“I was thinking about how uncorrelated attention and performance is right now. … There is almost no connection between who are the candidates who are everywhere on social media and my feeds and who are the candidates who are doing particularly well or poorly, at least in polls.”
The Ezra Klein Show · Ideas & Essays · October 2026
Context
Klein was comparing the Senate candidates who dominate podcasts and social feeds with those quietly overperforming in the polls. Silver replied that a lower profile can be an advantage, and that some candidates have their eyes on 2028.
Transcript
real fast fall and rise and fall in politics.
…to data centers, the more likely they are to flip and vote Democratic in this election. And in the Midwest in general, you have a lot of data centers, right? Because you want. Some space, but you don't want to be too far off the grid and too rural. And so that could be a hidden factor, too. There's
something I was thinking about while I was going through and trying to decide which of the candidates seemed to me to be overperforming the most. I was thinking about how uncorrelated attention and performance is right now. So it's like if I go through the candidates who are all over my feeds and who are on big podcasts, and I mean, obviously, some of this is also their choice of how to run, but Abdul Saed, like omnipresent, right? James Tallarico, omnipresent. John Ossif, he's not going on many national podcasts at the moment, but his clips are absolutely everywhere. You're not seeing Sherrod Brown. You're not seeing very much of Mary Patola, right? She does not do a lot of national press. You're not seeing a lot of Roy Cooper. But it's really like you look at it and there is almost no connection between who are the candidates who are everywhere on social media and my feeds and who are the candidates who are doing particularly well or poorly, at least in polls.
Yeah, look, some candidates have different incentives. If you want to run for president in 2028, then you probably want a somewhat higher profile potentially. I think in a case like Tallarico or El Syed, they kind of inescapably feel that they're going to get the maximum amount of attention anyway.…
This podcast is supported by Edison Electric Institute, behind Friday night lights and coffee shop Saturday mornings, and every big and small moment in between. America's electric companies are hard at work, strengthening reliability, serving responsibly, and innovating for tomorrow to keep our…
Computers are getting smarter, Silicon Valley is getting weirder, and AI is taking over. At least that's what everyone keeps telling us. Welcome to Machine Gods, a new NPR podcast that will be your field guide to the AI-powered future. We're veteran tech journalists with front-row seats to the…
More from The Ezra Klein Show
