Special Session with Bryan Schott

One week. That’s all that stands between us and the end of the 2026 midterms.

But before we get there, there’s plenty to dig into. Early ballot data shows Utah Democrats are mailing theirs back at a much higher rate than anyone else, while independents are sitting on theirs. The race for the next Senate president is reportedly deadlocked 11-11, and it could come down to a single Senate seat, plus a little parliamentary trick that would let Democrats pick the winner if they had the guts to use it.

I’ll also explain why that “independent voter surge” story you saw last week isn’t quite what it seems, walk you through a federal judge tossing the DOJ’s grab for Utah’s voter rolls, and follow the money behind some recycled anti-trans mailers and a pile of Wyoming cash flooding Utah legislative races.

On this episode:

He also unveils his updated race ratings for the Utah House showing late Republican spending in seats that shouldn’t be competitive. He maps the narrow path Democrats now have to breaking the GOP supermajority in the Utah House, a path that didn’t exist this summer.

Rep. Celeste Maloy and Democrat Kent Udell met at Utah Tech University in St. George for the only televised debate in Utah's new 3rd Congressional District, and Bryan Schott watched along live with commentary, fact-checks and viewer reactions.

The verdict? Boring.

Maloy, the incumbent, only needed to avoid stumbling, and she did. She leaned on her voting record and some well-worn talking points. Udell landed a few zingers, including "billionaires playing Minecraft" with data centers and a sharp comeback on forest management. But he passed up clear chances to make his case against her, most notably on her role in the public lands sale provision.

Utah finally has a competitive congressional race, and Tuesday night the two candidates met on the debate stage.

Democrat Ben McAdams and Republican Riley Owen faced off at Salt Lake Community College in the Utah Debate Commission's 1st Congressional District debate. It was the first debate for the new Democratic-leaning seat created after a court threw out the Legislature's gerrymandered map. We watched it live, and this episode is the recording of that livestream.

The debate was mostly polite. The two agreed on more than you'd expect from a Democrat and a Republican in 2026. But they split on tariffs, the national debt and the maps that created the district.

In this episode:

In this episode:

Drew Ballard is a classically trained pianist with a 6,500-song repertoire who spent over a decade performing in piano bars and has recently turned that same instinct for what makes a crowd sing along toward political parody.

Known online as Druby.tunes, Drew produces biting takes on well-known songs aimed at corporate exploitation and government malfeasance in Utah.

We talk about the leap from concert competitions to bar requests, the data center fight that pushed him into activism, his songwriting process, and what it's like being a leftist vegan atheist from a Mormon farm family in central Utah.

Follow Drew on social media: @drewbie.tunes

On this episode:

One year after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University, host Bryan Schott sits down with journalist Jared Holt to unpack the battle over Kirk's legacy — and how it's been playing out very differently depending on who's telling the story. On one side: a sanitized, martyr-like version of Kirk pushed by Turning Point USA and Fox News. On the other: a mocking, AI-generated "Kirkification" meme culture that has spread across the internet, and a conspiracy-fueled counter-narrative led by Candace Owens that has put Turning Point on the defensive for most of the past year.

Holt traces Kirk's evolution from a "watered-down," establishment-friendly college-campus conservative in the 2016 era to the harder-edged, immigration-focused figure—and MAGA "kingmaker"—he'd become by the time of his death, arguing that turning his assassination into a political weapon against the left was, in a sense, the most faithful tribute to what Kirk actually stood for. The two also discuss whether anyone (Jack Posobiec? Nick Fuentes?) can fill the vacuum Kirk left in a MAGA movement Holt describes as increasingly disjointed and without a clear center of gravity; how right-wing and conspiracy-minded audiences are approaching the Tyler Robinson murder trial differently; and what to watch for at this week's UVU memorial event, emceed by Glenn Beck.

Jared Holt on Bluesky

Posting Through It Podcast

Open Measures

On this episode of "Special Session":

On this episode of Special Session:

(This is a recording of a livestream that aired on 9/25/2026)