Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, a season of beach reads and salt water, a dip in a lake, a peaceful hike or BBQ. But summer 2026 offers something else: democracy in action.

As campaigns across the country kick into gear, Dan Pfeiffer — a co-host of Pod Save America, author of the newsletter Message Box and a former senior adviser to Barack Obama — assessed the candidates and races in a written conversation with John Guida, an editor in Times Opinion. It has been edited for length and clarity.

John Guida: Let’s start our tour — following a map roughly defined by the Senate primary calendar — in Texas, which holds a runoff next week between the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, and the incumbent Senator John Cornyn. This week, President Trump endorsed Paxton, and polling suggests he will prevail. What did you think of Trump’s endorsement?

Dan Pfeiffer: Even by Trumpian standards, it’s a truly asinine decision. The polling is not decisive at this point, but there are some Republicans and Republican-leading independents who will vote for Talarico over Paxton. If Paxton wins the primary, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the G.O.P. super PACs will be forced to spend gobs of money to protect a state Trump won by double digits in 2024.

Guida: You wrote earlier this week that “Trump’s revenge tour is a big problem for the G.O.P. moving forward.” Why is that?

Pfeiffer: In 2022, Trump cost the G.O.P. the Senate by backing a series of unelectable candidates and propelling them to the Republican nomination. Since then, he has been somewhat smarter about picking better candidates in primaries in key states. Paxton is a giant gaping exception to that recent pattern.