<\/p>\n
From left to right, Symone Sanders, Michael Steel and Luke Russert, co-hosts of MS NOW show The Weeknight.<\/p>\n
Timothy Hiatt\/Courtesy of MS NOW<\/p>\n
Midwesterners are wearing Stetson hats and Tecovas boots. A Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader is starring in Broadway\u2019s Chicago<\/a>. Ella Langley\u2019s \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas\u201d is about to prove America loves the Lone Star State more than Christmas<\/a>.<\/p>\n Texas is all the rage, and even MS NOW, formerly known as MSNBC<\/a>, wants in.<\/p>\n The cable news network, which is popular with Democrats,\u00a0launched its membership service<\/a> Wednesday. Thursday evening, MS NOW is coming to Dallas for its first members lounge event. It\u2019s part of a larger strategy to target Texas as the state becomes a center of gravity for culture, politics and the economy.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cArguably, Texas is the biggest political story of the year, and MS NOW\u2019s bread and butter is politics,\u201d said Marcus\u00a0Mabry, senior vice president of content strategy. He also described Texas as the center of \u201cthe most fascinating evolutions in American economics and business.\u201d<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s private community pop-up will feature a live taping of its show\u00a0The Weeknight and give members the opportunity to meet and converse with the network\u2019s anchors and reporters. Then, on Sept. 26, Dallas will host the third annual MS NOW fan gathering<\/a>, the first time the event has been held outside New York. The network has also launched a personalized-to-Dallas ad campaign for its membership.<\/p>\n Related: Rachel Maddow, MS NOW heads to North Texas for major fan showcase after GOP convention in Dallas<\/a><\/p>\n Beyond cable<\/p>\n MS NOW is regularly the second-most watched cable news network on television and\u00a0has seen linear audience growth that is rare these days<\/a>. Meanwhile, it has more than 600 million total likes on TikTok and nearly 10 million subscribers on YouTube. The membership and an expanding slate of live events is MS NOW\u2019s next digital frontier.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The network is now under Versant, the consortium of former Comcast linear television and digital products that completed their spin off in January,<\/a> and Mabry credits the new ownership structure for MS NOW\u2019s freedom to explore new verticals in a rapidly changing media landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the largest investment in the digital future of MS NOW in our 30-year history,\u201d Mabry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Designed to foster community amongst members, the membership and accompanying app are\u00a0a way to drive digital engagement that supports the journalism, tailored to what MS NOW\u2019s audience craves: in-person connection, he said.<\/p>\n Our audience is \u201cvery dedicated, and they are smart, and they are engaged,\u201d said former Republican National Committee chair and co-host of\u00a0The Weeknight Michael Steele. \u201cEverything is built on this idea of progression and moving forward. \u2026 We want our audiences to be a part of that as much as possible, and taking this on the road, bringing it to Dallas, is one way in which we can more fully express that.\u201d<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s members lounge has a news hook: across town the same day, the\u00a0Republican midterm convention will be underway<\/a> to unite GOP candidates behind President Donald Trump\u2019s agenda. While arena extravaganza can\u2019t exactly be\u00a0counterprogrammed by a news channel\u2019s private members lounge, it does underscore why MS NOW thinks Texas is so important in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Center stage will be Republican Senate hopeful and Texas Attorney General Ken\u00a0Paxton<\/a>, in a once-unthinkably close race with Democrat James\u00a0Talarico. Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who fell to Paxton in the primary, has declined to attend<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough [this interview], I would extend a personal invitation to Sen. Cornyn to join us at the table in Dallas. We only need eight minutes of your time, sir,\u201d Steele noted.<\/p>\n Symone Sanders, co-host of The Weeknight, said the fights shaping the country are playing out in Texas, from affordability and public education to immigration, demographic change, voting access and political power. \u201cTexas is a microcosm,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From left to right, Symone Sanders, Michael Steel and Luke Russert, co-hosts of MS NOW show The Weeknight.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-432329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n