STEVEN LINDSEY | Contributing Writer
StevenCraigLindsey@gmail.com
The midterm elections are coming up on Nov. 3, but it seems the election has barely made the news.
Perhaps that sentence would’ve been plausible at some point in recent history, but as the nation has been made keenly aware, a lot rides on the ballots that will be cast less than two months from now — especially in Texas, where much of the coverage has focused.
Can Democrat James Talarico unseat scandal-ridden Republican Ken Paxton? Will Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeat three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott? How will the new redistricting maps affect the outcome of these midterm races?
Nobody will know the answers to any of these questions until at least Nov. 4. But one group of TV hosts can certainly provide the kind of intelligent perspective needed to break through the noise and blatant lies spreading across the internet. On Saturday, Sept. 26, the biggest names from MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) will gather in Arlington for MS NOW LIVE Presents Together In Texas: We the People 2026.
The lineup for the day-long event includes Rachel Maddow, Eugene Daniels, Lawrence O’Donnell, Jen Psaki, Stephanie Ruhle, Ali Velshi, Ari Melber, Chris Hayes, Symone Sanders Townsend, Alicia Menendez, Jacob Soboroff, Michael Steele, Luke Russert and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Both Maddow and Daniels identify as gay, so it will be especially important to get their take.
Last month, Dallas Voice caught up with Daniels, host of The Weekend, to chat about his years in Texas, his career and why this event is important to the LGBTQ+ community.
Dallas Voice: You were pretty much raised in Texas, right? Eugene Daniels: I’m a military brat, and we bounced around a lot, but mostly in the South. So I spent first through half of third grade in Fort Bliss and then back in Texas at Fort Hood, from 7th grade to graduation.
There were a lot of other states, but a huge chunk in Texas. My formative years. It was, up until now in D.C., the place I had lived the longest. So Texas has a special place in my heart and on my ribs, because I have a Texas tattoo.
Oh, literally on your ribs. I know, quite literally. It’s humongous.
Do you get back to Texas often, or do you still have family here? I don’t have family there. I get back every once in a while, especially nowadays. A lot for the Senate race. We’re working on a series that has Talarico in it, so we’ve been going back and forth quite a bit.
But I still have some friends there who I see, so I love some Texas.
Happy to have you back! So, do you remember when you first became aware of politics or that you had a knack for understanding and explaining the topic to others? I can’t remember a time when we weren’t talking about politics in my family. My grandmother, Caden Daniels, lived in Conway, S.C., and she was obsessed with politics, right? My grandfather, her husband, Rufus, was a Baptist preacher in the South in the ’50s and ’60s, so their understanding of the importance of politics was something that kind of bled down to all of us.
We would go visit her, and she would be watching MSNBC. I’m surprised the logo didn’t burn through the screen, because it was always on. And so I don’t really remember a time where we weren’t talking about politics, at least partly.
It’s just because, as a Black family, like, we understood the importance of politics in people’s daily lives to change them for better or worse. And so it was always something I was obsessed with.
I actually went to college and grew up thinking I would be a lawyer and a politician. And I was sitting in a Politics of Special Interest Groups class in college at Colorado State University. I just remember thinking, oh wait! And no shade to lobbyists, but [as a politician] I’d have to deal with people trying to convince me that maybe what they want is better than what my constituents want. It was just something that I couldn’t stomach.
When you’re 20 or 21 years old, you think the world is ending after your plan goes awry. I left the class; it was very dramatic. I had taken one journalism class from this woman named Pam Jackson, and she said to me, “Maybe you don’t want to be a powerful person; maybe you want to hold powerful people accountable.” She knew I had enjoyed her class, and that’s the switch from wanting to be a politician to wanting to cover it, pay attention to it and explain it to people in a different way.
Now that you’ve successfully made that your career, do you have any career highlights in general, or even more specifically, as a gay Black man? I don’t know, hanging out in Kamala’s backyard or something like that? I think it would be that, right? The thing that was so interesting is, in 2020, I was covering the race. But I was covering it really as a video producer at Politico. And so, when they gave me the opportunity to cover the White House and cover Vice President Harris specifically, everything kind of changed.
I started doing TV more. All of a sudden, I was at these embassy parties that I had never gone to. All of a sudden, I was interviewing Vice President Harris and screaming questions at President Biden.
The entire experience of being plucked out and kind of thrown into the fire in such a way shaped me as, obviously, a reporter, but it kind of shaped who I am as a person. A gay man. A Black man.
One of the times that I was like, oh, this is weird, is when I was on the White House
Correspondents Association Board. I wasn’t president yet. I was seated between the Second Gentleman and the Vice President on stage, looking at all of my White House reporting colleagues, their bosses, administration officials, famous people. I thought, oh, wait, something has changed. This is very strange.
I also got to take my mom to the White House for a tour.
Oh wow, how cool for her. She took some really hilarious pictures behind the lectern in the briefing room.
The day after my husband and I got married, my parents, his mom and her best friend went back to the White House, a little hungover. We got a real tour that time. I got to take my parents and my mother-in-law to see the Oval Office, right? Knowing that people that looked like me, Black people, built that place; people that love like me have been fighting with administration after administration just to be seen — and here I am on the first full day of being married, taking my family there. It was really, really special. And though I was hungover, I do remember everything about it.
You were president of the White House Correspondents’ Association for the 2024-2025 term, serving during the transition from Biden to Trump’s second term. Are you glad that’s over? I do have more free time, which I appreciate. But it was a very good learning experience, right? I was the second Black person ever to be president since, I think, 1991. I was one of the very few openly gay folks who was president of the organization. But I was the first openly gay person of color to be in charge of the organization.
Spinning off of that a bit, you’re a member of a very elite group of high-profile LGBTQ journalists and anchors. Do you ever feel any kind of responsibility to the community in your reporting? Or is it always truth first, you stay completely objective, and that’s secondary? I don’t see them as separate. I cannot separate my Blackness and my gayness. I have been very fortunate that, after I came out, none of my bosses have ever asked me to, right? What is true is obviously number one, always, but it’s also that my lived experience makes me an expert at certain things compared to other people who don’t have that experience.
You cannot tell me about Black voters. You cannot tell me what it means to be scared, as a queer person, to come out and to live your life and hope that the federal government will protect you, because I have lived that. You cannot try to convince me that trans and non-binary people shouldn’t be scared to live their lives. It makes my reporting and the anchoring and the kind of stories I want to do even stronger.
To be 100 percent transparent, I usually cover fun, lifestyle stuff, and therefore I try to avoid the news because it genuinely stresses me out. What advice do you have for anyone who’s emotionally traumatized by the daily news cycle with this administration? I have learned I’m a very good compartmentalizer — probably too good, if you ask my husband. Symone Sanders-Townsend and I have this podcast [Clock It with Symone & Eugene] where we talk about politics, and what we have heard from folks is that we talk about politics in a way that doesn’t make them sad. Even when we’re talking about how terrible it is and all these policy topics, it is about trying to find ways to give people agency, and that’s also a part of what I think we do best at MS NOW.
Find ways to balance your news intake. Read a book, a fiction book — you know, something fun. I was watching Drag Race last night before I went to bed. Those kinds of things help create some balance.
Before we wrap up, let’s talk about the event. It’s interesting, and kind of poignant, that it’s being held in Arlington, a city that recently eliminated anti-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ+ community and other groups. I’m super excited about this. This is my first time doing one of our community events. It’s obviously poignant, because we’re going back to Texas. Again, it’s on my ribs. So, I’m excited. I will be seeing some friends while I’m there.
But I think, on that Saturday night, Symone and I are gonna do a live taping. I’ll be popping around throughout the day to talk with folks. The event offers a place you can come, meet the people you love from MS and feel like it’s a community.
This is a place for not just like-minded people, but people who care about democracy, and also people that think differently. Have conversations; watch on stage as we’re having those conversations. Maybe meet a stranger; maybe meet your neighbor; meet someone from a different state. Because folks are flying in to come to this.
I’m gonna hold powerful people accountable and tell the stories, give people agency and create a space for people to just feel like the world’s gonna be okay. I think that’s really exciting.
Let’s end on a light note, maybe going back to your ribs. What are you going to eat and what are you looking forward to most while you’re back in Texas? I am looking forward to seeing a really close friend that I haven’t seen in a while. But also, Tex-Mex. Always Tex-Mex. I’m just excited about the food, like. Texas is the only place I’ll eat beans because not everybody does it right. I need some refried beans immediately. Give me a bucket!
MS NOW LIVE Presents Together In Texas: We the People 2026 on Saturday, Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. at the College Park Center at The University of Texas at Arlington, 600 Center St., Arlington. Tickets start at $30. For complete details, visit MS.NOW/Together-in-Texas-We-The-People-2026.