If you could talk to only one independent political analyst about Tuesday’s mid-term elections, it would probably be Charlie Cook.
So that’s what we did.
(News Items Podcast, Episode #29, with guest Charlie Cook. 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 Friday, 30 October 2026).
Back in 1984, Charlie founded The Cook Political Report, which over time became the single best source for non-partisan analysis of American elections and political trends. It still is.
Charlie’s columns about this year’s mid-term elections have been uniformly superb. So we talked about what he’s written about: (a) the “red undertow”, (b) a “fire, not hire” election, (c) the importance of Michigan, (d) delusional Democrats, and (e) the “unicorn” political environment of 2026.
Good podcasts are made by great guests. Charlie is that.