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Adrianne Marsh, CEO of Altum Insight, came to rural Nebraska expecting to hear about the economy. What her team found instead stopped them cold: deep, values-rooted fear of artificial intelligence — not about jobs or data centers, but about trust, truth, and a way of life under threat. Adrianne joins Eric to break down the qualitative research behind that finding, what it means for Democratic strategy in 2026, and why the generational breakdown of AI skepticism defied every assumption — including her own.

They also get into the nuts and bolts of how Altum Insight does its research, why traditional polling instruments miss the most important voter sentiments, and where campaigns should and shouldn't be leaning on AI heading into the midterms.

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Winning arguments doesn't win elections. Persuasion does — and they're not the same thing. On this episode, Eric Wilson talks with Josh Bandoch, head of policy at the Illinois Policy Institute and author of How to Get What You Want: Mastering the Art and Science of Persuasion (Simon & Schuster), about what the neuroscience and psychology of persuasion actually tell us — and what most campaigns keep getting wrong.

Bandoch walks through four cognitive realities that shape how voters receive political messages: we feel before we reason, we respond to vision over opposition, our moral foundations vary across the political spectrum, and story always beats data. The conversation gets practical fast — from why the "logic tsunami" approach keeps backfiring on policy advocates, to how candidates can deploy the "them first" mindset on the doors, in ads, and across every piece of campaign communication heading into 2026.

Josh Bandoch is a former speechwriter for cabinet secretaries and a strategic communications consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. How to Get What You Want is available now.

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For decades, campaigns have won by borrowing — getting union endorsements, buying TV ads, riding the audiences others built. But a small and growing number of candidates are doing something fundamentally different: building their own audiences from scratch and keeping them well beyond election day. Doug Usher, a partner at Forbes Tate Partners and co-founder of the Analytics Program at Columbia University, joins Eric Wilson to unpack how this shift is changing not just how campaigns are run, but how power works once politicians are in office. From why moderates are at a structural disadvantage in an algorithm-driven world, to why Ted Cruz and Gavin Newsom are already playing the 2028 long game through podcasts and social media, this conversation reframes what it means to run for office in 2026 — and what it will take to win.

https://www.prweek.com/article/1942874/building-vs-borrowing-zohran-mamdani-marjorie-taylor-greene-aftyn-behn-blazed-new-path

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