidate against James Talarico in Texas, then breaks live news that Donald Trump has launched new strikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz after Iran tried to mine the strait and fired eight missiles at an American base in Jordan. He takes apart Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan campaign, the Hasan Piker problem, the Charlamagne tha God appearance and the fireworks and asthma clip, and closes the hour explaining why he has changed his mind on whether Islam as it is being imported by groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR is compatible with the Western world.

• Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas: Erick says he called this race months ago, that independent voters decide Texas, and that Republicans should not drain the national budget saving Paxton when Michigan, New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Alaska are all in play
• Breaking during the hour: Trump announces strikes near the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Iranian sea mines and eight missiles fired at a base in Jordan, with a warning that a much larger attack is waiting in the wings and "very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran"
• Abdul El-Sayed's campaign in trouble: Mike Rogers on offense, Debbie Wasserman Schultz refusing to clear him, the Hasan Piker campaign appearance he now calls "a streamer in California," a Jewish consultant hired for damage control, and his claim that fireworks cause asthma attacks and heart attacks
• Scott Jennings versus Abby Phillip on CNN over Laura Loomer, and Erick's answer: draw Jesus and nothing happens, draw Muhammad and people lose their heads, plus MEMRI clips of imams saying "Islam is the solution for the whole world" and "we will build America on Islam"
• Why Erick changed his mind, credited to Muslim friends who fled the Middle East and to Dr. Michael Youssef's book on the unholy alliance between progressivism and Islamism, with Hamtramck, Dearborn, the British rape gangs and El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood ties as the evidence, and a Jimmy Carr bit and a Jewish necktie joke as the illustration