KPFA - The Stakes

The Stakes breaks down the 2026 political landscape. Hosted by Teresa Wierzbianska and Scott Baba, this KPFA News show delivers analysis of national, state, and local races and policy battles. Thursdays at 10 a.m.

On today’s show, Trump is not backing down on restricting mail-in voting.  This week The Trump administration  asked the Supreme Court to let it move forward with a presidential order that would add new restrictions on mail-in voting.The order would give the Postal Service a new role in the mail voting process. It directs USPS to develop rules for sending out absentee and mail-in ballots, while requiring the Department of Homeland Security to create lists of every U.S. citizen over the age of 18 in each state. Under the plan, voters would only receive mail ballots if their names appear on those government-created citizenship lists. Also, why are mailing facilities around the country beefing up their armed security?  We want to know! We speak with investigative journalist Alexandria Jacobson from Raw Story who has been following that.

We also go to Michigan to break down the Democratic senate primary between Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens.  We speak with  Matthew Grossmann, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and a professor of political science at Michigan State University.

Later in the hour, we go to Alameda county to speak with President of the 30 dollar minimum wage campaign One Fair Wage, Saru Jayaraman.

The post Trump Presses On with New Attacks on Mail-In Voting appeared first on KPFA.

This past week, President Donald Trump addressed the nation, revisiting his claims about the 2020 election while outlining what he says should be done to protect election integrity ahead of the 2026 midterms. His remarks have renewed questions for many voters: How can we safeguard the right to vote? What should voters know before casting a ballot this November? And how can we ensure every vote is counted in what promises to be a high-stakes election? Later this hour, we’ll speak with Rick Hasen, election law expert at UCLA, where he directs the Safeguarding Democracy Project. He’ll help us separate fact from fiction on voting rights, election administration, and the legal battles shaping this year’s elections. Then we’ll hear from Lilli McGregor, Executive Director of Communications and Operations for the Election Truth Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for election audits and analyzes election data.

The post Trump’s Prime Time Complaints; SAVE Act Sneak-In appeared first on KPFA.

Turn off your television, it’s time for The Stakes. The Stakes breaks down the 2026 political landscape. Hosted by Teresa Wierzbianska and Scott Baba, this KPFA News show delivers analysis of national, state, and local races and policy battles. Thursdays at 10 a.m.

On today’s show, we go back to Maine, where just a week after Democratic senate candidate Graham Platner suddenly departed the race amid sexual assault allegations, voters are now calling for Republican senator Susan Collins to exit stage left after a second person was killed by ICE over the past week, this time in the small community of Biddeford, Maine. We’ll talk with longtime activist and former Maine DSA co-chair Todd Chretien  about what Mainers on the ground are saying as they continue protesting outside Collins’ office and the ICE detention center in that state. Republican senator Lindsay Graham from South Carolina also suddenly departed the senate race… Graham was declared dead after a brief illness over the weekend. Will this sudden shakeup throw energy to his Democratic opponent Dr. Annie Andrews? Also, Trump is pulling out all the stops now to invalidate opponents and continue to complain about te results of the 2020 elections. This time, he’s charging Georgia senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock with fraud after the two won their respective senate seats that year. We will hear from The Nation’s John Nichols about Trump’s so-called Election Integrity plan.

The post Trump’s Election Integrity Announcement… ICE Shooting in Maine… Lindsay Graham’s Sudden Death appeared first on KPFA.

On today’s show, what’s next for the Maine senate race after Democratic candidate Graham Platner’s career-ending sexual assault allegations? Maine Morning Star reporter Eesha Pendharkar chimes from ground in Maine.  The Supreme Court has ruled on campaign finance changes.  Open Secret’s Brenden Glavin joins later in the hour.   Michael Tomasky from the New Republic on Trump’s anti-communist rhetoric. You can check out Michael’s article here 

https://newrepublic.com/article/212707/donald-trump-democrats-communism-stupid-favorite-word

The post Maine, Money and Marx in 2026 appeared first on KPFA.

The Stakes breaks down the 2026 political landscape. Hosted by Teresa Wierzbianska and Scott Baba, this KPFA News show delivers analysis of national, state, and local races and policy battles. Thursdays at 10 a.m.

On today’s show, we are going to take a deep dive into this week’s court decisions surrounding mail-in voting.  The Supreme Court ruled that states CAN still count mail-in ballots after election day, if they were postmarked in time.  Also, last week, a federal judge blocked a presidential executive order that would create limits around absentee voting.  While the Trump administration has been arguing these measures are essential to preventing supposed voter fraud, it looks like efforts to suppress mail-in votes keep hitting judicial roadblocks.  We’ll speak with Jenny Farrell from the League of Women’s Voters.  Later, we’ll hear what the Nation’s John Nichols has to say about the progressive slash socialist wave hitting the democrats during the primaries, which is now begging the question, are the establishment Dems headed for the rocks?   

The post Courts Protect Mail-In Voting; Progressives Sweep Dem Primaries appeared first on KPFA.

The Stakes breaks down the 2026 political landscape. Hosted by Teresa Wierzbianska and Scott Baba, this KPFA News show delivers analysis of national, state, and local races and policy battles. Thursdays at 10 a.m.

On today’s show, we’ll speak with John Davisson, Deputy Director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, about a federal court ruling blocking the Trump administration from using an expanded federal database of Americans’ personal information for voter verification.Then we turn to California’s fight over the so-called billionaire tax. Economist Emmanuel Saez of UC Berkeley joins us to break it down.

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Share your opinion about the 2026 Midterm Elections!  Leave us a message (one minute or less) and we’ll maybe put it on the air.  510-848-6767 ex. 785 or email us at [email protected]

The post California’s Billionaire Tax Makes the Ballot, plus Courts Rule in Favor of Voter Privacy appeared first on KPFA.

The June Primary results are in, and The Stakes breaks down what they mean for California and the country. Host Scott Baba is joined by Gustavo Arellano of the Los Angeles Times on the California races, Tim Redmond of 48 Hills on the national picture, and John Nichols of The Nation with broader election analysis. Plus a Project Censored media literacy segment.

The Stakes breaks down the 2026 political landscape. Hosted by Teresa Wierzbianska and Scott Baba, this KPFA News show delivers analysis of national, state, and local races and policy battles. Thursdays at 10 a.m.

The post The Stakes – June 4, 2026 appeared first on KPFA.

With the California June 2nd primary election just days away, it’s GO time for local get-out-the-vote activists hoping to affect change this year.  On this episode, we speak with Chaney Turner from Oakland Rising, Jason Negron-Gonzales from Seed the Vote and finally with Aditya Bhumbla, co-chair of the San Francisco chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

The Stakes breaks down the 2026 political landscape. Hosted by Teresa Wierzbianska and Scott Baba, this KPFA News show delivers analysis of national, state, and local races and policy battles. Thursdays at 10 a.m.

The post The Stakes: The Race Before the Race: Get-Out-the-Vote Organizing appeared first on KPFA.

On today’s show, we’ll do a California statewide ballot rundown with voter specialist and political analyst Paul Mitchell from Political Data Inc.

Later we’ll hear from Tom Moore from the Center for American Progress. Moore is the legal strategist behind Hawaii and Montana’s Citizens United legislation.

The post California’s Statewide Ballot Guide, plus the States Challenging Citizens United appeared first on KPFA.

Inaugural episode of The Stakes.

The post The Stakes – EP.1 Introduction appeared first on KPFA.