The Texas Senate Democratic primary got personal yesterday afternoon, after a podcaster accused rising star James Talarico of calling his former Senate Democratic rival, Colin Allred, a “mediocre Black man.” (Allred dropped his Senate campaign and opted to run against Rep. Julie Johnson for a Dallas House seat instead.) Allred then posted a two-minute video in which he trashed Talarico and endorsed Democrat Jasmine Crockett in the primary.

Talarico responded with a statement saying the podcaster had mischaracterized a private conversation. “Despite our disagreements, I deeply respect Congressman Allred,” he said. “We’re all on the same team.” Maybe…

Retiring Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota endorsed “my friend” Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the open-seat race to succeed her, saying, “We need leaders who have the courage to take bold action, challenge the status quo, and fight for people so they can be safe and afford their lives.” This is a huge get for Flanagan, and the timing is crucial: State and local D.F.L. leaders are beginning their endorsement process this week. Meanwhile, Rep. Angie Craig, Flanagan’s top rival for the nomination, had $3.8 million on hand, compared to Flanagan’s $800,000, as of the end of the year. The primary takes place in August, so we likely have months of trench warfare ahead.

And now, the main event…

In his annual budget address to lawmakers Tuesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro became the latest big-name governor to sound the alarm about A.I. chatbots and the “new risks” they pose to vulnerable young people. “This space is entirely unregulated and there are no protections,” he said.

Yes, Shapiro also acknowledged the potential upsides of artificial intelligence, naming research hubs in Pennsylvania and boasting about luring A.I. data centers to the state. But in the next breath, he sternly called on legislators to pass laws requiring age verification and parental consent for A.I. chatbot use; enact a ban on chatbots that produce sexually explicit or violent content featuring children; and force companies to periodically remind users that there’s not another human being on the other side of the screen. He also ordered state agencies to “explore all legal options” against app developers who build chatbots claiming to be experts delivering medical advice.

His list of demands echoed recent high-profile efforts by other governors—most prominently New York’s Kathy Hochul, California’s Gavin Newsom, and Florida’s Ron DeSantis—to crack down on A.I. companies and develop stricter consumer protections for parents and kids. In Harrisburg, Shapiro unleashed a stat intended to freak everyone out. “Thirty percent of teens report using an A.I. chatbot every day,” he said, citing a Pew Research study from December. “For kids who are lonely, or having a hard time, it can feel easier to turn to one of these apps for advice than to a real-life friend or parent or teacher.”

That report from Pew studied kids between the ages of 13 and 17. But new data I’ve obtained suggests that A.I. usage is significantly higher among Americans who are just ahead of that cohort in life—namely, those over 18 and attending college. According to a new poll from The Generation Lab conducted exclusively for Puck, 59 percent of two-year and four-year college students reported using an A.I. chatbot “always” or “sometimes” for help with schoolwork, research, or presentations. Another 37 percent of college students said they know someone who uses a chatbot for “mental health or emotional support.” (In public opinion research, asking respondents about the preferences of their peers, rather than their own preferences, can reduce self-censorship and reveal a more accurate result.)

Meanwhile, college students estimated that an overwhelming majority of their peers—90 percent—use A.I. chatbots at least once a month for mental health reasons or emotional support. Asked how often they did so, 17 percent said daily, 47 percent said weekly, and 26 percent said monthly. I also had The Generation Lab ask college students if they know “anyone your age who has used an A.I. chatbot for a romantic or intimate relationship.” A big majority, 70 percent, said no. But 21 percent said yes, which is not an insignificant number. And given the rapid evolution of A.I. technology, it’s easy to see why more and more young people might turn to chatbots for romantic or sexual fulfillment in the coming years.

The poll, which surveyed 1,135 students nationwide at two- and four-year colleges from January 25 to 29, also offered some alarming insights for Donald Trump’s Republican Party. Of course, when it comes to politics, the sentiments of college students shouldn’t be read as a proxy for all young people. Slightly less than half of Americans have an associate’s degree, and a little more than a third have obtained a bachelor’s degree. But young people with degrees lean toward the Democratic Party, and they are many times more likely to vote than their peers without one, especially in off-year and midterm elections. The poll found that if the elections were held today, college students would overwhelmingly vote against Trump’s G.O.P., much like they did in Virginia, New Jersey, and California last November.

Indeed, the poll found that college students overall have an astoundingly negative view of Trump’s performance one year into his administration. Asked to describe “the impact of Trump’s presidency on the country so far,” 62 percent of students said Trump is “making things worse,” while an abysmally low 8 percent said Trump is “making things better.” The rest said Trump’s term has been “a mix of good and bad” (22 percent) or had no opinion (8 percent).

Heading into the midterms, Republicans are clearly being dragged down by Trump’s negative image. When asked, “Which party cares more about lowering costs for Americans and helping people obtain good-paying jobs?” only 17 percent of respondents named Republicans. A much larger plurality, 46 percent, named the Democrats. Still, as I’ve been writing for years, young people don’t really trust that either political party can solve their problems or has their best interests at heart. While Democrats have an advantage on economic issues right now, 37 percent of respondents said that neither party cares about lowering costs or creating jobs.

I also asked Generation Lab to take the temperature of college students on the politicians gunning to succeed Trump when he leaves office. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the poll found that White House hopefuls in both parties have a lot of work to do—not only to win over young people, who are increasingly difficult to reach in our modern media environment, but to introduce themselves in the first place.

For the Democrats, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were the most well-known and well-liked among college students. Harris’s reputation is not a surprise given her fame: 51 percent of Democratic and Dem-leaning college students said they had a favorable opinion of the former vice president, but a notable 29 percent said they had an unfavorable one, with 20 percent offering no opinion.

After Harris, Ocasio-Cortez had the highest favorable rating among college students (46 percent), followed by Newsom (34 percent) and Buttigieg (30 percent). But even more noteworthy were the “no opinion” numbers, which were sky-high even for these famous Democrats—a reminder that the youngest voters are still learning about politicians who are old news to most of us in the business. Meanwhile, for other Democrats considering a run for president in 2028, the challenge of building a reputation among young people looks even more daunting: Only a fraction of college students offered opinions on Shapiro, J.B. Pritzker, Andy Beshear, Mark Kelly, and Ruben Gallego. Cory Booker was an unknown quantity to 40 percent of college students despite being a U.S. senator for more than a decade and running for president in 2020.

On the Republican side, the possible G.O.P. candidates are more well-known to college students, likely because several of them are Trump administration officials or associates who are frequently in the news cycle. Vice President J.D. Vance—the frontrunner in most 2028 horserace polls—has the highest favorable rating of any G.O.P. hopeful, at 30 percent. But Vance’s unfavorable rating among Republican college students is in disastrous territory for a politician who fashions himself as an ambassador to the next generation of conservatives. Almost half of Republican and G.O.P.-leaning college students (48 percent) have an unfavorable opinion of Vance. That number tracks with other recent surveys, which I’ve covered for Puck, suggesting that the more young people get to know Vance, the more they dislike him.

But the poll also found that most of the potential Republican candidates—Marco Rubio, Donald Trump Jr., Ron DeSantis, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ted Cruz, Glenn Youngkin—are similarly underwater with G.O.P. college students on the favorability question. Maybe that’s because young Republicans are disappointed with the Trump administration’s record on the economy. Or it could suggest that, after the murder of Charlie Kirk, campus conservatives are speaking a different cultural language—more trad, more xenophobic, more Christian, more testosterone-infused—than most of the buttoned-up Gen X and Millennial Republicans eyeing the White House in 2028. Whatever the answer, it’s abundantly clear from the poll that none of these Republicans has a hold on campus conservatives the way Trump has had over the last decade.

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