In the calculations for Republicans to take control of the Senate in November, Alaska was always expected to play an outsized role. And why not? It’s a state that President Obama lost by 14 points. Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat, won his seat in 2008 by the barest of margins, even though his opponent, veteran …
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 …
There’s a four-letter word in the headlines lately: Iraq. The withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 was done with the expectation that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would unite his country and ease ethnic tensions. Instead, Maliki, a Shiite, did what he could to ostracize minority Sunnis… perhaps in response to what Saddam Hussein did to Shiites during his ruthless decades …
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 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 …
A solid primary Tuesday for the Republican Old Guard, and a perfect day for incumbents — not one sitting member of Congress or governor went down, though several were thought to be endangered not long ago. The big primaries of the week were the Senate contests in Kentucky and Georgia. Al Cross of the Louisville …
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 …
So how do you run your campaign in 2014 if you’re a Democrat and your president’s job approval numbers are not so good? That’s the question host Ken Rudin put to Democratic pollster and strategist Anna Greenberg in the latest installment of the Political Junkie. Greenberg acknowledges the weak numbers, the disappointing foreign policy and the history of the party …
Scott Brown’s likely entry into the New Hampshire Senate race livens up a campaign that Republicans had thought was a lost cause … though he still has his work cut out for him in his battle to unseat Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. Ken talks about Brown’s hurdles in his new state with New Hampshire Public Radio reporter Josh Rogers. And …
A big victory for the GOP in a special Florida congressional seat highlights this week’s Political Junkie. Host Ken Rudin speaks with Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times about the somewhat surprising win by Republican David Jolly in the Sunshine State’s 13th CD. True, the seat has been in GOP hands since 1955, but since last October’s death of longtime incumbent C.W. …