All eyes were on North Carolina’s 9th District on Tuesday. It was a “do-over” of a fraudulent contest from 2018 when the Republican candidate “defeated” the Democrat by 905 votes.  Both parties wanted this one.  In the end, the GOP came out on top, by some 4,000 votes.  Jeff Tiberii of WUNC reports that President Trump, who came to the Tar Heel State twice to campaign for the Republican, may have had a role in the result.
We replay part of a conversation from a few years ago with Greg Giroux of Bloomberg News about the history of special elections.
Former South Carolina Governor and Congressman Mark Sanford announced he will challenge Trump in next year’s Republican primaries.  Win or lose, notes Caitlin Byrd of the Charleston Post and Courier, Sanford is trying to re-establish party principles he says Trump has ignored or violated.
And we go back 21 years to the death of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace.  Dan Carter, a Wallace biographer, talks about Wallace’s legacy and how much of what he was talking about in the 1960s and ’70s has become part of the political discourse of today.
Photo: Nell Redmond / Associated Press
Music used in this podcast:
Help! by The Beatles
Daniel by Elton John
Creep by Radiohead
Come Save Me by Jagwar Ma
Honolulu Lulu by Jan and Dean
White Room by Cream

Next week’s Democratic presidential debate is limited to just ten candidates, not 20, as we had in June and July.  But as Susan Page of USA Today notes, the question remains the same:  Will Joe Biden continue to hold onto his frontrunner status?
The latest act of gun violence in Odessa, Texas has once again led Democrats to insist on gun preventive legislation in the Senate.  Harry Wilson of Roanoke College wonders, once again, if President Trump and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will permit serious debate that could lead to new laws.
And it was 36 years ago this week when Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, a Democrat from Washington known as a Cold War hardliner, died unexpectedly of a heart attack.  Robert Kaufman of Pepperdine University, author of a Jackson biography, reviews the senator’s long career and recounts his legacy.
Music used in this podcast:
Back Down South by Kings Of Leon
The “In” Crowd by Dobie Grey
I Won’t Back Down by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
Black Lodge by Anthrax
We May Never Pass This Way Again by Seals & Crofts
 

With the Labor Day holiday weekend ahead of us, what better way to celebrate than to head to the beach, soak up the sun, and listen to some wonderful Political Junkie segments from the past.
We hear from John Dean, the former White House counsel to President Nixon, on the 45th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation.  Dean spoke of his book, “The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It,” that drew on nearly 1000 conversations that the president secretly recorded during the Watergate scandal.
We went back even further with Scott Romney, son of the late George Romney and brother of Mitt Romney.  With him, we went back 50 years, to September of 1967, when his father’s presidential hopes were damaged when, in a TV interview, he talked about being “brainwashed” while touring Vietnam.  Scott talks about how the gaffe, which became more logical as the years went by and Americans learned more about how the war was going, hurt his father’s campaign.
And the 2015 death of Julian Bond robbed us of one of the most dynamic and charismatic figures in the history of the civil rights movement.  Joia Jefferson Nuri, a human rights activist who long worked with Bond, recounted his legacy.
Photo via AP
Music used in this podcast:
The Long And Winding Road by The Beatles
Breaking The Law by Judas Priest
Brainwashed by George Harrison
Pride Comes Before a Fall by Chicory Tip
Kong by Bonobo

President Trump’s decision to go from blasting Muslim Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to questioning the loyalty of “Jewish people” who vote for Democrats was seen as baffling at the least, a deliberate anti-Semitic trope at the worst.  Dartmouth Professor Bernard Avishai talks about what Trump is trying to accomplish by defining the Democratic Party as anti-Israel and anti-Jewish.
The latest controversial comment by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has Rekha Basu of the Des Moines Register calculating whether he can win re-election next year in his overwhelmingly Republican district.
An upcoming special congressional election in North Carolina, to fill a vacant seat whose result was thrown out in 2018 because of an illegal absentee vote scandal, is seen as a barometer for what may be in store in 2020.  Jim Morrill of the Charlotte Observer is analyzing the battle between Dan Bishop (R) and Dan McCready (D).
And with Trump being thwarted by Denmark in his bid to purchase Greenland, Mette Nor Claushoj, our special Danish Political Junkie correspondent, tries to make sense of it all.
Photo via Google Earth
Music used in this podcast:
Greenland by Emancipator 
All You Need Is Hate by The Delgados
Sun King by The Beatles
Wilma by Owe Thörnqvist
The Logical Song by Supertramp
Crazy by Supertramp

Democrats have been wary about embracing the issue of gun legislation ever since 1994, when the assault weapons ban passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton was partially responsible for their electoral washout that year.  Anna Greenberg, the managing partner at the Democratic polling firm GQR, argues that recent horrific mass shooting deaths and activity at the local level have increased the odds of passing legislation at the federal level.
One of the reasons why the presidential ambitions of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand are thought to have stalled is the role she played in forcing Minnesota’s Al Franken from the Senate.  Franken was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior by eight women and Gillibrand, a Senate leader of the #MeToo movement, led the effort to get him to resign.  But Larry Jacobs of the University of Minnesota says that her actions came at a cost, and is one of the reasons why many progressives have refused to open their wallets for her campaign.
And John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado, has ended his presidential campaign.  That is not a surprise, given that his polling numbers were nil and his chances of making the September debate all but non-existent.  Colorado political analyst Floyd Ciruli says the only question now is whether Hickenlooper will run for the Senate seat of Republican Cory Gardner, who is considered vulnerable — which is what many Democrats have been advocating for months.
Music used in this podcast:
Willie, Mickey, and the Duke by Terry Cashman
This Is America by Childish Gambino (Donald Glover)
Bang And Blame by R.E.M.
Bowling Green by The Everly Brothers
Colorado by Cody Jinks

The horrific acts of gun violence in El Paso and Dayton sound awfully familiar, and so has been the political reaction.  As for the argument that this is more a mental health issue than a gun issue, Jillian Peterson, a psychology professor at Hamline University, talks about the mindset of those who commit gun crimes.
It’s maddening enough for Americans to try and get our hands around the issues of guns and the large Democratic presidential field.  We thought we’d reach out to a Danish political analyst, Mette Nohr Claushoj, to take the political temperature in Copenhagen.
And with four Republican House members from Texas retiring next year, some Democrats feel they have a shot to make further inroads in the state’s congressional delegation.  Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune tells us what’s at stake.
Music used in this podcast:
Sick Of It by The Primitives
Stop Children What’s That Sound by Buffalo Springfield
Gå Med Dig by Nephew
No Holds Barred theme from the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)
You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving by Davy Jones (David Bowie)

Twenty candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination met again for two nights this week, with the first grouping on Tuesday deciding the ideological direction of the party, and the second grouping on Wednesday getting into more personal attacks of their fellow Democrats.  Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times reports that while Joe Biden was expected to have the largest bullseye on his back, few expected him to lash out at so many of his rivals.  And Kamala Harris, who seemed to gain in stature during the June debates, also found herself among the chief targets.
Mississippi voters go to the polls on Tuesday to nominate candidates who hope to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Phil Bryant.  Luke Ramseth of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson gives us a scorecard of the candidates.
And two years ago we ran a lovely interview with George Mitrovich, a beloved civic leader from San Diego who was Sen. Charles Goodell’s (R-N.Y.) press secretary back in 1970 when he was a regular punching bag for Vice President Agnew.  George died last week at the age of 83, and we’re rerunning the interview in his memory.
Photo via CNN
Music used in this podcast:
Dig It by The Beatles
Where Did Our Love Go by The Supremes
Mississippi by Train
Hey Joe by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Logical Song by Supertramp

Robert Mueller, at long last, testified before two House committees on Wednesday, part of the Democrats’ hope that what the former special counsel says about Donald Trump will be the beginning of the process that ends his presidency.  But as NPR’s Ron Elving notes, little new information was uncovered, the partisanship was as bad as ever, and Republicans decided to portray Mueller as an incompetent anti-Trump advocate.
Kentucky Democrats are pleased that they lured Amy McGrath, a former decorated fighter pilot in Afghanistan and Iraq, into challenging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  But in a state that Trump won by 30 points, defeating McConnell — who is seeking a seventh term next year — is going to be a tough task.  Al Cross, the director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky, dissects what may become a key Senate race in 2020.
We hear from John Challenor of Hayward, Calif., the winner of the Political Junkie “Guess The First Democratic Presidential Candidate To Drop Out of the Race” contest.
And Carl Hulse of the New York Times has a new book, “Confirmation Bias,” that shows how Mitch McConnell and his Senate majority have taken complete control over the judiciary confirmation process.
Photo via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Music used in this podcast:
Getting Nowhere Fast by The Wedding Present
Doctor Robert by The Beatles 
Kentucky Fried Flow by Armand Van Helden
Hey Moe by The Doodlebops
The Court Of The Crimson King by King Crimson

President Trump’s incendiary tweets aimed at four congressional women of color has been condemned by the House.  But there was less than a handful of Republicans who supported the measure and, as the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake points out, Trump’s actions seemed part of a continuing playbook to outrage people and be part of the conversation.
The death of Ross Perot, at age 89, brings us back to 1992 and his remarkable bid for the presidency in which he got more votes than any independent candidate in history.  Ron Rapoport of the College of William & Mary assesses Perot’s influence.
And it was 50 years ago this week that a car driven by Sen. Edward Kennedy drove off a bridge, resulting in the death of his female passenger.  Stephen Kurkjian, in 1969 a cub reporter with the Boston Globe, recounts how Chappaquiddick, in addition to taking the life of a young woman, effectively ended Kennedy’s presidential hopes.
Photo via AP
Music used in this podcast:
Our House by Crosby Stills and Nash
White Room by Cream
Baby, You’re A Rich Man by The Beatles
I Ran by A Flock Of Seagulls
Biggest Mistake by The Rolling Stones

For all the focus on the race for the presidency, the battle for control of the Senate is just as crucial,  Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia helps breakdown the key races up in 2020.
Carl Cannon, the Washington bureau chief of RealClearPolitics talks about his book, “On This Date — From the Pilgrims to Today, Discovering America One Day At a Time,” that has a fascinating entry for every day of the year.
Robert Dallek is the author of another book, “Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life,” and talks about the successes and disappointments of the 32nd President.
And it’s amazing how fast 169 years have gone by.  Presidential historian Robert Merry reminds us of the careers of President Zachary Taylor, who died this week in 1850, and his successor, Millard Fillmore, who succeeded to the presidency following Taylor’s death.
Music used in this podcast:
Summertime, Summertime by The Jamies
Hit the Ground Running by Smog
What A Wonderful World by Sam Cooke
The Franklin Roosevelt Song by Matt Beat
Generals and Majors by XTC