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Charles Douglas came to this week’s live show fresh off a plane from Tennessee. As Executive Director of Common Power, Charles didn’t just read about Justin Pearson’s district being erased by the state legislature. He flew down there to stand with him as Pearson announced he was running anyway. That’s the kind of on-the-ground presence that makes these conversations different, and it sets the tone for everything that follows.
We covered a lot of ground. The historical weight of Tennessee as a civil rights state. Why the Republican redistricting blitz is moving so fast, it may blow up in their own faces. What I’ve been calling Project 2049, China’s long game, and how Trump is accelerating it on every front. And what the Zohran Mamdani model tells us about where the Democratic Party needs to go. Oh, and Drake dropped three albums today. We got into that, too lol. You already know the end of these pods we let loose and have a little fun. So stick around for my hip hop takes at the end and some laughs.
The throughline of the conversation was optimism: grounded, pragmatic optimism. Charles made the case that Democrats are operating with more power than people feel right now. I made the case that Republicans are moving chairs around the Titanic. Both things are true at the same time, and that’s actually a reason to stay in the fight.
You can watch our full conversation above and read key takeaways below.
Justin Pearson & The Tennessee Ground Report
Charles flew to Memphis after we spoke on Friday, deciding on the spot that Common Power needed to be there. What he found on the ground was resilience, historical resonance, and a candidate whose message is built to travel across racial lines.
Memphis carries more civil rights history than almost any city in America. Charles laid it out: this is where B.B. King played, where Martin Luther King was assassinated, where the Ku Klux Klan was born, where Southern rap culture took root. Nashville is where John Lewis trained, where Diane Nash learned nonviolence before taking it to Alabama and beyond. Tennessee is not incidental to the voting rights story. It is central to it. Charles said going there was both an honoring of history and a continuation of it.
Pearson is running on a message that cuts across the racial divide. Charles made this point clearly: Pearson is running on a message that highlights rural hospital closures, wealthy interests extracting resources from working communities, and AI data centers destroying local environments and economies. These are not Black district talking points. These are poor white people's talking points, too. I noted it’s almost as if poor white and poor Black communities have more in common than they’ve been told, and that the scapegoating of brown and Black people for economic problems was always a distraction from the class war being waged against all of them. Charles connected it directly to why MLK was assassinated when he pivoted to economic justice. That message was the bridge too far.
The 30-year incumbent stepping aside is a bigger deal than it’s being treated as. Charles noted that the congressman Pearson was running against announced his retirement the same day we were recording. A three-decade incumbent clearing the field for a next-generation candidate running on affordability and civil rights is not a small thing. Charles said Common Power is planning a return trip to Tennessee as part of a full midterm ground operation that runs every weekend from mid-September through November. Our weekly live streams will be broadcasting their work on the ground in real-time.
The Dummymander: Why The GOP’s Redistricting Could Backfire
The press narrative on redistricting is that Democrats are losing. Charles and I both think that narrative isn’t the full picture. Republicans are moving so fast to please Trump that they are making structural errors that could cost them in 2026 and beyond.
In Tennessee, Republicans literally voted on a picture. Charles reported that when the vote happened, lawmakers were asking each other if anyone had the document showing the actual district lines. Nobody did. They had a map, just a picture, and they voted on it. No detailed breakdown of where the lines fell, no supporting data. That is how fast they are moving, and that speed is producing errors that will compound.
The dummymander is real, and it’s showing up in Florida and Texas. When you gerrymander, you have to spread your own voters thin to maximize district count. That means previously safe Republican seats become competitive. Charles pointed out that Democrats in Florida literally showed up to a press conference holding a sign that said “Florida Dummymander.” I made the case that the question isn’t just whether Republicans are creating more Republican districts — it’s whether they’re putting more Republicans within arm’s reach of a Democrat who can grab them. Looking at 20 and 30-point swings in some of these districts, the redistricting may end up being close to a non-factor in 2026.
2026 and 2028 are two very different conversations. I was clear about this distinction: for the midterms, the gerrymandering may reduce the Democratic margin slightly but is unlikely to determine who controls the House. 2028 is scarier. The maps will be smarter, they’ll have 2026 data, and they’ll have learned from the dummymander mistakes. But right now, Charles said it plainly: they’re moving so fast to please Trump that they voted on a picture. They don’t know what they’re doing and are relying on outdated voter data. And I said what I’ve been saying since week one of this administration: they’re overreaching, and it’s backfiring. And now, they’re putting wooden beams on the door as a blue tsunami approaches.
Project 2049 & Trump’s Gift To China
Fresh off my MS NOW appearance a couple of nights ago, Charles asked me to break down my take on US-China relations. I coined it Project 2049 on Stephanie Ruhle’s show: China’s explicit goal to become the global superpower by mid-century. Xi Jinping outlined it. It’s real. And Trump is helping their mission.
Trump is validating every argument China makes about the United States. China’s core critique of America has always been that we are volatile, unreliable, that we claim ideals and do the opposite. Trump proves that case daily. On renewable energy, the scoreboard is not close: China manufactures 80% of the world’s solar panels, 75% of lithium-ion batteries, over 70% of electric vehicles, and 60% of wind turbines. We are clinging to fossil fuels while ceding the industries of the future.
The chip authorization and the soft power collapse are compounding the damage. Trump authorized the sale of H200 chips to China: far more powerful than what they had before DeepSeek shocked the world. Meanwhile, the rollback of USAID and the broader soft power collapse are letting China build relationships across Africa that will take decades to undo.
The Iran war has created a rare earth dependency on China that nobody is talking about enough. I raised this on the live because I didn’t get to it on the MS NOW panel: we are reportedly burning through Tomahawk missiles in Iran at ten times the annual rate at which we purchase them. The rare Earth minerals needed to replenish that stockpile are largely controlled by China. We are now dependent on the country we are supposedly competing with to rearm ourselves from a war that Trump started for no reason. Also, closing the Strait of Hormuz benefits Russian oil revenues directly. Trump’s moves benefit Russia, China, and Iran simultaneously. Whether that’s intentional on their part or just exploited opportunistically, the result is the same.
The New Democratic Playbook
Charles shifted the conversation to what’s working, anchored by Zohran Mamdani’s first major policy milestone as New York City Mayor. I said that the question isn’t left versus center. It’s who has a bias toward action and who doesn’t.
Mamdani balanced the budget without cutting services for working people. Charles framed this as the first real proof of concept for the new Democratic model: taxing wealthy people, protecting working-class services, and getting it done. I added that he did it with Governor Hochul’s collaboration, and that the Mamdani-Hochul relationship is actually a model for what the Democratic tent should look like: room for a progressive mayor and a moderate governor to work together and get concrete things done. Child care. Potholes. I told Charles that the janky road I drove every day on the way back from dropping my wife off at work has been repaved. That’s how you make loyal voters for life.
The argument isn’t left versus center — it’s action versus inaction. I made this point directly: what Mamdani represented wasn’t just an ideological victory, it was a bias toward getting specific things done. Grocery store prices. Bus routes. Concrete deliverables that people feel. Charles built on it: the ask from younger and more progressive Democrats isn’t to kick moderates out, it’s to be let in. When a progressive wins a primary, back them. Listen to the voters. Hochul could have tried to sabotage Mamdani. She read where the wind was blowing and worked with him instead. That’s the model.
Common Power is going all in on the midterm ground game. Charles laid out the roadmap: a fundraiser in Seattle for James Tallarico, a return to Tennessee with Justin Pearson, and then every single weekend from mid-September through November, Common Power teams will be on the ground in three or four states each week, knocking doors. I noted that I built the app that helps Common Power’s volunteers find these opportunities, and that new features are coming for the summer. If you want to get involved, commonpower.org is where to go. I’ve knocked on doors with Common Power in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I led a team there. It’s worth it.
Bottom Line
Republicans are moving recklessly. They’re diluting their own seats. They’re running on 2024 data in a 2026 electorate that has fundamentally shifted. The blue tsunami is coming, and the GOP’s wooden beams aren’t going to hold it back. Meanwhile, Justin Pearson is running in a redrawn district on a message that resonates across racial lines, Mamdani just balanced a budget without touching working people, and Common Power is about to be in the field every weekend through November. Charles said it at the end: chin up.
If this conversation mattered to you, I hope you consider becoming a paid subscriber to Ahmed Baba News. If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you! Independent pro-democracy journalism only works if people back it. And if you’d like to get involved and knock doors this election year, I also highly recommend checking out Common Power.
