The Senate battlefield is exploding

Republicans are giving up on races that would have once been unthinkable to abandon—and rushing to save candidates in states we can scarcely believe are competitive. On this week’s episode of The Downballot podcast, co-hosts David Nir and David Beard examine the fallout from the GOP’s decision to abandon North Carolina’s Senate contest, combined with its last-minute rescue mission in Kansas of all places. Perhaps the most amazing thing: The Republican spending spree doesn’t even seem to be working.

The Davids also talk with Eric Ming at the State and Local Election Alliance, an organization devoted to deep downballot elections where control over the machinery of democracy is at stake. Eric walks us through some of SLEA’s top targets, including a judge in Nevada known for always favoring Republicans, a MAGA election administrator in Colorado who’s simply terrible at her job, and the leader of one of Texas’ biggest counties who just shut down a bunch of polling sites in Black and Latino neighborhoods.