At Crooked Con, a conference put on the weekend after the midterm elections by the media company founded by former Obama staffers and Pod Save America hosts Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, and Jon Lovett, I got a sense of just how confident the party is after almost two years in the wilderness.

Befitting the sensibilities of the incoming Congress, Crooked week kicked off with a surprise appearance from Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, who wore keffiyeh-patterned Air Force 1s to the live taping of his Pod Save America episode. The crowd went ballistic.

In this edition of Party Animals, the view from Washington’s new libbed-up social scene; what a Newsmax show says about Trump’s tumbling popularity among young Americans; and my colleague Joe Hagan’s interview with Beto O’Rourke, the original Democrat-who-might-win-Texas, about how the party finally pulled it off in the Lone Star State.

Also mentioned in this issue: Barrett Adair, Matthew Foldi, Robert Garcia, Katie Miller, Felicia Schwartz, Keith Edwards, Vaughn Hillyard, Marc Beckman, Marco Rubio, Michael Scherer, Chi Ossé, and more.

Got tips? Hit the Party Animals hotline: [email protected]. Or text me—my number is 917-817-8266. Complaints will be aired on Newsmax. Praise will be debated and affirmed by a Crooked Con panel.

In the Loop

Crooked Con

Connor Studios / Crooked Media

I doubt there were many places on earth more buoyant than Crooked Con in DC last weekend. The conference brought together a legion of newly elected Democrats, veteran members of Congress, journalists, and liberal content creators for a day of live plotting that culminated in a party at City Tap House, where Robert Garcia, the incoming emperor of Oversight, worked the room. “I was pretty optimistic going into the election, but this is beyond anything I imagined,” Favreau tells Party Animals. “The majority of the country is clearly ready to move on from the Trump show and give Democrats another chance.”