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Election Countdown, with guest Seth Masket

Seth Masket

Becvar is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and executive director of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund. Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

Seth Masket is among a handful of political scientists around the country who are both entertaining and insightful. He’s a perfect guest for our final Election Countdown series because he manages to cut through the clutter and spin.

Masket is the director of the University of Denver's Center on American Politics, which supports deep community engagement and interdisciplinary research on crucial issues in American politics. The center is chiefly focused on the two institutions most central to the integrity and responsiveness of American politics — elections and political parties.


In our final episode, we look at tiny shifts in voting blocs that could tilt the election. We are looking at you political orphans, swing voters and independents. Election Countdown is part of “Lost in the Middle,” a podcast hosted by former Rep. Scott Klug, who represented Wisconsin. Despite winning his four elections by an average of 63 percent he stayed true to his term limit pledge and retired.

During his time in Congress, Klug had the third most independent voting record of any Wisconsin lawmaker in the last 50 years. In September 2023, he launched “Lost in the Middle” to shine a spotlight on the oft ignored political center.

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“The podcast was born,” Klug told Madison Magazine, “out of the sentiment that a wide swath of the American public, myself included, can’t figure out how in the hell we got to this place. And more importantly, is there a way for us out of it.”

Since Klug spent eight years as a member of Congress and 13 years as a journalist, listeners and readers ask him all the time where to find solid political coverage that is not slanted.

Enjoy this episode:

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A protestor holds up a sign with a quote from Vice President Kamala Harris at the Women's March rally outside the Heritage Foundation on Nov. 9.

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Dems blame everything but themselves for losing

It’s tough sledding for Democrats, as they try to wrap their heads around Donald Trump’s improbable-but-also-foreseeable sweep of all seven swing states and winning the popular vote.

This wasn’t supposed to happen, after all. Democrats genuinely believed — as they did in 2016 — that Trump’s many odious qualities would be enough to keep him far away from the White House again.

And if for some reason that wasn’t enough for most Americans, they had in Vice President Kamala Harris a woman of color who, apparently, by virtue of her identity alone, would help seal the deal among those voting demographics.

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The Good Brigade/Getty Images

Thanksgiving dinner at the grown-ups’ table

Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."

With our national elections the first week and Thanksgiving the last week, November is a banner month for Americans. On Nov. 5 we voted, electing Donald J. Trump to become our 47th president and arguably the most powerful person on the planet. Now we look forward to Thanksgiving.

Somewhere in each of our past Thanksgivings, there likely came a time when we were invited to join the adults at the grown-ups’ table. The most important qualification demonstrating we had earned this “promotion” was our behavior: We were expected to act like a grown-up. Maybe returning from college did it, or getting married. Perhaps we were bumped up earlier. Whenever it occurred, we understood we were being accorded a privilege. We had arrived.

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Election workers tabulate results of early voting and absentee ballots in Gwinnett County, Ga., on Nov. 5.

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Officials ran a smooth election, silencing the false narrative around voter fraud

Originally published by The 19th.

Election officials across the country administered a relatively smooth 2024 general election, despite reports of bomb threats, technical issues and a polarizing online ecosystem that at times challenged the integrity of counting ballots.

The predominately women-led workforce went into Election Day having readied for potential disruptions and a disinformation campaign that had swelled in the final weeks of the presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. But by early Wednesday, their processes for receiving and counting ballots — and a large enough vote margin in key battleground states — enabled major news outlets to project the former president’s win over the vice president shortly after midnight, days faster than in 2020.

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President-elect Donald Trump speaks to at an election night gathering in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Brendan Gutenschwager/Anadolu via Getty Images

Voters want a president who takes care of their most basic needs

Schmidt is a columnist and editorial board member with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

This election was not about our national identity or a reflection of who we are as a collection of people. Rather, it centered on whether our most essential requirements as citizens were being served by our government.

A resounding number of voters told Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party that the answer to that question was “No.”

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