Where Voters Are Abandoning Trump, and Barriers to New Cancer Treatments

The Headlines

The episode opens with President Trump launching a multi-state midterm rally tour, highlighting a notable shift in Texas border Hispanic voters who feel betrayed by the administration's immigration enforcement despite

Key takeaways

• Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley report feeling betrayed and ashamed after Trump's immigration raids, with many threatening to skip voting entirely rather than support Democrats
• Tennessee has paused executions through December following Christa Pike's botched lethal injection, which involved seven failed needle attempts and possible degraded pentobarbital

Main topics

• Trump midterm campaign and Hispanic voter sentiment
• Tennessee execution pause and Christa Pike case

Notable quotes

"Me, my circle, my family, we feel betrayed."

Conclusion

Listeners gain a clear snapshot of shifting political dynamics ahead of the

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) Hey, it's Anna Martin from The New York Times. What if I told you you'll never have to hear this line again? Speaker 3 (0:06) Wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 7 (0:08) Yeah, no, I actually can't tell you that. But you know what I can tell you? A place I think you might want to go. It's the Shows tab in The New York Times app. The place to listen to and now watch full episodes of New York Times shows. The Shows tab. Find it in The New York Times app. Explore The Shows tab and follow a show today. Speaker 5 (0:31) From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, October 2nd. Here's what we're covering. Speaker 6 (0:43) Well, thank you. Thank you. Speaker 5 (0:47) President Trump kicked off a multi-state tour yesterday trying to rally support for Republicans in the final month before the midterms. So Speaker 6 (0:55) you have to pretend I'm on the ticket and turn out for a midterm victory. The push Speaker 5 (1:01) comes as his party faces the possibility of losing control of Congress. One place that battle is playing out is Texas. No Democrat has won a statewide election there since the mid-90s. But polls show there's a chance one of its Senate seats could flip blue in November. One constituency that could be key to that is Hispanic voters, especially those along the southern border in the Rio Grande Valley. Trump made huge gains with that group in 2024, which helped propel him to victory. And Republicans had hoped they'd stick with the party. But that enthusiasm has now faded. Speaker 1 (1:39) Me, my circle, my family, we feel betrayed. Speaker 5 (1:42) Yeah. Speaker 1 (1:43) We feel betrayed by this administration. Among Speaker 4 (1:45) some of these voters, there's almost like a kind of shame that they voted for Trump in the first place. My Speaker 5 (1:51) colleague Jennifer Medina went to the Rio Grande Valley last week, where she spoke with many Hispanic voters who previously supported the president. I Speaker 2 (1:58) mean, right now the economy is a big issue. Gas prices, groceries. I mean, that's pretty high up there right Speaker 4 (2:05) now. They're mad about the economy and feeling like President Trump promised that my pocketbook would expand, that things would get better for me economically. A Speaker 2 (2:14) lot of these raids, especially when they go to people's workplaces, home people, it's just like, come on. Speaker 4 (2:21) And they're also really furious, particularly around the immigration enforcement. Speaker 5 (2:25) Jenny says one woman she spoke with who voted for Trump in 2024 then saw her brother deported earlier this year. Speaker 4 (2:33) It's just so heartbreaking to see all of this. A lot of people are going to look at me like a clown. Is Speaker 1 (2:38) this Speaker 4 (2:38) what you were voting for? Speaker 7 (2:39) Is this what you wanted? Speaker 4 (2:41) They wanted calm along the border, but they didn't think that that would have any negative impact on people who they knew. And they really feel like, how could the president be doing this to people who supported him? Democrats are hoping Speaker 5 (2:57) the growing anger will help them unseat Republican incumbents up and down the ballot. But Jenny says it's not that simple. Many of the voters she spoke with aren't suddenly enthusiastic about Democrats, and some said they simply won't vote at all. Speaker 5 (3:16) Now, a few quick updates on stories we've been covering this week. In Nashville, Krista Pike remains in critical condition at a hospital after surviving a botched execution attempt by the state of Tennessee Wednesday night. It's not yet clear exactly what happened. Pike's lawyers say