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.

Sam joined C-SPAN in 2024 after 30 years at CNN, where he was involved with pretty much every facet of that cable news outlet's political coverage. Feist has helped C-SPAN launch a new project that he hopes will not only give viewers that same unfiltered access to candidates, involved in the most competitive races this cycle, but it can also help struggling state and local news media.

This project, Road to the Capital: Candidate Coverage from the Trail, has C-SPAN video journalists out on the road, tracking and capturing the candidates and their campaign events. C-SPAN then shares this coverage with local media outlets in those states, helping them with political reporting they need but can no longer afford.

Sam and Amy talked about this project, but also the role he sees C-SPAN playing at a time of changing consumer habits and massive media upheaval.

We recorded this conversation on Monday, September 14th.

There are a lot of different ways to introduce our guest this week, Sarah Longwell. She is a former Republican operative who has decades of experience in political messaging and communications. She's also an entrepreneur and media pioneer who has, in just a few short years, built an influential media company called The Bulwark. Last year, The Bulwark, with its anti-MAGA, never-Trump messaging, brought in more than $20 million.

She's a dedicated student of politics who conducts thousands of focus groups of voters from around the country to get outside the bubble of DC group think and understand what's really motivating voters.

Sarah isn't just interested in playing the game or winning the game. She wants to redefine the game.

While she's clearly working against the current president and the Republican Party she is also not afraid to criticize and, in many cases, upset Democrats with some of her advice.

Amy is a frequent guest on her 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.

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**Check out our podcast Editors Roundtable!

Find it on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026

Find it on Substack: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable

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.

Nathaniel Rakich is the managing editor of the nonpartisan Votebeat. They cover the administration of elections and voting and with journalists on the ground in five states.

Nathaniel explains where the pressure points in our voting system are, when President Trump’s efforts have stalled, when they have succeeded and what to watch for as we move toward Election Day this November. Or as Amy puts it: if you are freaking out about whether this election will be free fair and functional, Nathaniel will help you to feel a little less stressed.

We recorded this conversation on Thursday, August 6.

** Learn more: www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe. New subscribers can use the discount code "odd10" **

**Check out our podcast Editors Roundtable!

Find it on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026

Find it on Substack: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable

This is special edition of the Odd Years! Today, we bring to you Cook Political Report's other podcast: Editors Roundtable.

If you don’t know Editors Roundtable, it is a weekly conversation between Cook Political Report analysts where we discuss the issues, trends, and individual races that we think are the most important and impactful. Think of it as an opportunity to be a fly on the wall during our editorial meetings.

On this Editors Roundtable, 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.

** How to listen to Editors Roundtable **

-> On Apple podcasts for 1.99/month: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026

-> On Substack by becoming a paid subscriber: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable

-> By subscribing to the Cook Political Report. New subscribers can use the discount code: "Odd10"

www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe

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.

Carlos is working to understand what’s been driving these voters from Democrats, and what could be pulling them back. He is now emerging with new information to share with us including national polling of Latino voters.

(Our colleague Carrie Dann wrote about this new research and you can read her story here: https://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/national/national-politics/democrats-are-counting-latinos-come-home-2026-its-more)

Amy and Carlos talk about what the new polling reveals about Latino perceptions of Trump, the economy and what it all means for 2026. And we take a deep dive into the high stakes races for the House and Senate in Texas, a state where Latino voters shifted considerably toward Trump in 2024.

**Check out our podcast Editors Roundtable!

Find it on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026

Find it on Substack: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable

**Learn more: www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe. New subscribers can use the discount code "odd10"

This is special edition of the Odd Years! Actually, it’s more like a collab with the Cook Political Report’s other podcast, Editors Roundtable.

If you don’t know Editors Roundtable, it is a weekly conversation between Cook Political Report analysts where we discuss the issues, trends, and individual races that we think are the most important and impactful. Think of it as an opportunity to be a fly on the wall during our editorial meetings.

On this Editors Roundtable, we discuss what we’ve learned thus far from the primaries that have been held, and we drill down specifically on what to make of the success progressive Democrats have had over establishment candidates.

We recorded this last Friday, June 26, before Tuesday’s Colorado primary, where longtime Denver Congresswoman Diana DeGette lost a primary to the more progressive DSA-backed challenger, Melat Kiros.

** How to listen to Editors Roundtable **

-> On Apple podcasts for 1.99/month: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026

-> On Substack by becoming a paid subscriber: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable

-> By subscribing to the Cook Political Report: www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe

It’s rare for voters from different political leanings to share feelings on the major issues of the day. But when it comes to AI, it’s pretty clear that no matter the party, Americans have a lot of apprehension around this new technology. The worries range from job security to kids’ online safety to the environmental impact of massive data centers.

This also presents a rare opportunity for policy makers in Washington to work together - across party lines - to come up with a solution.

To gauge whether that’s possible and to understand how policy makers in D.C. and state capitals around the country are thinking through these issues, Amy spoke with Ashley Gold, senior tech policy reporter at Axios and co-author of the AI+ Government newsletter. She has some really great insights into what we should expect from lawmakers and the tech industry.

We recorded this conversation on Wednesday, June 10.

**Check out our podcast Editors Roundtable!

Find it on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026

Find it on Substack: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable

Learn more: www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe

When the Supreme Court released their decision to limit the scope and scale of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in late April, Amy knew she wanted to dig into the political and legal repercussions with someone who is well-versed in both of those areas.

She immediately turned to Sean Trende, a senior analyst at RealClearPolitics and a lawyer who has deep expertise in redistricting law.

In fact, back in 2022, Sean was one of two special masters assigned to draw Virginia’s congressional maps.

He's also an astute analyst of political trends and elections. It doesn’t hurt that Sean lives in Ohio - a key epicenter for the battle for the Senate this year.

As fate would have it, we recorded this just a couple days before the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the Virginia map voters had approved earlier this spring.

While we weren’t able to address it directly, we did discuss the possibility of this very scenario and its broader impact on the U.S. House map for 2026.

Amy's goal for the interview was to look past the immediate impacts in 2026 and ask what impact of the tit-for-tat redistricting wars could be on our politics in the near and far term.

We recorded this conversation on Wednesday, May 6.

Check out our Redistricting Tracker: www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/house/redistricting/2025-2026-redistricting-tracker-how-many-seats-could-flip-0

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Listeners can use the discount code"ODD10" to save 10% on any subscription. This offer is available only to new subscribers.

**Listen to our weekly podcast Editors Roundtable**

Find it on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026

Find it on Substack: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable

Americans have a pretty dismal view of Congress. Lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate are seen as ineffective and a much diminished power under President Trump. Last year, for example, Congress passed a record low number of laws while President Trump issued the most executive orders in modern history.

Paul Kane, a veteran Capitol Hill reporter and one of its smartest chroniclers recently wrote a column for the Washington Post in which he argued that “Congress needs a major course correction or else it will slide into a permanent state of weakness that further empowers the presidency.”

To find out whether Congress is indeed headed for irrelevance, Amy checked in with Molly Reynolds, vice president and director of governance studies at Brookings. Her work focuses on Congress and how congressional rules and procedure affect policymaking.

Molly has a more nuanced opinion about the state of the modern Congress and helps put its dysfunction into context. Amy and Molly also talk about what a potential flip in congressional control in 2027 would mean for President Trump and for legislating overall.

We recorded this conversation on Tuesday, April 7.

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter, In Brief: https://www.cookpolitical.com/in-brief-sign-up

Interested in subscribing to CPR? Go to: www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe

Listeners can use the discount code"ODD10" to save 10% on any subscription. This offer is available only to new subscribers.

**Listen to our weekly podcast Editors Roundtable**

Find us Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026

Find us on Substack: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable

Amy has long been an admirer of this week’s guest, The Wall Street Journal's chief economics commentator Greg Ip. She finds his insights into how our economy functions to be thoughtful as well as approachable. It’s also why she thought he'd be the perfect person to talk with about the central disconnect we've seen in perceptions of our economy over the last few years - namely that the markets and Wall Street suggest everything is going great. Meanwhile American consumers are saying the economy is not great, at all.

They also talk about AI, why Greg thinks it's not likely to have a huge impact on our jobs, but why it's potentially contributing to Americans' generally pessimistic views of their economic futures.

Of course, the war with Iran is adding its own economic uncertainty to the mix. So they start the conversation there.

We recorded this on Wednesday, March 11th.

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter, In Brief: https://www.cookpolitical.com/in-brief-sign-up

Interested in subscribing to CPR? Go to: www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe

Listeners can use the discount code"ODD10" to save 10% on any subscription. This offer is available only to new subscribers.

**Listen to our weekly podcast Editors Roundtable**

Find us Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/editors-roundtable/id1765349026

Find us on Substack: https://thecookpoliticalreport.substack.com/s/editors-roundtable