2026-10-17
39 分钟This is In Conversation from Apple News.
I'm Shamita Basu.
Today, your 2026 midterms questions answered.
We're just two weeks away from Election Day.
There are so many big questions about how these results might steer our politics and our culture in the next few years.
Republicans are defending narrow majorities in Congress.
Right now, polling shows Democrats are favored to take back the House, while the Senate remains a toss-up.
And voters are deeply frustrated by the rising cost of living, fueled in part by the ongoing war with Iran.
When we invited you, our listeners, to send us your big questions about the midterms,
what we heard was a lot of election process anxiety.
I'm a concerned citizen and also a first-time candidate in Massachusetts.
Are there any politicians out there that aren't willing to play by a broken system of rules?
Can you say more about that and if that's true?
Why does it feel like polls have been so off?
Just how much can we trust the members?
So we took your questions to two political analysts who are super plugged into voter sentiment.
Amy Walter is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
She's widely considered one of Washington's most trusted nonpartisan election watchers.
And Patrick Ruffini is a veteran Republican pollster and co-founder of the polling firm Echelon Insights.
He's also the author of the book Party of the People, inside the multiracial populist coalition remaking the GOP.