Podcasts about The Cook Political Report

(Sep 30, 2026) A highly regarded election forecaster has changed its rating of the NY-21 race from "solid" to "likely" Republican for the first time in several years. The Cook Political Report says Democrats have a path to victory, even if it's narrow. We hear from an analyst about how the publication rates races for Congress.

The midterms are barreling closer and closer, and it appears the tides have turned. Democrats are already favored to take the U.S. House, but what about the Senate? The founder of The Cook Political Report says there’s a “very realistic” chance that Dems could take over the Senate too. Plus, the White House is running a political ad ahead of the elections, which is a repurposed ad from President Trump's 2024 campaign. But this time, the ad says it's being paid for by the U.S. Government -- by taxpayer dollars. With 5 weeks and 1 day to go, Holly and Greg give their political takes on where the elections stand today.

MAGA, it would seem, is on the ropes. Things are looking dire. Tucker Carlson is appearing on NPR talking about removing Trump for threatening nuclear war, even though, you know, not long ago he was telling Ted Cruz that we should definitely nuke a country if they tried to assassinate our president. Here is Ben Shapiro:Marjorie Taylor Greene has learned the trick of the elite Left that you can be as rich as you want, live wherever you want, party all you want, marry and spend lavishly as long as you also hate on Trump and name-drop the “resistance.” Hey, it's nice work if you can get it.The idea is that Trump was supposed to rebuff Israel, ignore Iran's threats of building a nuke because of Israel, find pedophiles that do not exist in the Epstein Files buried because of Israel, and listen to Tucker Carlson for advice OR ELSE. But really, it's the Jews. It's always been the Jews. After ten years of Trump giving himself over to fight for representation of people who have been thrown away like human garbage by a country ruled by an aristocratic ideological utopian cult, after being the target of the worst attacks I've ever seen - his hair, his weight, his hands, his skin, his daughter, his sons, his wife, his walk, his clothes, what he says, what he does, where he goes, what he eats- here we are again: the walls are closing in, only this time the calls are coming from inside the house.How hard would it be, you know, just for old times' sake, to use your vote to prevent what is likely to be the Series Finale of the Trump Show? Him getting impeached a third time, maybe booted out of office this time. Sure, it would take a large majority of Senate Republicans, but by now, why wouldn't they go along with it? Then, he'd be prosecuted and frog-marched off in an orange jumpsuit as Jen Psaki and Kara Swisher throw a party at Rosie O'Donnell's house, livestreamed on The View.I mean, this is your future MAGA, should you choose to accept it:And for these folks, their dream is finally coming true. Their ten-year war is about to come to an end because Trump supporters are jumping ships like rats. But someone should tell them their future will look grim with Trump out of the way.Maybe they don't realize what's coming, how much worse it will be than either the country under Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Maybe they have no idea what's in store for them after the revolution. Maybe the revolutionaries somehow take X from Elon. Maybe they take control of AI and gain mind-control capabilities for generations to come. I know these people. They do it with a smile and the best intentions, but they want absolute power. They want their utopia back, and you are in the way. The biggest threat is what will happen to our freedom, something most are not even factoring into the equation, but I know because I come from the Left. In China, in Iran, in other countries run by dictators, everything seems to be going very well. People are smiling, going to work, living their lives and saying nothing. They stay silent because they know what will happen if they ever say what they really think. My daughter has grown up inside of a culture now that is ruled by the same kind of fear. She already knows that she can't say what she really thinks because everyone on the Left knows. They can't write books they want to write—they can't tell the truth—but they still have to smile and pretend everything is going great in utopia!They have scared an entire generation into compliance. And it's oh so much worse now that Sharia Law has entered the chat. Oh, I know we're not supposed to think of guys like Abdul El-Sayed and Zohran Mamdani as anti-American terrorists - that's racist! But the more I think about it, the more I think this alliance was inevitable: two strident fundamentalist ideologies that hate America's history and want to remake it from the ground up as something completely different, and they're prepared to use their army of fanatics and scolds to make everyone go along with it.The Left and their legacy media have spent ten years lying about Trump, saying fascism or authoritarianism was the threat. But it was never the Trump side that represented oppression and societal control. It's always been the Left. And now, it's gone to the next level. And the only one standing in their way, the Gray Champion of the Fourth Turning, the guy so many in MAGA have turned against, is The Donald. Perfect? No. Flawed, beyond. Messy — he makes it up as he goes along. Offends people casually. Can't be controlled, but this man is the one, the only one who was tough enough, rich enough, and determined enough to stand up to the most powerful political party in American history and beat them twice. He's not done smart things this time around. He's been too careless with his second win. He enriched himself and his family. He might have made a mistake trying to end the forever war with Iran. But on his worst day, he is still the one to lead us to a brighter future, away from totalitarianism, away from fanaticism, away from societal control. A Blue TsunamiThe conspiracy theories started instantly after Charlie's death. The Jews did it, the same people who are hidden in the Epstein Files - the Pizzagate of it all - the dangerous invisible menace that was choking the life out of all good things in America. Genocide and pedophiles, Epstein and Iran. And all of that came before they found their real weapon: affordability. Note the pivot by the Left away from “abolish ICE” and “Trans women are women” to kitchen table issues. Don't be fooled. It's just a new strategy to the same end goal. Affordability! That got MAGA's attention. Gas prices are high. Trump couldn't wave his magic wand and get rid of the inflation hangover from 2020. Tariffs were implemented to help Americans bring back manufacturing, but they seem to have had the opposite effect by making things cost more—or so they say. I haven't seen it myself. It just looks like politics as usual to me. Mark Halperin keeps suggesting a Blue Tsunami wipeout is coming in November. They could lose both the House and the Senate. And Texas.Cook Political Report has now predicted doom as well, and even Rasmussen is coming up blue. One of Trump's gifts has always been eternal optimism. They threw their whole arsenal at him, and he'd pop up cheerily, wave to the crowd with a thumbs up, and get one with it. Now, that might not work for the first time in ten years because his own side is going against him. Rick Wilson must be uncorking the champagne every night. Rachel Maddow is probably dancing naked under the full moon. Should this be the moment MAGA has had enough and turns on the only guy who saw them at all, let alone fought for them, people like this sad woman will finally have their dreams come true. Some people are still out there trying to hold the line, but it seems nearly impossible now. How to Stop the Islamo-Commie TakeoverFor ten years, the Democrats never figured out that the only way to stop Trump was to offer the people something better. Fear can only take you so far. The GOP can't sell fear alone because most Americans don't understand an existential threat like Communism fused with Islam. In 1932, Herbert Hoover was painted as out of touch, with “rugged individualism” not matching the suffering of America's underclass hit hard by the Great Depression. FDR won in a landslide and served for four terms, through World War II.So how bad will it get if the Democrats win? Will they keep Trump or persecute him for the next two years? Will they impeach all of his Cabinet members? Try them for war crimes? Trump was the MoonshotIn 2020, nothing in my life made sense anymore. The media I trusted were lying. The friends I had were too scared to speak out, and mobs were coming for me on almost a daily basis. I was alone. My daughter was away. All I could see coming off of my social media was hate. The most overwhelming and ugly hate I'd ever seen in my life, all aimed at one man and his supporters.I don't know exactly what happened to me, but something did. I pulled back. I knew I could not live that way anymore. I decided to find out for myself who Trump really was, who his supporters were, and what this MAGA movement was really about. What I found was a guy who had fame, wealth, and power who had dropped into a story where he was cast as the unlikely hero, the guy who would represent forgotten Americans. If Obama represented the New America built mostly online - where geography did not matter as much as ideology- then Trump represented the other America - out there in the real world. I saw this America when I drove across the country. There it was. The churches, the towns. The highways. The tire shops. The parks. The World War II memorials. It was an America those of us living our lives virtually didn't think much about, but Trump reached them as they reached out to him.The side with all of the power wanted their complete destruction. They were called racists, bigots, transphobes, extremists, fascists, Nazis, Christian Nationalists. None of it worked because they had the truth on their side, and they had Trump, and he was indestructible. Trump did big things: kept his promises on the border, transgender ideology foisted upon children, and protecting women in sports. Perfect, no, but he gave us a chance at a better future. He wanted to move mountains, build ballrooms, and end wars. He took on crime directly and changed things. But of course, it wasn't enough because it's never enough for the permanently aggrieved. Trump was never going to be destroyed by the Left. They tried and failed. Ah, but if he's destroyed from within, that's the best way to bring down the hero. Such a lowly finale, isn't it, for such a mighty warrior as Trump, who dodged bullets and came back to win a second time, handing his supporters more power than they've ever had or will ever have.It's hard for me to watch them give it all up after Trump gave so much. It's hard for me to watch them leap off the cliff to their own demise, like lemmings. No future is written for them in this story except to paint them as the rioters at the Capitol who almost overthrew the United States. As for me, well, I learned my lesson in 2016. I won't be wasting much of my time trying to save people who don't want to be saved. I'll just have to stand back and watch in horror as they learn their lesson the hard way.Either way, I will hold out hope for the decent Americans I know who are ride-or-die MAGA and who stood with Trump even when they were freezing to death, even in the midst of a shooting, and in the rain, watching the water come down in sheets, refusing to move, refusing to find shelter from the storm, and hanging on every word. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sashastone.com/subscribe

【聊了什么】 距离美国中期选举越来越近，生活成本、伊朗战争和选民对特朗普的不满，让民主党的全国民调看起来一片大好。但民调里的“蓝色海啸”，究竟能冲出多少席位？重新划分的选区、各州不同的候选人，以及那些看似打成平手的内部民调，都在提醒我们：全国领先，不等于处处能赢。 本期我们从众议院与参议院的选情，聊到共和党的中期选举大会、费特曼的亮相，以及邮寄选票和重新划区之争。节目最后转向 AI：原本主要发生在科技圈内的安全争论，正与各地对数据中心的反对交汇，进入中期选举的政治议程。越来越多人要求 AI“慢下来”，但要把这些不同的担忧变成有效监管，仍然困难重重。 【支持我们】 如果喜欢这期节目，欢迎加入会员计划，支持我们继续做下去： https://theamericanroulette.com/paid-membership/ 合作投稿邮箱：american.roulette.pod@gmail.com 【时间轴】 00:36 中期选举临近：生活成本、战争与选民情绪 03:42 民主党民调领先：浪潮还是海啸？ 14:44 全国领先，为什么未必能换来更多席位 20:26 偏蓝州的选情为什么仍有悬念 27:45 内部民调为何总显示“五五开” 29:30 农业州的成本压力与德州候选人争议 34:25 共和党的中期选举大会与特朗普的算盘 39:12 费特曼为何出现在共和党大会 43:54 共和党筹款优势为何难以变成选战优势 49:15 邮寄选票争议 52:31 密苏里选区重划 56:14 AI 安全争论：谁希望技术慢下来 1:03:01 数据中心反对派和安全派合流 【我们是谁】 美轮美换是一档深入探讨当今美国政治的中文播客。 本期的主播和嘉宾： 王浩岚：美国政治爱好者，岚目公众号主笔兼消息二道贩子 小华：媒体人 【What We Talked About】 As the U.S. midterms draw closer, the cost of living, the war with Iran, and voter dissatisfaction with Trump have put Democrats in a strong position in national polls. But how many seats can this “blue tsunami” in the polls actually deliver? Redrawn districts, differences among candidates, and internal polls showing surprisingly close races all point to the same caution: a national lead does not mean Democrats will win everywhere. In this episode, we discuss the House and Senate races, the Republicans' midterm convention, and John Fetterman's appearance at the event. We also look at disputes over mail-in ballots and redistricting. Finally, we turn to AI: once a niche issue, concerns about safety and data center construction are becoming part of midterm politics. The debate has gone mainstream, but regulation that could meaningfully slow AI still seems a long way off. 【Support Us】 Support the show by joining our membership program: https://theamericanroulette.com/paid-membership/ Business inquiries and listener mail: american.roulette.pod@gmail.com 【Timeline】 00:36 The midterms approach: living costs, war, and voter sentiment 03:42 Democrats lead in the polls: a blue wave or a blue tsunami? 14:44 Why a national lead may not translate into more seats 20:26 Why races in blue-leaning states remain uncertain 27:45 Why internal polls so often show a dead heat 29:30 Rising costs in agricultural states and a candidate controversy in Texas 34:25 The Republican midterm convention and Trump's strategy 39:12 Why Fetterman appeared at the Republican convention 43:54 Why Republicans' fundraising edge may not become an electoral edge 49:15 The dispute over mail-in ballots 52:31 Redistricting in Missouri 56:14 The AI safety debate: who wants to slow things down? 1:03:01 Where data center opponents and AI safety advocates converge 【Who We Are】 The American Roulette is a podcast dedicated to helping the Chinese-speaking community understand fast-changing U.S. politics. Our Hosts and Guests: 王浩岚 (Haolan Wang): American political enthusiast, chief writer at Lán Mù WeChat Official Account, and peddler of information 小华 (Xiao Hua): Journalist, political observer 【相关链接 The Links】 CBS News 2026 中期选举民调与众议院席位模型 Cook Political Report：37 个竞争激烈选区的民调 The Texas Tribune：Bo French 的言论引发德州共和党内部反对 费特曼在共和党中期选举大会上的视频 联邦选举委员会：最高法院取消政党与候选人协调支出的上限 最高法院：政党协调投放电视广告的价格争议 最高法院：邮寄选票与 USPS 新规则案 密苏里州最高法院：选区地图与公投判决 密苏里选区案的后续进展：联邦上诉法院作出相反裁决，争议尚未结束 OpenAI：模型评估期间发生的 Hugging Face 安全事件 Dario Amodei：为什么主张放慢前沿 AI 的发展速度 Pew Research Center：美国公众对本地数据中心的态度 奥巴马在 Colgate University 谈 AI 安全、商业压力与政府监管（完整文字稿）

About 1 in 10 Americans now live in a different congressional district than they did two years ago. The Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman explains where the redistricting fight has ended up. On Wednesday, OpenAI disclosed six previously unreported incidents of what it called “unexpected or concerning” behavior in its technology. The Verge’s Nilay Patel has been talking to Apple News In Conversation about the challenge of regulation. A documentary by Israeli filmmakers about the civilian death toll in Gaza won the special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival. The Associated Press’s Sam Metz reports on the backlash to the film in Israel. Plus, U.N.-backed experts said the U.S. may have committed war crimes with two strikes in Iran, the White House withdrew its nominee to lead ICE, and researchers identified the first new wild cat species in a century. Today’s episode was hosted by Gideon Resnick.

Battleground 2026: Senate Edition — the 9 seats that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. Sean Spicer and Democrat Strategist Dan Turrentine go race-by-race with the freshest polling data.It's Episode 803 of The Sean Spicer Show and part of our special Midterm Series airing every Wednesday through Election Day. This week: TX, ME, NC, AK, OH, IA, GA, MI, NH — which seats are moving toward Democrats, which are moving toward Republicans, and why both Sean and Dan were shocked by new Cook Political Report flags in MN, SC, and KS. Some red seats are breaking blue. Some blue seats are breaking red. This is the deep-dive, race-by-race breakdown you won't get anywhere else — and why Battleground 2026 has become a viewer favorite. -------------------- Head on over to https://www.seanspicer.com subscribe for an ad free version of this podcast and support the show! -------------------- Visit GuardYourCard.com to take action and learn more -------------------- My latest book Trump 2.0: The Revolution That Will Permanently Transform America is available for preorder, just click the link: https://a.co/d/67kKgje Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Washington Roundtable is joined by Amy Walter, the editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report and a political analyst for PBS NewsHour, to take stock of the midterms map. With Donald Trump's approval rating at a historic low and economic issues squeezing voters nationwide, conventional wisdom suggests that a decisive Democratic blue wave is coming. But the margins are razor-thin. “The odds are definitely with Democrats here because of how few seats they need to actually flip,” Walter says. “They just don't have a lot of room for error.” Plus, the hosts reflect on the quarter century since 9/11, and share their memories of that day. This week's reading: “Troy Jackson Is Still Surprised That He's Running for Senate,” by Jesús Rodríguez “Is the Democratic Party Still Too Woke?,” by Jason Zengerle “Has the A.I. Job Apocalypse Been Postponed?,” by John Cassidy “The U.S. Was Never Going to Win the ‘War on Terror,'” by Robin Wright Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The primaries are nearly finished, and Labor Day is behind us—that means it's officially midterm season! To mark the occasion, Henry catches up with Cook Political Report's Erin Covey to discuss the races that look competitive now in mid-September and how she'll gauge contests as we approach November. From consideration of surprising events and the movement […]

Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of the Margin of Victory newsletter, Henry Olsen, joins Sean to go race-by-race through the Cook Political Report's updated battleground list — now up from 19 to 21 seats, with Republican-held MI-10 and Democrat-held FL-14 newly moved to Toss-Up. Sean and Henry break down which seats are trending toward Democrats or Republicans, what the New Hampshire primary turnout tells us about the general election, and whether the RNC Midterm Convention can move the needle and swing the House toward Republicans. --------------------------- Head on over to https://www.seanspicer.com subscribe for an ad free version of this podcast and support the show! --------------------------- Go to Polymarket.us or download the Polymarket app, use promo code SEANSPICER, and get $50 when you deposit $10. Start trading today and put your political instincts to the test. --------------------------- https://ruffgreens.com/⁠ enter code: SPICER for your FREE starter pack --------------------------- Bedford Reinforced Plastics - https://www.bedfordreinforced.com/spicer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Republican strategist just put a clock on the Secretary of Defense.This week Army Secretary Dan Driscoll — JD Vance's closest ally in the administration, the man Trump sent to Kyiv to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war — resigned after months of losing fights with Pete Hegseth over Hegseth firing Army generals. Republican consultant Matt Wylie's read: "I don't even think he makes it out of the next two months."Then it gets stranger. Trump calls data centers the "Golden Goose" while every Republican on a ballot runs the other way. The Pentagon takes a 35% stake in Venezuelan oil through an office whose own spokesman says it has no legal authority to take equity stakes — which leads Wylie to call Trump "America's first socialist president." A Postal Service whistleblower says the new federal ballot system can throw out an entire batch. And an AI company shows Congress a $500-a-month surveillance tool that builds an instant dossier on any American.Plus: The Battlefield hits its first-ever dead-even verdict, dark money in Maine reaches $80 per voter, and a MAGA influencer who demanded mass deportations gets deported.Matt Robison and Matt Wylie. One Democrat, one Republican. It's Political Rehab, where PTI meets The Daily Show.CHAPTERS00:00 Cold open00:47 This week on Political Rehab01:00 Driscoll resigns — how long does Hegseth last?03:45 Trump's "Golden Goose" vs. his own party07:20 Does crime pay? The Venezuela oil grab10:45 Election chaos: USPS, DHS, and ICE at the polls13:10 The bipartisan revolt over AI surveillance17:05 THE BATTLEFIELD21:20 Structural indicators22:30 Dark money: $80 per voter in Maine25:15 Who won the week — a first-ever tie26:20 Dose of Hope: take away their phones28:55 Dose of Hope: the deportation of Milo YiannopoulosSubscribe to Worth Knowing for the full written analysis, Midterm HQ, and the weekly livestream: [SUBSTACK LINK]New episode every week. Hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one.#PoliticalRehab #Hegseth #Midterms2026Political Rehab with Matt Robison and Matt Wylie — a bipartisan politics show. Pete Hegseth, Dan Driscoll, JD Vance, Pentagon turnover, data centers and electricity prices, Venezuela oil deal, Office of Strategic Capital, USPS mail ballot rule, Flock cameras, AI surveillance, 2026 midterms, Cook Political Report, dark money.

Five weeks ago, I started talking to the team at the The Cook Political Report, one analyst at a time. This week I closed it out with the one I'd saved for last on purpose: David Wasserman, senior editor and the guy whose “I've seen enough” has closed out election nights for over a decade.I told him going in I wouldn't hold him to a prediction. He didn't need the disclaimer. “The numbers have gone from very bad to extremely bad for President Trump and Republicans,” he told me, then walked me through exactly why that still isn't the same thing as a sure thing.Independents have Trump's favorability sitting in the mid-20s. That's a wave-election signal, by his own description. And yet Republicans still have the map. Democrats need every purple Senate seat plus two states Trump carried by double digits in 2024. Gerrymandering ate most of what should have been an easy House flip. So David gives Democrats 75 to 80 percent in the House and something close to a coin flip in the Senate. Bad numbers. Not a landslide.What struck me most wasn't the math. It was what he said drives it. “Everything falls under the bucket of inflation, or most everything,” he told me — healthcare premiums, gas and fertilizer prices after the Strait of Hormuz closed, tariffs squeezing farmers who voted for this. He doesn't think those voters defect to the other side. He thinks they just stay home. James Carville figured that one out in 1992. Some things do not age.He also let me in on something that should worry anyone who reads a poll and calls it a fact: pollsters are now modeling the views of the country off the roughly 1 percent of people who bother to pick up and answer. The best data, he said, rarely even makes it out publicly. Everyone else is reading a narrower picture than they think they are.We closed on Iowa, which he called the most important state of 2026 — a Senate race, a governor's race and a state more exposed to foreign trade than nearly any other in the country, all on one ballot.Five conversations. Five people who do this work with more precision, more humility and more generosity than I expected going in. To Erin Covey, Carrie Dann, Amy Walter, Kathryn Hamm, Jessica Taylor and David Wasserman: thank you for trusting this show with your time. It was a genuinely great month.Three moments from the conversation, below.Key Quotes“The numbers have gone from very bad to extremely bad for President Trump and Republicans.” — David Wasserman“Everything falls under the bucket of inflation, or most everything.” — David Wasserman“We're relying in some cases on the 1% or less of people who are agreeing to take the survey to model the attitudes of the other 99%.” — David WassermanTakeawayThe environment is bad enough for Republicans to look historic, and structurally advantaged enough that it might not be. Whoever tells you they already know how November ends is skipping the second half of that sentence. Get full access to Lisa Camooso Miller at newsletter.fridayreporter.com/subscribe

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for September 1, 2026. We open by pushing back on the "black pill" defeatism creeping into GOP circles ahead of the midterms, weighing Speaker Mike Johnson's optimism and 55-city campaign push against the Cook Political Report's toss-up numbers, and why the redistricting fights of the last two years mean history alone won't decide who holds the House in 2026. From there we run through the Top 3 things you need to know: nine more pharmaceutical companies signing onto Trump's most-favored-nation drug pricing plan, ICE's Operation Rotten Apple sweep that netted 2,100 arrests of criminal illegal aliens in New York City, and Florida's statewide ban on flock license-plate cameras over data privacy concerns. We turn it over to our American Mamas, Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson, who take on a listener question about the viral clip of Ashley Judd and her conservative stepdad staying close despite being worlds apart politically, and why the media keeps pushing Americans to cut off family over disagreements instead of staying in relationship with the people they love. Digging Deep, we cover Georgetown's newly updated 2026 National Firearm Survey, breaking down who actually owns guns in America, how often they're used defensively, and why the numbers undercut a lot of the usual narratives around AR-15s, high-capacity magazines, and who's arming themselves. We also touch on a Cedar Hill, Texas bank robbery stopped cold by an armed customer, Trump's push to rename American landmarks like the Gulf of America, and his Supreme Court appeal defending the administration's authority to remove transgender troops from military service. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Inside D.C., where we break down how decisions in Washington shape the tools you use on your farm. This week, Brownfield's Carah Hart talks with David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report about what the 2026 elections could mean for control of Congress and the future of ag policy, including the farm bill. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Graham's Sister Wins in SC. Trump Promotes Paxton.(Trade) War with Canada. Susan Collins Concerned.Tariffs Hurt GOP. Gas Prices Hurt GOP. Trump Hurts GOP.Data Centers Spook Pols. Flock Camera Backlash.Trump's Focus: Building, not Voters. Dolly!With Jason Dick, Editor-in-chief at CQ-Roll Call, Amanda Becker, National Reporter for 19th News, Jessica Taylor, Senators and Governors Editor at the Cook Political Report and Savannah Behrmann, Senate Reporter for CQ- Roll-Call. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Host NotesJessica Taylor talks to more candidates, in more states, than almost anyone else in Washington — and this week, in the fourth stop of my month with the team at the The Cook Political Report, I finally got to ask her what she's hearing that the rest of us aren't.Her answer surprised me: data centers. Not tariffs, not immigration — data centers. She's hearing organic, unscripted anger about them from candidates in Ohio's Senate race and Wisconsin's and Kansas's governor's races, all on their own, unprompted. She says the industry is losing the PR fight badly enough that the phrase she hears everywhere — from teenagers to voters at campaign stops — is simply: AI will take my job.Then there's Rob Sand. He's the only Democrat holding statewide office in Iowa, and Jessica's one of the few analysts who's sat down with him more than once this cycle. He holds county meetings across the state and opens each one by singing “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful,” then says a prayer. His pitch isn't redder or bluer, he says — it's “better and truer.” Jessica's read: Republicans don't feel great about where this race is headed.What stuck with me most, though, wasn't a single race — it was her theory of the moment we're in. Neither Barack Obama nor Donald Trump, she told me, built a party that outlasts them. Both coalitions showed up when their namesake was on the ballot and stayed home when he wasn't. So is American politics just going to keep getting more person-centric, more cult-of-personality, because that's what actually motivates people to vote? Or does someone eventually build something that lasts past themselves? She doesn't know. Neither do I. But it's the right question heading into 2028.She also pushed back, hard, on the idea that a Democratic wave is coming — redistricting has left too few competitive seats for a 2018-style blowout, she says, and if Democrats do flip the Senate, it'll be centrists like Roy Cooper and Sherrod Brown who get them there, not the loudest voices in the primary.And she closed with the myth she most wants people to retire - that social media buzz translates into actual votes. You can raise money online. You can go viral. “But the fundamentals are still the fundamentals.”Three moments from our conversation, below.Pull Quotes“I hear all the time from not only the teenagers that live in my home, but like everywhere I go, the words, AI will take my job.” — Jessica Taylor“He opens by, you know, singing God Bless America and America the Beautiful and with a prayer... not redder or bluer, but better and truer.” — Jessica Taylor, on Rob Sand“I think that social media buzz is going to translate to votes [is the myth]... the fundamentals are still the fundamentals, I think.” — Jessica TaylorTakeawayThe 2026 map isn't being reshaped by a wave in either direction — it's being reshaped by data-center backlash, candidates who can cross party lines in person, and a growing sense that no single leader can hand their coalition off to the next one. Get full access to Lisa Camooso Miller at newsletter.fridayreporter.com/subscribe

On our radar this week… Jeff takes a week off and just like that, Trump starts another war! This time with him smack-ass in the middle of it. Jeff and his bride were in Canada's Maritimes and was attacked with Canadian kindness, poutine, real beef and not diseased Argentinian horse meat, the best lobsters and oysters in the hemisphere, and the inability of artisans and merchants to ship their goods to their traditional U.S. partners – or even for me to ship purchases home, due to the economically illiterate tariffs and self-destructive imbecilic trade war with our closest cousins. Back here in the U.S.A.: Trump's war could really cost him, eh? Senate and gubernatorial races in Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine and Ohio are already being impacted by the economic turmoil spinning off Trump's latest stupidity. Too bad for John James and Mike Rogers, Porky POTUS spent much of the week focused on his issue Number One: naming things after him, including: Another effort to put his name on the Kennedy Center despite a court order, threatening to tear down the Center if he doesn't get his way; Stripping the name of a World War II hero off a new aircraft carrier, reportedly instead renaming it for him, while ordering the Navy to spend billions on redesigns of carriers so they looked like World War II carriers and revert to outdated steam-powered launch systems; Inscribing a plaque on his under-construction helipad with his signature, clearly delighted that the new granite slab outside the White House will be a great place for cocktail parties. Reportedly deciding to use his $400-million political bankroll to run an advertising blitz on the Greatness of Trump … instead of directly supporting Republican candidates. But Michigan Republicans aren't joining the Trump Name Game. At their weekend state nominating convention, none of their candidates for state office mentioned Trump even once. Their focus was putting lipstick on the pig that is the GOP record on the economy. I wish them all smashing luck as they contort themselves into cartoonish pretzels in their futile efforts to avoid being fatally tethered to Donald Trump's venereal disease-level job approval. State Republicans are also reeling from what appears to be a growing Blue Wave. The non-partisan Cook Political Report has moved two Michigan congressional races away from the GOP: in the Macomb County based 10th district, from Leans Republican to Tossup … and in the Saginaw Bay region 8th from “Lean Democratic” to “Likely Democratic.” State Democrats are sharpening their verbal axes as we approach the traditional Labor Day launch of the campaign. The Canada Trade War drew immediate fire from Lt. Governor nominee Winnie Brinks, and 10th district congressional candidate Christina Hines. Senator Elissa Slotkin, in a speech to UAW leadership, said a longer term threat posed by the Trade War is Canada's growing partnership with China on sales of EV's … and Trump then allowing those cars across the Gordie Howe Bridge. Abdul El-Sayed is highlighting the obvious challenge facing Mike Rogers in the Senate campaign: does he risk angering Donald Trump breaking with him on issues beginning with the Trump-created Iran war, and the emerging hot-button issue of Data Centers. But the possibly most ominous development of the week came from the very Trumpy Supreme Court, which has started to open the door to a federal takeover of elections. Without ruling on the merits of Trump's Post Office deciding who gets to vote, Chief Justice John Roberts gave Trump permission to begin implementing his executive order. It was all part of a bizarre week that can probably be summed up in two words: Lake America, Trump's latest Sharpie-labeled change to world maps. And we have more developments on state ballot proposals for November – both of those stories directly involving Mark. He has been on a winning streak in his election-related battles, and provides an update: what’s in, what’s out. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I Will Always Love You” The feeling is mutual. Subscribe to our YouTube channel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A Republic, If You Can Keep It is supported by

Democrat strategists Mike Nellis & Julian Epstein join Sean Spicer to break down a stunning shift in the 2026 map — Cook Political Report flipping Texas and Iowa to TOSS-UP, James Talarico's struggle to connect with Black voters in Texas, and whether Abdul El-Sayed is too extreme to win Michigan against Mike Rogers. https://www.seanspicer.com subscribe for an ad free version of this podcast Bedford Reinforced Plastics - https://www.bedfordreinforced.com/spicer https://ruffgreens.com/⁠ enter code: SPICER for your FREE starter pack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

August 23, 2026, 8 AM; This week, the Cook Political Report shifted Senate races in Texas and Iowa to the left: from "lean Republican" to "toss-up." MS NOW still rates both of these races as Lean Republican. Meanwhile, MS NOW's Political Unit is characterizing Senate races in Alaska and Ohio as toss-ups, two seats that are currently held by Republicans. Terrance Woodbury and Rachel Bitecofer join The Weekend to discuss the Democrats' prospects. For more, follow us on social media: Bluesky: @theweekendmsnow.bsky.social Instagram: @theweekendmsnow TikTok: @theweekendmsnow To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Amy Walter returns to the pod for a pundit therapy session. She and Sarah discuss: A recent focus group of Georgia swing voters, and what they think of Sen. Jon Ossoff and his opponent. The massive polling misses in the Wisconsin and Michigan primaries, and listen to a focus group of Wisconsin voters that tell us (in retrospect) how David Crowley was able to pull of a last minute surge. In light of AOC's 'Woke 1 was crazy' comments, they discuss swing voters' biggest complaints about each of our political parties, and whether the parties' brand problems are driven by politicians, or by other people in voters' lives. Show links:Subscribe to the Cook Political Report! (https://www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe)CPR's PollTracker (Trump Approval Rating Aggregator) (https://www.cookpolitical.com/survey-research/cpr-polltracker/trump-trendlines)CPR's “Find a Race” sorter (https://www.cookpolitical.com/races)CPR's Battleground District Project (https://www.cookpolitical.com/survey-research/battleground-district-project)For a limited time, go to https://TempoMeals.com/THEFOCUSGROUP for 60% off your first box.

The letters themselves are extraordinary. Pride and Prejudice references, apologies for losing focus, a line about him being her guardian and protector. Alongside them is the earlier reporting that Harp spent her first year in the White House without a security clearance while sitting beside the president for twelve or more hours a day, with world leaders routing messages through her. Melania Trump made a public appearance the same day, her first in some time. Hawk does not think that is a coincidence. Also in here: TMZ footage of Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor ten days before his hospitalization, and nine weeks without a public appearance since. Trump sitting for an interview on Michael Cohen's podcast, with George Conway's reaction. And the Cook Political Report on eight Republican Senate seats now in play. SUPPORT & CONNECT WITH HAWK- Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mdg650hawk - Hawk's Merch Store: https://hawkmerchstore.com - Connect on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mdg650hawk7thacct - Connect on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hawkeyewhackamole - Connect on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mdg650hawk.bsky.social - Connect on Substack: https://mdg650hawk.substack.com - Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hawkpodcasts - Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mdg650hawk - Connect on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mdg650hawk ALL HAWK PODCASTS INFO- Additional Content Available Here: https://www.hawkpodcasts.comhttps://www.youtube.com/@hawkpodcasts- Listen to Hawk Podcasts On Your Favorite Platform:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3RWeJfyApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/422GDuLYouTube: https://youtube.com/@hawkpodcastsiHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/47vVBdPPandora: https://bit.ly/48COaTB

Tonight on America At Night with McGraw Milhaven, we tackle the nation's growing debt, a shifting Senate map, the future of AI, and a weekly look at great travel destinations. Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, discusses the staggering milestone of the U.S. national debt surpassing $40 trillion and what that number means for America's economic future. Jessica Taylor, Editor of U.S. Senate and Governors at The Cook Political Report, breaks down the latest changes to the political map as Texas and Iowa Senate races move into Toss Up territory and what that could mean for the 2026 midterms. Meagan Medick, host of Unreported with Meagan Medick, explores a fascinating and unsettling question from her latest podcast episode: What happens if AI is on the path to “retire” humans? And Bill Clevlen, founder of billontheroad.com, returns for his weekly travel segment with another look at destinations, travel stories and the places worth putting on your list. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Getting Amy Walter on this show once felt like a win. Getting her back a second time, this week, with Kathryn Hamm in the room too, felt like something else entirely — a vote of confidence I don't take lightly.This is the third stop in my month with the team at The Cook Political Report, after conversations with House editor Erin Covey and managing editor Carrie Dann. But this one is different. Amy is the person who inherited Charlie Cook's operation and has spent her career protecting the trust he built. Kathryn is the person who runs the business behind it — the partnerships, the access, the infrastructure that lets an operation of nine people reach a country of millions.What struck me most wasn't the political analysis, though there was plenty of that. It was how deliberately both of them talked about staying nonpartisan. Amy told me it isn't a talent, it's a discipline — something she has to practice, especially when a source says something that gets her “a little hot under the collar.” Kathryn's read on the moment we're in was even sharper. She said the thing she hears most isn't that people don't trust anyone anymore. It's that they've stopped listening entirely. That's a different problem.And then there was the thing that actually explains why the Cook Political Report works: they've never sold a single ad. When you subscribe, you're paying for a clean, straightforward read with no agenda attached — no clutter, no pop-ups, no sponsor with a thumb on the scale. That business model isn't incidental to the trust. It is the trust.We closed with a lightning round. Amy's answer stuck with me: the most undercovered story in politics right now isn't this November, it's 2027 — the largest freshman class in the House in at least 30 years, arriving with two competing mandates, to fight Trump or to support him, headed straight into a leadership structure that's barely settled in itself.Charlie Cook built something extraordinary. Watching Amy and Kathryn talk about what it takes to keep it that way, on purpose, every single day, made it clear this isn't inherited good fortune. It's work. I respect the hell out of what this team does.Three moments from the conversation, below.Key Quotes“The most important thing you can have anywhere, but especially in this town, is your credibility and your reputation. And it takes a long time to build it up and it doesn't take a very long time to lose it.” — Amy Walter“The first thing I hear most often isn't even, I don't trust anyone anymore. It's, I stop listening.” — Kathryn Hamm“When you come to the Cook Political Report, you're paying a subscription and that means you get a clean experience.” — Amy WalterTakeawayThe Cook Political Report's credibility isn't an accident of longevity — it's a daily discipline, reinforced by a business model with no ads and no agenda to protect.The full conversation with Amy Walter and Kathryn Hamm of the Cook Political Report is live on YouTube now. Third stop in our month with the team behind the gold standard. Get full access to Lisa Camooso Miller at newsletter.fridayreporter.com/subscribe

The Cook Political Report has updated its projections for the 2026 midterms, moving the Talarico/Paxton race to "toss up" from "lean republican", and the Hinojosa/Abbott race from "solid Republican" to "lean Republican". Ken Paxton is expected to receive some desperately-needing funding support from Elon Musk. Republicans are threading a narrative needle on the Big Bend as they attempt to avoid public backlash without crossing Donald Trump. And Republican Texas Railroad Commission nominee Bo French - a notorious anti-Semite - has invoked the century-old "Judeo-Bolshevism" trope in AI-generated images of his Democratic opponent Jon Rosenthal, the only Jewish member of the Texas House.The Hill: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6041660-cook-political-report-texas-iowa-senate-races/San Antonio Current on Cook Report: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/top-political-watcher-declares-the-talarico-paxton-race-a-toss-up/San Antonio Current on Elon Musk: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/elon-musk-expected-to-give-paxton-much-needed-cash-injection/Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/21/texas-big-bend-border-wall-barrier-republicans-paxton-trump/The Forward: https://forward.com/news/724588/ten-commandments-jon-rosenthal/This election year, you can support the real free press by investing in pro-democracy, pro-justice, pro-gressive storytelling. Become a monthly donor or increase your giving TODAY for our Summer Sustaining Donor Drive today, and we'll thank you with "perks for progress" - plus you'll get a shoutout on the Daily Dispatch! Join the Progress Texas family now at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://act.progresstexas.org/a/summersustainers26⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Check out the Substack version of the Daily Dispatch, which delivers each pod to your inbox and frequently includes extra video goodies:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://substack.com/@progresstexas⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Progress Texas is now part of the lineups at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KPFT-FM in Houston,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Empower House Radio in San Antonio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KZSM True Community Radio in San Marcos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://progresstexas.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday says the U.S. is unveiling what he calls the toughest sanctions in history on Iran. Bessent says he will announce the details on Monday. He says the measures will target Iran's ability to generate revenue and support its military and is warning countries and companies that continue trading with Iran that they could also face U-S penalties.The U.S. military on Friday says all eight people aboard a charter plane are dead, after it crashed at a remote radar site in western Alaska. Officials say the twin-engine Cessna was carrying two pilots and six passengers when it went down on THursday about 450 miles west of Anchorage. Air Force Lieutenant General Robert Davis called it ‘a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve.' Senator Lisa Murkowski offered condolences to the victims' families. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.A popular election forecaster, Cook Political Report, has shifted Senate races in red states into toss-up territory. Control of the senate as a whole is a toss-up, but many analysts predict that socialist wins in battleground primaries will hurt Democrats' chances. Democrats will need a net gain of four seats to take control of the upper chamber.

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: The Cook Political Report moves the Texas U.S. Senate race to “toss-up.” Before you panic, you need to be aware of several things that I will explain. Cook Political Report shifts Iowa, Texas races to toss-ups Talarico dominates Texas airwaves while Paxton stays quiet Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Am I always against government spending? No, there are some things that only government can and should do and those should be funded well with assurance of efficiency. Take this: TPPF urges SCOTUS to protect right to independent courts. TPPF is correct and the administrative state has been a wrong turn by congressmen who slough off their work to agencies. All deserve their day in a real court but that costs money and should be funded. Also, there is this story: Texas Appeals Courts' Staffing Plea Collides With Cut Demands. Texas appeals courts run very lean and should get significantly more funding as the case load has grown – but all funding should provide for efficient service.Paramount CEO David Ellison eyes Austin as potential new base after threatening to ditch California during antitrust battle.Midland County judge Terry Johnson surrenders after indictment. He could have simply resigned.How a Texas Student Blew the Whistle on a Rogue AI Hacking Attempt.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

In this bonus episode, Hotline editor Kirk A. Bado and Cook Political Report with Amy Walter founder Charlie Cook break down primary results from Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Connecticut and discuss what's next for the Democratic Party. Subscribe to Hotline: https://hub.nationaljournal.com/hotline-subscribe Sign up for upcoming webinars: https://www.nationaljournal.com/events/membership

I've spent a long time in rooms where people talk about political race ratings like they're handed down from on high — toss-up, lean R, safe D — as if there's a formula somewhere spitting out certainty. Carrie Dann told me this week that she believed that too, once, from the outside.Carrie spent almost eighteen years in NBC News' Washington bureau — an embedded campaign reporter, an editor, eventually running the network's Capitol Hill team — before she became Managing Editor of the The Cook Political Report. When she got there, she admitted something I loved: she pictured the ratings coming down like “stone tablets from Amy Walter on high.” Then she watched how they're actually made, and the reverence gave way to something more interesting — nine people, meeting candidates, tracking fundraising, arguing over how much weight to give a single news cycle. Part quantitative, part qualitative, as she put it. Neither art nor science. In between.What stuck with me most, though, wasn't the process — it was what she said about failure. In 2012, her editors gave her what they called the best assignment on the beat: cover the man everyone assumed would be the Republican nominee. He wasn't. Watching that campaign collapse in real time, she told me, taught her more than any winning campaign ever has. There's something in that for anyone who covers, predicts, or works in politics for a living — the stories that don't pan out are usually where the real education happens.And then there was the number that stayed with me after we talked: new Gallup data found that roughly half of Americans aren't confident their own ballot will be counted correctly. Carrie called it “a really alarming stat,” and she's right that it isn't getting nearly the urgency it deserves — not from candidates, not from officials, not from those of us in the media.This is the second stop in our month-long takeover with the Cook Political Report, and Carrie's conversation left me thinking differently about how much human judgment sits underneath every rating I've ever casually cited. Three moments that stayed with me, below.Notable Quotes“I envisioned these stone tablets coming down from Amy Walter on high of like, this is how we pronounce how these races are going to turn out.” — Carrie Dann“Campaigns that are unsuccessful teach you a lot more, I think, as a reporter, than campaigns that are successful.” — Carrie Dann“Voters and candidates are human people… they are driven by their lived experience… which is why every election is about the economy.” — Carrie DannTakeawayThe ratings everyone treats as certainty are made by people who know exactly how much could go wrong — and it's the losing campaigns, not the winning ones, that teach them the most.The full conversation with Carrie Dann — on stone tablets, failed frontrunners, and the number that should worry all of us — is live on YouTube now. Second stop in our month with the Cook Political Report. Get full access to Lisa Camooso Miller at newsletter.fridayreporter.com/subscribe

Republican Rep. Max Miller will remain in the race for Ohio's 7th Congressional District despite domestic violence allegations from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno. The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating the claims. Miller faced calls to withdraw from Republican Ohio Sens. Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, but the deadline to leave the race passed Monday. He is scheduled to face Democrat Brian Poindexter in November. The Cook Political Report has changed its rating of the race from “Likely Republican” to “Toss Up.” The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has issued a “notice of probable noncompliance” to Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, or CEI, following widespread power outages in Lakewood this summer. PUCO received more than 800 complaints and found most outages between June 30 and July 15 were caused by equipment or line failures. Investigators also found aging infrastructure and observed CEI using garden sprinklers to cool transformers during extreme heat. FirstEnergy, CEI's parent company. CEI has until Aug. 21 to respond. Cuyahoga County will lose nearly $1.2 million in state grant money meant to make homes lead-safe after failing to spend it by a July deadline. The unspent funds were part of an $8.1 million Lead Safe Ohio grant awarded in 2023. The county funds were intended in part for Cleveland and East Cleveland, which have high rates of childhood lead poisoning. Officials and community groups cited complicated federal requirements, tight deadlines and restrictions on how the money could be used. The state has not yet said how the unspent money will be redistributed. PorchROKR returns to Akron's Highland Square neighborhood Saturday, Aug. 15, with more than 160 musical acts across 40 stages. The free festival runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., followed by a 7:30 p.m. main-stage performance by Rent for Cheryl. We'll discuss these stories and more on this week's "Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable." Guests:- Gabriel Kramer, Reporter and Host of "NewsDepth," Ideastream Public Media- Conor Morris, Education Reporter, Ideastream Public Media- Karen Kasler, Bureau Chief, Ideastream Statehouse News Bureau

It's the Battleground Arena on the Sean Spicer Show. Will the GOP hold the House — or are Democrats about to flip it? Sean Spicer sits down with Henry Olsen, Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of the "Margin of Victory" newsletter for The Washington Post, for a full race-by-race breakdown of every Toss-Up seat in the Cook Political Report's 2026 House ratings. ----------------- https://www.seanspicer.com subscribe for an ad free version of this podcast ----------------- Bedford Reinforced Plastics - https://www.bedfordreinforced.com/spicer ----------------- https://ruffgreens.com/⁠ enter code: SPICER for your FREE starter pack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is special edition of the Odd Years! Today, we bring to you Cook Political Report's other podcast: Editors Roundtable.If you don't know Editors Roundtable, it is a weekly conversation between Cook Political Report analysts where we discuss the issues, trends, and individual races that we think are the most important and impactful. Think of it as an opportunity to be a fly on the wall during our editorial meetings.On this Editors Roundtable, is the Senate still in play for Democrats after Michigan?Amy, Jessica and Carrie get together to discuss what they're watching in the contest between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers, the latest in the Maine Senate race and what the expanding field for Democrats means.** How to listen to Editors Roundtable **-> On Apple podcasts for 1.99/month: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026-> On Substack by becoming a paid subscriber: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable-> By subscribing to the Cook Political Report. New subscribers can use the discount code: "Odd10"www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe

I've spent a lot of election nights the same way most political junkies have — tracking ratings, refreshing results, trying to guess which seats will flip before the networks call them. What I'd never really thought about is who actually makes those ratings in the first place, or how much judgment goes into a label as simple as “toss-up.”This week I sat down with Erin Covey, who leads House race coverage for The Cook Political Report, to kick off a month of conversations with their team. She told me something that stopped me: the team behind every rating you've ever cited is nine people. Nine people, tracking roughly 40 competitive House races every single week, plus the Senate, the governors, and the presidency every four years.What struck me most was how much of the job is restraint. It would be easier, in some ways, to call every close race a toss-up and let the outcome sort itself out. Erin pushed back on that instinct directly — the whole point of the exercise is to make a call, even when the call might be wrong.She also walked me through Texas's 23rd, a seat that should be safely Republican and isn't anymore — not because of redistricting or national trends, but because of exactly who's on the ballot. It's a reminder that all the modeling in the world still runs into the fact that candidates are people, and people are unpredictable.And I loved her answer when I asked whether growing up outside Washington — in a military family, across the South and overseas — changes how she reads a district. Her answer, below, is the whole thesis of good political journalism.Notable Quotes from Today's Episode “It's our team, which is smaller than a lot of people expect. Currently, nine members on our team.” — Erin Covey“If we put everything in toss-up, then we wouldn't really be making any predictions at all, right?” — Erin Covey“There's something inherently important about having lived outside the Beltway to understand that you can't apply the same rules or the same filter for each and every district because they all are so inherently different.” — Erin CoveyMy TakeawayBehind every House rating you read this fall is a small team making deliberate, sometimes uncomfortable calls — and the districts that surprise us usually do so because of the person on the ballot, not the map underneath them.The full conversation — on toss-ups, cash, and the Texas seat nobody expected to be competitive — is live on YouTube now. First of a month of Cook Political Report guests on the show. Get full access to Authentically Speaking at newsletter.fridayreporter.com/subscribe

Less than 48 hours after Washington's primary closed, U.S. Speaker Mike Johnson was at Trap Door Brewing in Vancouver endorsing John Braun for Washington's 3rd Congressional District. Braun faces Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in November, with Cook Political Report listing the seat as a toss-up among 18 nationally. https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/news/u-s-speaker-of-the-house-campaigns-for-john-braun-in-vancouver/ #MikeJohnson #JohnBraun #WA3 #Congress #Vancouver #ClarkCounty #WashingtonState #Politics #Election2026

Jessica Taylor, senate and governors editor for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, offers analysis of the competitive Senate races ahead of this November's midterm elections, and discusses how likely it may be for Democrats to take control of Congress. Photo: U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. on a Sunny, Partly Cloudy Summer Day in August     Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does the most up-to-date polling say about the electoral prospects in states with open Senate races this midterm season? On Today's Show:Jessica Taylor, Senate and governors editor for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, offers analysis of the competitive Senate races ahead of this November's midterm elections, and discusses how likely it may be for Democrats to take control of Congress. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro is on track for a pretty big win in November. And he can't do that without winning over a lot of former Trump voters, including the ones in our focus group. Cook Political Report editor in chief Amy Walter returns to the show to discuss how our Pennsylvania focus group felt about Shapiro, AND Sen. John Fetterman, and about the Trump administration. They also break down whether Democrats should be concerned about the generic ballot polling we're seeing right now.The Korean skincare brand everyone is talking about. Our listeners get 20% off their entire order by using code THEFOCUSGROUP at https://jiyuskin.com/THEFOCUSGROUP #JIYU #adshow links Subscribe to the Cook Political Report! CPR's PollTracker (Trump Approval Rating Aggregator) CPR's “Find a Race” sorter CPR's Battleground District Project

Ohio's governor race just got a new label. Cook Political Report moved Ramaswamy vs. Acton from Lean Republican to Toss Up, and Ohio's largest police union broke decades of habit to endorse a full Republican statewide ticket for the first time in recent memory. This episode covers both, plus the ten Ohio House seats that could decide whether Republicans keep veto proof control of Columbus. In this episode: the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio endorses Vivek Ramaswamy, Jon Husted, and Keith Faber for Attorney General, its first Republican AG endorsement in twenty years. Statehouse Watch covers the Ohio EPA's reversal on data center wastewater permits and the ten House Republican seats Democrats are targeting to break the sixty seat supermajority. District Watch breaks down Ohio's 14th (David Joyce vs. Maria Jukic) and 15th (Mike Carey vs. Don Leonard) congressional districts. County of the Week looks at Summit County's House Districts 31 and 35. Research on a Dime digs into a new KFF poll on who Americans actually think is committing Medicaid fraud, and how it lines up against Republican Attorney General messaging in Ohio's race between Keith Faber and John Kulewicz. Plus: the billionaire money behind Ramaswamy's super PAC, Victors Not Victims, which has raised thirty seven million dollars from a small group of billionaire donors, more than eighty eight percent of its total funding. Political solutions without political bias. Building a better Ohio on the way to a better America. PODCAST NETWORK ALIVE Podcast Network. Link: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/ CONVERSATION PLATFORMS HeadOn - A platform for contentious yet productive conversations. It's a place for hosted and unguided conversations where you can grow a following and enhance your conversations with AI features. Link: https://app.headon.ai/ Living Room Conversations - Building bridges through meaningful dialogue across political divides. Link: https://livingroomconversations.org/ UNITY MOVEMENTS Us United - A movement for unity that challenges Americans to step out of their bubbles and connect across differences. Take the Unity Pledge, join monthly '30 For US' conversation calls, wear purple (the color of unity), and participate in National Unity Day every second Saturday in December. Their programs include the Sheriff Unity Network and Unity Seats at sports events, proving that shared values are stronger than our differences. Link: https://www.us-united.org/ BALANCED NEWS & INFORMATION OtherWeb - An AI-based platform that filters news without paywalls, clickbait, or junk, helping you access diverse, unbiased content. Link: https://otherweb.com/ VOTING REFORM & DEMOCRACY Equal Vote Coalition & STAR Voting - Advocating for voting methods that ensure every vote counts equally, eliminating wasted votes and strategic voting. Link: https://www.equal.vote/star Future is Now Coalition (FiNC) - A grassroots movement working to restore democracy through transparency, accountability, and innovative technology while empowering citizens and transforming American political discourse. Link: https://futureis.org/ POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT Independent Center - Resources for independent political thinking and civic engagement. Link: https://www.independentcenter.org/ r/PolicySolutions - A subreddit where people can post and discuss political solutions. Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/policysolutions/ GET DAILY NEWS Text 844-406-INFO (844-406-4636) with code 'purple' to receive quick, unbiased, factual news delivered to your phone every morning via Informed (https://informed.now) Check Out the Unfuck America Tour & National Ground Game: https://www.nationalgroundgame.com/ Check Out the CIVICS App to Know More About Your Politicians: https://www.civicpolitics.com Subscribe to the Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/purplepoliticalbreakdown/p/welcome-to-the-purple-political-breakdown?r=3z2cmw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true ALL LINKS https://linktr.ee/purplepoliticalbreakdown The Purple Political Breakdown is committed to fostering productive political dialogue that transcends partisan divides. We believe in the power of conversation, balanced information, and democratic participation to build a stronger society. Our mission: 'Political solutions without political bias.' Subscribe, rate, and share if you believe in purple politics, where we find common ground in the middle! Also if you want to be a part of the community and the conversation make sure to Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/ptPAsZtHC9

For five and a half years, this show has been about someone else — pulling a thread from a guest I find fascinating and following it wherever it leads. This week, for the first time, I turned the camera on myself.After a recent conversation with my business coach, I realized I had never articulated — through my lens — what connects every single person who's ever sat across from me on this show. Journalists. Communicators. Photographers. Lobbyists. To an outsider, the connection may not be altogether clear, so I chose today to fix that.I was surprised to realize how far back the real answer goes — past the podcast, past the public affairs career, back to a small legislative district in New Jersey where I learned that making someone feel seen gave me my own purpose. That idea became the thread of this episode.I'm also using today's episode to signal a short break from this show — the first real break I've taken in five and a half years — and ahead to an exciting August takeover with Cook Political Report.My favorite line of the episode: the moment you actually see someone — really see them — it gets a lot harder to hold onto anger at them. Connection isn't just nice to have. It's what makes compassion possible.Authentically Speaking is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. Get full access to Authentically Speaking at newsletter.fridayreporter.com/subscribe

President Trump is set to deliver a primetime address where he is expected to talk about the 2020 election. The Cook Political Report moves eight House races in favor of Democrats with less than fourth months until the November midterms. Rep. Kathy Castsor (D-Fla.) and Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), co-chars of the Congressional Soccer Caucus, join Meet the Press NOW in the latest installment of NBC's Common Ground series ahead of the FIFA World Cup Finals. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 10, 2026. We open with a Senate map conversation nobody on the left wants to have — Democrats need to win every single toss-up race in November to take control of the chamber, while Republicans need only one. We walk through the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball projections, the four toss-up races that will decide everything — Alaska, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina — and why Republican overconfidence is still premature even with the structural advantage. We also explain why Graham Plattner's implosion in Maine may not be the gift Republicans assumed it was, why Roy Cooper is very likely to pick up North Carolina, and why Ken Paxton is making a race in Texas far closer than it has any business being. In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, President Trump refused to sign the bipartisan housing bill — saying he won't put pen to paper until Congress passes the SAVE Act — but the bill will become law without his signature anyway, and House Republicans plan to celebrate its passage regardless. Then Trump fired the remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, citing the Seila Law decision as precedent and issuing a statement that the president reserves the right to remove individuals not fully aligned with the task of securing America's elections. And eight men from across the country — Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Washington, California, and West Virginia — have been indicted for plotting a drone and sniper attack on the UFC fight at the White House lawn, with all eight now arrested and facing life in prison. We also cover Joy Behar warning that President Trump is practically destroying democracy — and we note that the one place in America where a democratic election result was genuinely made null and void was the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, where Kamala Harris never won a single vote outside the convention floor. The Democrat Party is the party of projection. Whatever they accuse you of doing, they have already done. Our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson answer a listener question about Type 1 and Type 2 fun — and the conversation becomes a beautiful tribute to feral childhood. Type 1 fun is a roller coaster — thrilling in the moment, forgotten by morning. Type 2 fun is hiking in sleet, throwing rocks at alligators on the bayou, going off into the woods alone for hours while your parents had absolutely no idea where you were. The kind of fun that shapes you, scares you, and becomes the story you're still telling at 50. Teri and Kimberly worry that today's children — tracked by phones, sheltered from consequence, raised on Dateline — are growing up on Type 1 fun and missing the Type 2 experiences that built the people they became. We dig deep into California's 2022 decision to decriminalize loitering with intent to commit prostitution — signed by Governor Newsom on the grounds that 56% of those arrested were Black women, making it, in his telling, a racist law. The results, documented by City Journal and investigative journalist Abigail Schreier, are exactly what common sense predicted. Prostitution spiked immediately. Human trafficking followed. LAPD officers at the 77th Street Station rescued 123 children in 2024 — nearly eight times the number rescued in 2022, the year before the law took effect. Police now report seeing 14-year-old girls in G-strings on Los Angeles streets and having no legal authority to intervene. We make the case plainly: the left is not trying to reduce crime. It is trying to reduce the number of people arrested for crime. Those are not the same thing — and the difference is being paid for by the most vulnerable people on the streets. We also revisit a 1950 speech by Joseph McCarthy — and note that whatever his excesses, his core distinction holds up: there have always been two kinds of Democrats, the millions of loyal Americans who vote the ticket and want safe neighborhoods and stable jobs, and a small activist class that has been dragging the party toward something that looks less like democratic socialism and more like the thing McCarthy was warning about. The question in 2026 is whether that activist class is still the minority. Then it's Fake News Friday — including a California HOA fining residents for flying the American flag, activists pushing schools to teach Black English and girl math, Adam Sandler officiating Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding, a BB gun attack on a mosque that turned out to be carried out by a Muslim man, Iran threatening to kill President Trump at Khomeini's funeral, a new Broadway musical called Dolly about Dolly Parton, and CNN airing a quote from a fake congressman who runs a parody account. Justin Trudeau is now a backup dancer in a Katy Perry video. Spoilet Alert: that one's real. For our Bright Spot, weekly unemployment claims came in at 215,000 — with the January through July average of 213,000 representing the lowest sustained jobless claim numbers since 1968 and 1969, when the country had a third fewer people and the Vietnam draft was pulling hundreds of thousands of men out of the civilian workforce. We call it what it is — a labor market that is outperforming history in a country that was told it couldn't. And we close with words of wisdom on patriotism — from Calvin Coolidge, Edward Abbey, Adlai Stevenson, and Charles de Gaulle. You've got to love your country enough to tell the truth about it, defend it when it's right, and fight to make it better. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Iran War Continues. Bad for the GOP.New Airforce One Fail. Platner Out. Convention for Maine. Good for Susan Collins? How D's and R's Handle Sex Scandals.Where is Mitch? GOP Needs His Vote.4 Governors Races Shift Toward Democrats.Political Generation Gap. Trump and Communism. With Linda Feldmann, Washington Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, Jeff Dufour, Editor-in-chief of the National Journal and Jessica Taylor, Governors and Senators Editor at The Cook Political Report. Today's Bill Press Pod is supported by The United Food and Commercial Workers Union. More information at UFCW.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this bonus episode, National Journal editor in chief Jeff Dufour and Cook Political Report with Amy Walter founder Charlie Cook discuss the latest updates with Graham Platner's fall from grace, the lessons learned for candidate recruitment, the latest efforts by the Trump administration to control elections and more. Subscribe to Hotline: https://hub.nationaljournal.com/hotline-subscribe 

Tonight on America at Night with McGraw Milhaven: Mark Chandler, retired U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence Officer and former Deputy Director for Intelligence, joins the show to discuss the latest developments involving Iran and the United States, including the apparent collapse of the latest Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Chandler explains what the breakdown could mean for regional stability, U.S. foreign policy, and the broader geopolitical landscape. Jessica Taylor, political analyst for The Cook Political Report, examines the growing political battle surrounding the Platner/Paxton race. Taylor breaks down the candidates, the stakes of the contest, and what the outcome could mean for the political landscape heading into the next election cycle. Later, Jesse Wegman, former editorial board member at The New York Times and author of The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution, discusses the remarkable but often overlooked legacy of Founding Father James Wilson. Wegman explores Wilson's influence on the Constitution and why his contributions deserve greater recognition as America approaches its 250th anniversary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Texas Attorney General and Republican candidate for Senate, Ken Paxton's marriage fell apart two years ago when his wife accused him of having an affair and she moved out of the house they shared. According to new reporting from the Texas Tribune and ProPublica, the address of that house is still on Paxton's voting registration even though he hasn't lived there for years and does not appear to be going back. Zach Despart, Texas Tribune investigative reporter, talks with Jen Psaki about why Paxton may have committed voter fraud, and why that would be an especially rich irony. Graham Platner's time as Maine Democrats' candidate for Senate appears to be about to end, with another brutal round of reports of sexual impropriety. But Platner has been underperforming as a candidate anyway, so replacing him may be to Democrats' advantage if they can pick a good candidate. But how do they choose a new candidate in the short time they have, and straddle the requirements of mainstream Democratic politics while incorporating the renegade, grassroots spirit that has become a hallmark for a party in transition. Jim Messina, campaign manager for former President Barack Obama, and Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, talk with Jen Psaki about how the Democratic Party should navigate a potential Platner exit. Rep. Debbie Dingell joins to discuss the contentious Democratic primary in Michigan.   To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thursday, July 2, 2026   Today, former CIA Chief John Brennan has sued the government asking the court to order administration officials to preserve records; a federal court tells the Hegseth he has to stop requiring escorts for journalists at the Pentagon; Donald made over $2bn in crypto and other investments in 2025 alone; ICE arrested a nun on her way to church and it's creating pretty intense backlash in South Texas; the Cook Political Report has moved the Alaska state Senate race from “Lean Republican” to “Tossup”; progressives notch another big win in the Colorado primary elections; plus Allison and Dana deliver your Good News. Thank You, Mint Mobile Make the switch! MINTMOBILE.com/DAILYBEANS Join The Daily Beans and give a gift today to ensure The Trevor Project can continue its crucial work in the face of continued challenges. Donate to The Trevor Project - Daily Beans Podcast   Guest: Dan Friedmanmotherjones.com As America Turns 250, a Trump Adviser's Firm Rakes in Federal Cash | Mother Jones @dfriedman.bsky.social@dfriedman33 - Twitter The Latest Breakdown:The Breakdown | Trump DOJ in Crisis after Major Epstein Ruling StoriesEx-C.I.A. Chief Asks for Order Forcing Trump Administration to Preserve Records | The New York Times Trump's income topped $2 billion in 2025, boosted by crypto, coin ventures | The Washington Post ICE's arrest of nun heading to church fuels bipartisan backlash in South Texas | The Washington Post Judge orders Pentagon to lift policy that journalists be accompanied by an escort | AP NewsGood TroubleAmerica250.org →We The People March - July 3 →goodtroubleliveson.org/ July 17-19 →How to help those impacted by the Venezuela earthquakes|AP →Oppose House Amendment to Defund the Peace Corps! →Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance -  Open For Comments →Stand With Minnesota →ICE List  →iceout.org Good Newsdana-goldbergs-southwest-funnyfest- Email Dana@DanaGoldberg.com for sponsorship information Freedom From Religion Foundation Tour - DANA GOLDBERGTickets for Dana Goldberg: Outrageous - Sep 23 - Den Theater - Chicago  →Share your Good News & Good Trouble - The Daily Beans →Beans Talk audio -beans-talk.simplecast.com →Email Dana LGBTQ Owned eating establishments in your area - hello@mswmedia.com Subject: “Dana's Project” Subscribe to the MSW YouTube Channel - MSW Media - YouTube Our Donation Links The Trevor Project - trevorproject.org/beans Blue Wave California - bluewavecalifornia.org/concert Donate to Public Citizen - https://citizen.org/beans/ The Daily Beans is donating $10,000 and invites you to give what you can to support their life-affirming work - Donate to It Gets Better / The Daily Beans Fundraiser   Pathways to Citizenship link to MATCH Allison's Donationhttps://crm.bloomerang.co/HostedDonation?ApiKey=pub_86ff5236-dd26-11ec-b5ee-066e3d38bc77&WidgetId=6388736 Join Dana and The Daily Beans in support of Human Rights Campaign http://onecau.se/_ekes71 More Donation LinksNational Security Counselors - Donate, ActBlue.com/donate/msw-bwc, WhistleblowerAid.org/beans Dr. Allison Gill - The Breakdown | Allison Gill, Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com - Bluesky, MSW & The Daily Beans Podcast @muellershewrote - Instagram, MSW Media - YouTube →Federal workers - email AG at fedoath@pm.me and let me know what you're going to do, or just vent. I'm always here to listen.  Dana Goldberg - Dana is on Patreon! At Dana's Dugout, @dgcomedy - Bluesky, @dgcomedy - IG, Dana Goldberg - Facebook,  DanaGoldberg.com More from MSW Media - Shows - MSW Media, Cleanup On Aisle 45 pod, The Breakdown | Allison Gill Reminder - you can see the pod pics if you become a Patron. The good news pics are at the bottom of the show notes of each Patreon episode! That's just one of the perks of subscribing! patreon.com/muellershewrote Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:https://apple.co/3XNx7ckWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?https://patreon.com/thedailybeanshttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/https://apple.co/3UKzKt0 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is special edition of the Odd Years! Actually, it's more like a collab with the Cook Political Report's other podcast, Editors Roundtable.If you don't know Editors Roundtable, it is a weekly conversation between Cook Political Report analysts where we discuss the issues, trends, and individual races that we think are the most important and impactful. Think of it as an opportunity to be a fly on the wall during our editorial meetings.On this Editors Roundtable, we discuss what we've learned thus far from the primaries that have been held, and we drill down specifically on what to make of the success progressive Democrats have had over establishment candidates.We recorded this last Friday, June 26, before Tuesday's Colorado primary, where longtime Denver Congresswoman Diana DeGette lost a primary to the more progressive DSA-backed challenger, Melat Kiros.** How to listen to Editors Roundtable ** -> On Apple podcasts for 1.99/month: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026-> On Substack by becoming a paid subscriber: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable-> By subscribing to the Cook Political Report: www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe

We've got Senate runoffs in the Deep South next week, and that means we already know what's in the bag… right? Wrong! Jessica Taylor, Cook Political Report's Senate and Governors Editor, returns to update us on a couple of surprisingly close Republican primaries. Tune in to hear about an Alabama outsider's formidable challenge to the […]

Summer's here, and Sarah's taking a break from primary election coverage to take stock of the national political landscape. We haven't talked to swing voters in a little while about the overall state of the country, and it's becoming clear that the war in Iran is overshadowing, well, everything. Plus: The post-redistricting U.S. House math for Democrats, and a local issue bubbling up all over the country that has some lessons about why Americans are so disillusioned.Sarah all kicks this around with one her favorite nerds: Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report.Note: The discussion of Maine's Senate race took place BEFORE the June 4 New York Times reporting on Graham Platner.Subscribe to the Cook Political Report!By Amy Walter: Taking Stock of the House MathCPR's PollTracker (Trump Approval Rating Aggregator)CPR's “Find a Race” sorterCPR's Recent Poll: Battleground District Project

GOP Begins to Try to Oppose Trump: Ballroom. Weaponization Fund. War Powers. Pulte.Resonating With Voters? California Governors' Race.Could Iowa Turn Blue? Maine Platner Troubles.Democrats Narrow Path to Senate Majority.The Politics of AI and Data Centers in the Midterms.60 Minutes Under Attack. With Shirish Date, Senior White House Correspondent for Huff Post, Allan Smith, Politics Reporter for NBC News and Jessica Taylor, Senators and Governors Editor for The Cook Political Report.Today's Bill Press Pod is supported by The United Food and Commercial Workers Union. More information at UFCW.org.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican critic of Trump, faces a primary challenge today. Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report joins to discuss how the president’s falling approval ratings are affecting some primary races. In response to an Ebola outbreak, the U.S. has temporarily barred foreign travelers from entry if they’ve been to Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan recently. Helen Branswell of Stat breaks down the international response to the outbreak. Elon Musk lost his lawsuit against OpenAI’s Sam Altman. The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto explains what the decision means for the AI landscape. Plus, three people were killed in a shooting at a San Diego mosque, why Trump set up a fund to compensate political allies, and how airplane repo men are collecting Spirit Airlines jets. Today’s episode was hosted by Gideon Resnick.

This week Axe and Murphy are joined by the man who has seen it all—and has seen enough—Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report. The Hacks dive into Donald Trump's frustrations with voters, the latest polls and money advantages shaping the map, and—of course with Wasserman in the mix—a deep dive into key races, redistricting battles, and what it all means for the midterms. Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices