This is the second of a 4-part series of podcasts previewing the mid-term elections. The guest is Jim Messina, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff to President Obama (in his first term) and campaign manager of the Obama re-election effort in 2012.
A native Montanan, Jim worked on Capital Hill for two decades prior to joining the Obama administration. He now runs a government affairs and strategic advisory firm, recently rebranded The Fortius Group. Most important, he’s a smart and clear-eyed observer of American politics.
The 2026 mid-term Senate elections will be won or lost in what the author Richard Rhodes once called “The Inland Ground”. Specifically: Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas. What will be decisive in each of those states is the rural vote.
We talked about that, the political environment more generally and what might come next, once all the votes have been counted. For more on the national political environment, the Fortius Global’s “slide deck” is clear, concise and well-crafted.
(News Items Podcast, Episode #27, with guest Jim Messina. If you prefer, you can listen to it on Apple, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, and many, if not most, of the other podcast platforms. Our podcast producer is Katerina Barton. It was recorded on Tuesday, 20 October 2026).