Graham Platner, Jon Ossoff, and the New Rules of Political Attention | The Ezra Klein Show

Attention is working in really unusual ways this election cycle. Graham Platner, a political unknown a year ago, ended up dominating his Senate primary against Maine’s sitting governor – even as his campaign was rocked by a series of scandals. James Talarico also seemed to come out of nowhere to become the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas. Jon Ossoff has ginned up a ton of excitement as a potential 2028 presidential contender, in part because of his viral videos. Meanwhile, the former reality TV personality Spencer Pratt became a political star on X during his bid to become mayor of Los Angeles and yet failed to make the runoff. All of this has a lot of lessons for how attention is working right now in American politics. So I wanted to have on my favorite person to talk to on this topic. Chris Hayes is the host of “All In With Chris Hayes” on MS NOW and the author of “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource.” 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:37 Graham Platner’s rise 00:07:37 Platner's high-risk political bet 00:14:49 Can you be a moderate populist? 00:18:41 The flip side of Platner's gamble 00:22:19 Is Democratic conscientiousness a problem? 00:25:31 The power of code-switching 00:30:09 Michigan primary 00:38:31 Differentiating Israel criticism 00:44:34 James Talarico's decency appeal 00:48:35 Decency vs. strength in politics 00:52:59 Authenticity in new media & Jon Ossoff's rise 01:02:33 Ossoff's corruption critique 01:06:25 Newsom's omnipresence & the "fighter" debate 01:15:00 Book recommendations Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/13/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-chris-hayes-2026.html Watch more on @EzraKleinShow Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html