Democrats have the chance to pull off a huge upset in an upcoming special election in Tennessee, so we invited one of the best-known political analysts in the state to join us on this week’s episode of The Downballot podcast to give us the inside scoop: Justin Kanew, founder of the Tennessee Holler. Kanew, who ran for the previous version of the 7th District, explains how the district has changed since his campaign and tells us what Democrat Aftyn Behn needs to do to win over the conservative-leaning voters she’ll need in order to prevail.

Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also dig into North Carolina’s latest Republican gerrymander, which is even more extreme than their last map. Can Democrat Don Davis survive despite the GOP’s effort to target him? Which district might he run for? And why can’t Gov. Josh Stein veto the new map? We answer all these questions and more.

Looking to see more “fightback” from Democrats? It’s happening all the time—at the state level. Joining us on this week’s episode of The Downballot podcast is Gaby Goldstein, the founder of State Futures, a new organization devoted to organizing Democratic state lawmakers. Gaby explains how her group fills a major infrastructure gap by helping Democrats share their best ideas for legislation, including new laws to protect labor rights and voting rights, all aimed at fighting back—vigorously—against Donald Trump.

Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also check in on two New England Senate primaries that experienced major shakeups this week. In Maine, establishment favorite Janet Mills has acknowledged concerns about her age as she seeks to take on Susan Collins, but the Democratic primary offers a perfect “shakedown cruise” before the ultimate battle. And in Massachusetts, Seth Moulton just issued a generational challenge to Sen. Ed Markey, but the incumbent’s liberal bona fides will be hard to match.

All 100 seats in the Virginia House are up next month, but Democrats think they’re in a strong position to expand their narrow majority. Joining us on this week’s episode of The Downballot podcast to explain why is Del. Dan Helmer, who heads up his caucus’ campaign arm.

Helmer points to the pain Virginia’s large federal workforce has experienced at Republican hands—thanks to DOGE and now the shutdown—and notes that Democrats have recruited candidates in every district for the first time in living memory. He also highlights the districts that Democrats are defending as well as the much larger number of GOP-held seats they’re targeting.

Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard, meanwhile, recap Tuesday’s primaries in Tennessee’s vacant 7th Congressional District and explore how and why Democrats just might be able to pull off an upset despite the seat’s strong conservative lean. They also dive into the GOP’s Senate primary in Texas, where a new entrant threatens to make life even more miserable for the Republican establishment—and maybe himself, too.

Rob Sand may be the last remaining Democrat holding statewide office in Iowa, but as he wages a bid for governor, he lays out a compelling case for why the state is purpler than you might think on this week’s episode of The Downballot podcast.

Sand tells us about the massive lottery scandal he busted, which thrust him onto the national radar; how he hung on to win reelection as auditor by just 3,000 votes in 2022, even as all his fellow Democrats lost; and why Iowans are especially fed up after a decade of one-party rule, giving him an opening next year. He also shares his love of cartograms—those maps that depict population rather than area. After all, land doesn’t vote!

Polling is more difficult than ever, particularly in a city as complicated and diverse as New York. Adam Carlson, founding partner at Zenith Research, joins us to discuss how he conducted a detailed poll of the New York City mayor’s race and how he views the state of that race now. We also get his take on the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races as well as Prop 50 in California and take a peek at 2026.Host David Beard and guest host Joe Sudbay discuss the current moves to gerrymander Kansas and how that might launch a serious Democratic challenger into the Senate race there. They also discuss the Wisconsin governor’s race, where a hardline conservative Republican has jumped in and the D.C. delegate race, where Eleanor Holmes Norton has her first serious challenger in years.

Digital advertising is an increasingly important part of every political campaign, but it turns out tons of money gets wasted on, well, crap. Myles Bugbee, the founder of Persuasion & Pixels, joins us on this week's episode of The Downballot podcast to explain how middlemen in this opaque new world extract money from advertisers without adding any value—and how campaigns can avoid common pitfalls. Republicans have already learned some important lessons, but Democrats, Bugbee says, are still playing catch-up.

Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also explore the brand-new candidacy of Tejano music star Bobby Pulido, whose bid for a House seat in South Texas has Democrats hopeful he can help reverse the party's losses with Latinos. They discuss party-switcher Geoff Duncan, who's now running for governor of Georgia as a Democrat after serving as lieutenant governor as a Republican. And they check in on former Rep. Wiley Nickel, a past guest on the program who just launched a bid for a powerful district attorney's post.

Even amidst all the grim news, supporters of democracy have much more power than they think. That's the message from election law expert Justin Levitt on this week's episode of The Downballot podcast.

Levitt explains why Donald Trump has almost no legal power to direct the conduct of elections and emphasizes that voters have almost always rejected gerrymandering when given the chance. He even expresses cautious optimism that the Supreme Court won't wreck the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act and expects that new GOP gerrymanders won't be enough to overcome a wave election.

Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also recap Tuesday's elections in Northern Virginia and Boston—two blowouts that were good news for Democrats. They discuss how Missouri Democrats can prevent Republicans from enacting their new gerrymandered map, and why Democratic primaries in a pair of key Senate races are almost certainly going to be a good thing.

Labor Day weekend was anything but slow on the news front, with three giant retirements dominating the political headlines. On this week's episode of The Downballot podcast, we examine all three, starting with longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler's selfless embrace of generational change. Things were less happy on the other side of the ledger, though, with Joni Ernst bailing in Iowa and a conservative Supreme Court justice calling it quits in Wisconsin.

Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also speak with Jennifer Rodriguez, a top official at the AFL-CIO who explains how exactly her organization—a "union of unions"—supports the labor movement. Noting that organized labor is a rare institution that maintains high levels of public trust, Rodriguez tells us how her federation identifies pro-labor candidates and helps elect them to office.