Midterm Surprise: Democrats Are Surging in Red America

A new set of polls from The New York Times finds that Democratic candidates are doing remarkably well in the Republican-leaning states that they need to win to gain control of the U.S. Senate in next month’s midterm elections. They are doing less well in the blue states that, in theory, should be easier to win. Nate Cohn, the chief political analyst for The Times, offers his idea of what is behind the numbers. Guest: Nate Cohn, The New York Times’s chief political analyst. Background reading:  Polls suggested that Hispanic voters, whose support helped propel President Trump to the White House in 2024, would largely support the Democratic Party this time.Senator Susan Collins of Maine led polls for the first time since Graham Platner dropped out of the race in July.Photo: Ash Adams for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.