Daily Kos' The Brief

We at Daily Kos were prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic from the very start thanks to comprehensive and relentless coverage by Mark Sumner. He wrote his first story on the emerging pandemic on Jan. 23, 2020, and has since written 382 additional stories, including a recent update on the omicron variant. Today, Mark joins me and Cara Zelaya to talk about the evolving face of the pandemic and why we can’t allow COVID-19 to become endemic.

This episode first aired on August 25, 2021.

On this week’s episode of The Brief, hosts Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld unpacked the current state of COVID-19, voting rights, and electoral politics in Texas with special guest Julián Castro—as well as whether Castro himself is preparing for a run against Gov. Greg Abbott next year.

Castro, a Democrat from Texas, served as the mayor of San Antonio and was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Obama. He has offered critiques of the Texas governor's lack of leadership throughout the pandemic and shared his thoughts with Moulitsas and Eleveld on how Abbott’s failure to adequately respond to the COVID-19 crisis and protect Texans’ lives is one of many reasons why the Texas Republican Party is experiencing rapid losses from their ranks.

Arizona will be a critical battleground on every possible level. We are still waiting on new maps in Arizona, but we are guaranteed competitive House seats and should have a chance at picking up the state legislature. Our guest Montserrat Arredondo of One Arizona, which worked with partner organizations to register over 250,000 new voters in the 2020 cycle.

Today, we take a look at last week’s electoral wreckage and what it means for next year’s 2022 midterm elections. Joining us are Drew Linzer, who runs Civiqs, our data and research arm, and David Nir, who runs Daily Kos Elections. We’ll look at the results, the data, and the current polling, and explore whether Democrats have any chance of holding Congress next year.

Virginia isn’t the only state with key races on the ballot, but it’s the one everyone is watching. How Virginia goes today, goes the nation next year! Or does it? Join us as we discuss Tuesday’s elections with Virginia elections expert Carolyn Fiddler, and we examine our chances of prevailing, as well as what the results (good or bad) mean for the country.

Today we’re talking to two of our in-house experts: Joan McCarter will join us to give us an update on Democratic efforts to … get anything out of the Senate, where Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia remain intractable, insufferable a-holes. The delays and chaos have helped drive President Joe Biden’s numbers below 40%, making a difficult 2022 election cycle even more challenging.

And speaking of 2022, we’ll talk to Daily Kos Elections’ Stephen Wolf about the status of the redistricting process. With Republicans in greater control of the drawing of new districts following the 2020 Census reapportionment, are the early results as dire as we feared they might be?

Markos and Kerry are joined by Jamie Perrapato, Executive Director of Turn PA Blue, an organization dedicated to flipping the Pennsylvania state legislature by training and mobilizing grassroots groups and volunteers to support candidates in Southeastern PA and beyond.

North Carolina is a purple state, but one that leans red. Today, on The Brief, we talk to Marcus Bass, Deputy Director for the North Carolina Black Alliance. Also joining is La’Meshia Whittington a campaign director from North Carolina Black Alliance. This organization advocates for North Carolinas historically black institutions of faith, education, and civic service across the state.  In 2020 the North Carolina Black Alliance launched SafeVoterNC, a resource for Voter Safety and Protection for underrepresented Black and Brown residents. To donate to North Carolina Black Alliance and help them in their important infrastructure work please check out: https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/102616

Arizona and Georgia’s big 2020 flips have gotten a ton of attention, and they were undoubtedly dramatic. But they weren’t the only states to flip based on dramatic Democratic gains. Today, we will talk to Art Reyes of We The People Michigan about their work to organize their community on the ground. He will be joined by one of his grassroots organizers, Kamau Clark. We will discuss how Democrats managed such a dramatic turnaround in 2020 and how 2022 is shaping up.

Virginia is one of a handful of states with statewide elections this off-year. We are exactly five weeks from Election Day, with Republicans hoping to flip what has been an increasingly reliable blue state in recent years. Joining us to talk about this critical election on our podcast, Daily Kos The Brief, are two on-the-ground experts. Gwen Mills is secretary-treasurer of UNITE-HERE. She was the architect of the union’s Take Back 2020 program—the largest labor field program in the 2020 electoral cycle, focused on safe, contactless canvassing. Also joining us is Tram Nguyen, Tram is the co-executive director of New Virginia Majority. The organization has registered nearly 300,000 new voters and has knocked on over 3.5 million doors to get people of color and young people to the polls.