Show Notes
Whether you expected it or not, it seems pretty safe to say that President Trump's first days have been defined by its intensity, a very fast moving news cycle, and the trademark chaos we remember from his first term. And that's why we love conversations like this one with The Wall Street Journal's Molly Ball.
More from The Odd Years
If there's any television network out there that intentionally tries to buck the trends of modern day media consumption, it's C-SPAN. With its live unedited broadcast of political events and congressional hearings and call-in shows featuring the full range of the country's political views, C-SPAN has held firm to its mission of providing unfiltered access to political decision makers since it first streamed from the U.S. Capitol in 1979. But that doesn't mean they don't innovate. Leading that effort is Amy's guest today, Sam Feist.
Amy is a frequent guest on Sarah Longwell's podcast, The Focus Group, where they listen to voters and analyze what their opinions may or may not mean for individual candidates or their campaigns. So it was a real treat to turn the tables and get to interview Sarah about her new book, How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time. In it, Sarah traces her political journey from young GOP operative to prominent Never Trumper and she lays out a roadmap for what she thinks needs to happen to fully defeat the MAGA movement.
Election administration may not be the sexiest topic out there but it’s something many of us have started paying close attention to these days. President Trump, who still refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election, has made influencing how we vote a major part of his second term from attempts to force states to turn over voter rolls to changing rules on mail-in voting to broader attempts to “nationalize” election oversight ahead of the midterms. That’s why Amy wanted to talk with someone who is covering these issues closely and can separate real threats to election integrity from ones that are unlikely to pan out.
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.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Amy has been wanting to have our guest today, Carlos Odio, on this podcast for at least a year now. Carlos, co-founder of Equis Research, has a deep and nuanced understanding of a Latino voters, a group that gets discussed a lot in the media but not with the complexity the topic deserves.