Part 2: Dave Carney Is Playing Chess. Democrats Are Arguing About Checkers.

It's time to play chess Democrats!

I’ve heard Dave Carney speak three times this year.
I’ve spent the last three years studying every article, interview, strategy leak, podcast appearance, and stray breadcrumb that man has ever dropped.

So when the White House was bulldozed on live television, my team was upset.
I wasn’t.

Because that was the image Republicans were walking into Election Night with chaos, destruction, grievance, and it wasn’t landing with swing voters the way they hoped. Meanwhile, their attacks on James Talarico weren’t sticking. I had been tracking them for weeks, and nothing was catching fire. And believe me: when Republicans can’t get a smear campaign to land, they get cranky.

So I’m not surprised they rolled out an AstroTurf campaign the minute they felt the ground shifting under their feet.
If you can’t beat the candidate, divide the voters.
If the message isn’t working, invent a fake crisis.

And then I read this article this morning, peak Republican behavior.
Divide. Sort. Attack. Repeat.

https://www.notus.org/senate/jasmine-crockett-nrsc-texas-senate

The online drama between Crockett supporters and supposed “Talarico staffers” was not organic. It was engineered. Dave Carney told us exactly how he operates, and Democrats still walked right into the trap.

Carney Was Already Playing Us

First, he said this to Bud Kennedy on Twitter:
Crockett is “too progressive for Texas,” along with a few other predictable talking points.

Then, just minutes later, he told Mothers something entirely different.
Why?
Because Dave Carney doesn’t want James Talarico to run.

Not because of ideology. Not because of policy.
Because they can’t race-bait him.

Let that sink in.

When I started seeing weird posts floating around — bots pretending to be Talarico volunteers, people claiming the Talarico team was attacking Crockett — something felt off. I know James Talarico. I’ve challenged him plenty. He’s never once punched sideways at fellow Democrats. It’s not who he is, and it’s not how he operates.

So why were some people seeing these divisive posts, and others weren’t?

Because it was targeted.
It was coordinated.
It was meant to pit Democrats against each other just as 2026 begins.

Because Republicans Are Panicking

Let’s start with what Carney talked about the last time I heard him speak:

The average Republican voter is 68–69 years old.

The average Democratic voter is in their mid-40s.

That is a seismic demographic difference — and Republicans know it. Their base is aging out, and they’re desperately trying to rebuild the youth pipeline.

Enter: Turning Point USA.

Charlie Kirk’s death temporarily knocked their youth turnout machine off balance. Turning Point was a major piece of the GOP’s 2026 strategy. Greg Abbott has been aggressively pushing Chapters across Texas for a reason.

Their goal?
Register young voters early and lock them in for a decade of Republican voting.

It was going okay until a poll a few weeks ago showed they’re bleeding Gen Z voters.
Panic button pressed.

That’s why they’re now obsessed with high school Turning Point chapters.
It’s not about today.
It’s about 2026 and 2028.

Carney spelled it out: if Republicans want Gen Z, they’ll talk jobs, safety, and the economy.

And here’s another piece he shared:

Republicans plan to spend $25 million in 50 South Texas counties.

That’s Bexar and everything south of it.

Carney’s Roadmap for 2026 — Straight from the Source

Here’s what he admitted, out loud:

1. 40% of Democrats stayed home in 2024.

Republicans are counting on them to stay home again.

2. There is no automatic Hispanic drift to the GOP.

Latest polls show Trump underwater with Hispanic voters. Who knew racial profiling and ICE raids weren’t crowd-pleasers?

3. South Texas is the key to keeping Texas red.

4. Republicans will run on:

• Property taxes

• Crime

• Border

• (And yes, they know the economy is spiraling under Trump, which is why they’re pivoting to abolishing property taxes — the biggest middle-class tax increase in disguise.)

5. Race is a factor.

He said it plainly: he’s counting on Hispanic and Black voters not showing up.
If they stay home, Republicans win.

6. Republicans think Democrats care too much about statewide “celebrity” candidates.

Meanwhile, they’re focused on down-ballot and local infrastructure.

We weren’t running a celebrity candidate at the top of the ticket… enter astro-turfing Jasmine Crockett.

7. Republicans train their candidates.

They teach them message discipline, storytelling, persuasion, and staying on script.

8. Their formula is simple:

Message. Money. Messenger.

Republicans do the homework.
Democrats keep eating glue and calling each other racist on Twitter because a bot farm told them to.

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So Democrats… what now?

What exactly are we doing with all this information?

Are we going to keep taking the bait?

Are we going to keep falling for manufactured outrage designed to fracture us?

Are we going to let Dave Carney run circles around an entire political party because we couldn’t resist a spicy clapback?

Carney said something painfully true:

Democrats will never win until we grow up.

He’s right.

We have to stop:

• Getting played by fake online drama

• Assuming every post is real

• Letting Republicans script our infighting

• Chasing every distraction

• Fighting each other harder than we fight the GOP

And we have to start:

• Building message discipline

• Appealing to young voters

• Competing in South Texas

• Training candidates like our democracy depends on it

• Staying focused on the real opponents

Because spoiler alert:
Jasmine Crockett is not the enemy.
James Talarico is not the enemy.
Democrats are not the enemy.

The enemy is the coordinated strategy built to divide us while Republicans quietly invest, organize, and message their way through 2026.

It’s time — truly — to grow the fuck up.

Yours in resistance

Nancy