How California's Top-Two Primary Puts DSA vs. Democrats to the Test (Steve Peace) | EP60

California's top-two primary was built for exactly this moment: DSA-backed Democrats facing off against the party's moderate wing in front of the entire electorate, not just a partisan base. The man who wrote that law, former state senator Steve Peace, joins Cara McCormick to break down whether his…

How Trump's Own Mail-In Voting Rule Could BACKFIRE on Republicans - EP58

The fight over President Trump’s mail-in voting rule continues to escalate: a whistleblower leak says just one bad envelope could get an entire batch of mail ballots sent back, threatening to derail elections in states that already have ballots prepared for the midterms. Chad, Shawn, and Ethan dig…

The Democratic Party Told Him To DROP OUT. He Said No. (Antonio Villaraigosa) - EP57

When the polls said two Republicans might take the top two spots, California Democratic Party leadership went to work getting Democrats out of the governor's race. Antonio Villaraigosa was one of them. He said no - and he says the whole thing left a black mark on the party. The first Latino mayor …

The TRUTH About Trump’s New USPS Ballot Rule (It’s Complicated) - EP56

President Trump just handed the Postal Service veto power over your mail-in ballot, and Chad and Cara can't agree on whether that's chaos, overreach, or both. This episode, the crew untangles what the USPS's new ballot rule actually does, why the Supreme Court's ruling this week is more limited tha…

From Bartender to Bush’s War Room & 50 Years in GOP Politics (Anne Dunsmore) - EP55

Anne Dunsmore has been in the room for nearly 50 years of American politics, and it all started because she lost a bet in a D.C. bar. She sits down with Chad Peace and Cara McCormick to tell her story: working the floor with James Baker and Margaret Tutwiler on George H.W. Bush's 1980 campaign, t…

Border Patrol STOPPED Her: Becoming a US Citizen LEGALLY is Harder Than Ever - EP54

IVP's own producer just became a U.S. citizen, and she's sitting down with Chad and Cara to talk about what it actually took, and what it felt like the moment she finally got to register to vote. Lina Alvarez walks Chad and Cara through her path from a marriage-based green card to studying all 128…

Why Rick Bennett Left the GOP to Run for Governor of Maine (NOT What You Think) - EP53

Rick Bennett climbed to the top of Maine's Republican Party - President of the Senate - and now he's running for governor without a party at all. His reasoning is blunt: the parties themselves are a major reason government stopped working. Chad and Cara sit down with the independent candidate for …

Elon Musk's $1.5 Million Attack on Ranked Choice Voting in Alaska - EP52

Elon Musk just quietly put $1.5 million behind a network aimed at killing Alaska's top-four open primary. The kicker: the same measure would repeal the transparency law that let anyone find out he paid for it. Then the crew digs into Musk's money in Alaska: who's really behind the repeal, why MAGA…

Missouri Voters Crushed a Partisan Power Grab - the State Blocked Them Anyway - EP51

Missouri voters showed up and shut down the legislature's attempt to gut citizen initiatives - and then, hours before polls closed, the Secretary of State went in front of a camera and declared their 300,000-signature people's veto unconstitutional anyway. Cara McCormick, Ethan Handelman, and Shaw…

27 Years in Uniform, Now Running Against BOTH Parties in Oregon (Jason Faler) - EP50

A 27-year Army officer with three deployments looked at Congress and decided the problem wasn't which party was winning - it was that both of them were. So Jason Faler is running in Oregon's 6th with no letter behind his name. Jason walks us through the road from four-generation Oregonian to comba…