Sep 4, 2026 · 10 min
Midterm losses put election control under scrutiny
What Will the Midterms Bring?
The episode connects Republican vulnerability in 2026 with a constitutional fight over who controls mail voting and federal elections.
- 1Charlie Cook warns Republicans could face significant losses in the 2026 midterms.
- 2The Trump administration is seeking to give the United States Postal Service a gatekeeping role in mail voting.
- 3Approaching elections are influencing policy decisions on Iran, the Epstein files, and other issues.
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The episode’s sharpest turn comes when the mail-voting proposal becomes a constitutional question about federal control of elections.
The brief
Heather Cox Richardson opens with election analyst Charlie Cook’s warning that Republicans could face significant losses in the 2026 midterms, setting the episode’s political stakes.
The discussion then turns to the Trump administration’s effort to give the United States Postal Service a gatekeeping role over voting by mail.
That proposal raises a broader constitutional question: how much authority can the federal government claim over the administration of elections?
Richardson also links the approaching elections to policy decisions involving Iran, the Epstein files, and other issues, suggesting electoral calculations reach beyond voting rules.
The episode’s central tension is between anticipated electoral backlash and attempts to shape the systems through which elections are conducted.
Featuring
Donald John Trump
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