Bryan Bennett

Principal, Loft Beck Strategies. Alum of @NavigatorSurvey, @Illuminas, and @GQRResearch. Thoughts are my own. I also Substack @bryanbennett85.

[David Dennis Jr. @DavidDTSS]

Mike Brown has officially had the most interesting coaching career of all time lol

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

Congrats to the @nyknicks!

[Marc Stein @TheSteinLine]

The New York Knicks are NBA champions.

For the first time since 1973.

The Knicks take Game 5 of the NBA Finals with yet another comeback as Jalen Brunson's 45 points set a franchise Finals record and deliver a 94-90 closeout in San Antonio.

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

Combined points between Knicks and Spurs in the first half of each NBA Finals game:

Game 1: 103
Game 2: 108
Game 3: 121
Game 4: 125

Game 5: 79

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

Wrote a new piece focusing on the sizable group of voters currently supporting Democrats in the midterms that are a crucial but fragile segment of the coalition, and why the Democratic Party should be thinking beyond just anti-Trump messaging. https://t.co/2F9kLgSG6C

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

The right way to cover Paxton over Cornyn is not calling it a big win for Trump but rather: Trump has enough influence over a small group of primary voters to nominate someone so bad, Republicans could lose the key seat to Senate control, which is a huge loss for Trump, actually!

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

The DNC autopsy debacle is probably one of those things that will not reach or affect the average rank and file Democratic voter, yet is perfectly symbolic of why a significant number of rank and file Democrats think the Party is out of touch and does not have strong leadership.

[Jon Favreau @jonfavs]

1. Promise to release autopsy
2. Put incompetent friend in charge
3. Incompetent friend produces incoherent product
4. Announce you're not releasing the autopsy
5. Lie about why
6. Gaslight people who ask, saying they're the problem
7. Face internal revolt
8. Release autopsy

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

One wonders how large a lead Democrats could have if they didn’t have as many issues with their brand/perceived performance. In the same survey (!), Dems in Congress have a 20% approval rating. Independents are equally negative toward both parties but D+20 on who they want to win

[Nick Field @nick_field90]

Quinnipiac Poll: If the election were today, would you want to see the Republican Party or the Democratic Party win control of the United States House of Representatives?
50% Democrats
39% Republicans
https://t.co/JLCJeXln1u

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

This outlines well what the baseline view should be for anyone on the left that wants to build power over the long term vs. daytrading on being the party out of power to win elections in the short term (and even that may not be enough because of prior lack of long term thinking)

[Adam Carlson @admcrlsn]

Pretty much every data point shows the same thing — by and large, Americans don’t like the Democratic Party or their approach, they’re just extremely angry with the Republican Party at the moment.

This will likely lead to a good midterm outcome for Dems. Maybe they’ll even flip the Senate.

This will lead many to think they don’t need to make any major strategic adjustments heading into 2028. They will be wrong.

In the 2022 midterms, Democrats did better than expected — partially due to backlash to the Dobbs decision, partially due to the fact that midterm electorates are just demographically better for Democrats these days (more college educated, more politically engaged, etc.).

That, among other things, gave Democrats a false sense of confidence — “look, we bucked the historical trend of getting our shit rocked in a midterm in which we held the White House!” — and they didn’t do any of the course correction that was necessary ahead of 2024. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered in terms of the 2024 outcome, but it was a mistake nonetheless.

We cannot make that same mistake with 2026 and 2028. The massive swings that we may see toward Democrats among less party-loyal groups like young voters and Latinos will not be permanent, nor even last in the medium-term. Maybe it’ll carry over into 2028 if voters are still super pissed at Trump, but — as @madrid_mike calls it — it’s more of a “dealignment” than a realignment among these types of party-fluid groups.

So don’t let Ken Martin or establishment Democrats or even leftists tell you that we don’t need to course correct as a party if we do well in November. That voters are buying wha we are selling. On most issues, including inflation, they’re not. They’re punishing Republicans, the party in power.

If we want to build a durable connection with more voters than we currently have in our coalition, we have to have hard conversations and take some (smart) risks.

Complacency will get us back to where we are now, sooner or later.

Now I’m gonna go outside it’s beautiful out.

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

Wrote up a new analysis about a meaningful divide among Democratic voters about the current direction and leadership of the Democratic Party, but how they align with other Democrats on what they want from the Party in the future.

https://t.co/NJxgE0WGZS

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

Surely they had time for a pitcher at Posse East

[John C. Moritz @JohnnieMo]

Former President Barack Obama appears with James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa at an Austin taco restaurant Tuesday

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

From a newly released survey by Loft Beck Strategies (me!) today on how voters see the Democratic Party brand and where they want it to go. More findings and analysis from this survey can be found here: https://t.co/vZC0yYSw0S

[Jesse Lehrich @JesseLehrich]

even as discourse is dominated by fiery leftist-vs-centrist feuds, new polling shows Dem voters care far more about *whether leaders will fight for them* than they do about ideological alignment.

[Bryan Curtis @bryancurtis]

Two events that always appear in tandem.

[McKay Coppins @mckaycoppins]

Last year, The Atlantic gave me $10K to gamble with. What started as a journalistic gimmick turned into something more... unnerving.

My cover story on the online betting boom warping sports, culture, politics, and the psyches of millions of young men: https://t.co/h8O1ow6Uwi

[Peter Hamby @PeterHamby]

Good lord the Democratic Party’s net favorable rating in Wisconsin is atrocious. 23 points underwater.

Evers is +2. Trump is -11

Lotta work to do before 2028!

https://t.co/yzQfyXypWD

[Danny Deraney @DannyDeraney]

Pouring one out for The Reverend Jesse Jackson. A giant and a champion for civil rights and equality.

But can anyone read Green Eggs and Ham better? No.

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

As a millennial, I will admit it was really tough to splurge $7 on the opulent lemon pepper rotisserie chicken I bought this week that fed two people for like three meals each

[The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]

Gen Zers and millennials are swimming in student debt and may never own homes, but they’re splurging on gut-healthy juices and rotisserie chickens. https://t.co/16ctTPmmLp

[Geoffrey Skelley @geoffreyvs]

Sam Darnold, from this to Super Bowl champ. #NeverForget

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

A+ kickers, A+ pollsters

[Marist Football @Marist_Fball]

Marist - 12
Patriots - 0

#FoxholeGuys

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

The DC experience encapsulated metaphorically, epistemologically, physically, and literally

[Burgess Everett @burgessev]

On the one hand, the Capitol is an awesome old building

On the other hand, a chunk of the ceiling just fell on me

[Bryan Bennett @bryanbennett85]

It would be really nice if there were a single social media post that succinctly and accurately summarized the state of both domestic and international politics in the year 2026

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

🚨 BREAKING: France will delay this year’s Group of 7 summit to avoid a conflict with the mixed martial arts event planned at the White House on Donald Trump’s birthday.

Read the story: https://t.co/jsJlBwQOR6