GOP in disarray after Tennessee special

Tuesday’s special election in Tennessee’s deeply conservative 7th District yielded two things for Republicans: a win, and widespread panic. On The Downballot podcast this week, co-hosts David Nir and David Beard explain why Democrat Aftyn Behn’s 13-point overperformance rightly has the GOP terrified. This was no sleepy, low-turnout affair. Voter participation was at midterm levels, which means that dozens of slightly bluer but still very red Republican seats could be in play next year. Look out!

Subscribe to The Downballot!

The Davids also chat with Lou Jacobson, the new senior author of one of the most seminal resources in the world of election nerdery: the Almanac of American Politics. Jacobson tells us how this massive, 2,000-page tome gets updated every two years, and how he’s bringing the Almanac into the digital era by offering updates on a new Substack site—including profiles of every freshly gerrymandered district in the country.

Get full access to The Downballot at www.the-downballot.com/subscribe