Two weeks ago we were astonished that Eric Cantor, a well-situated House incumbent from Virginia, could get defeated in his primary. Now we’re astonished that Thad Cochran, the six-term Republican senator from Mississippi, could pull out a victory against his tea party-backed opponent. Whether incumbents are winning or losing, it’s the latest example of a …
Wow. Who saw the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor coming? Certainly not Cantor. Or the nation’s political establishment. And not Greg Giroux, political reporter for Bloomberg News, who sat with Political Junkie host Ken Rudin and together they shook their heads at one of the more amazing primary upsets of recent times. We also hear from Kevin Broughton of the Tea Party Patriots …
It’s not too late to submit your answer to the latest trivia question, which appears in Episode 30 of the Political Junkie podcast: Who was the last Veterans Affairs secretary who served in elective office? Send your answer to trivia@krpoliticaljunkie.com. The previous question was … who was the last lieutenant governor elected to the Senate? …
It was the race the tea party wanted from the beginning. And while they didn’t completely accomplish their goal, they are thought to be on their way. In six-term Sen. Thad Cochran, tea party conservatives saw a politician from the old school, who spent a career fighting for earmarks and pork projects for Mississippi and who …
It’s not too late to submit your answer to the latest trivia question, which appears in Episode 29 of the Political Junkie podcast: Who is the last lieutenant governor to win election to the Senate? Send your answer to trivia@krpoliticaljunkie.com The previous question was … aside from Pennsylvania, what state has gone the longest since …
With 8 states holding primaries on Tuesday, June 3, the Political Junkie focuses on California, where Jerry Brown is the odds-on favorite to win a fourth, non-consecutive term for governor. KQED politics editor John Myers outlines the long path of Brown, who was first elected governor in 1974. He’s seen his share of ups and downs in his decades in politics, but …
One of the passions of being a political junkie is going back into the past and learning about the candidates, campaigns and personalities of the time. That’s one reason why we have a “This Week In Political History” feature in our podcasts, and why we offer trivia questions each week as well. Last week’s question …
It’s going to be a long primary season. So maybe we should decide right now that the strength and influence of the Tea Party should not be determined on a week-to-week basis. As Roseann Moring of the Omaha World-Herald reports, the landslide victory of first-time candidate Ben Sasse in the Nebraska GOP Senate primary was heralded as a big win for …
This week’s trivia question appears in Episode 26 of the Political Junkie podcast: The winner in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District was Alma Adams, a black state representative from Greensboro. She will, with all certainty, become the next member of Congress … and she also will continue African-American representation in the …
At long last, the 2014 primaries are here. And everyone is watching the ongoing collision between establishment Republicans and Tea Party insurgents. Speaker John Boehner, no friend of the Tea Party, won handily in his Ohio district. Thom Tillis, the establishment choice for the Senate in North Carolina, beat back his conservative opponents and won the nomination …