HeyJaredBeyond the Polls with Henry Olsen
Each week Henry Olsen, columnist and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, will talk about the presidential and congressional races with leading political journalists and analysts, people who are out in the field and won't give you media spin.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 11
- Latest publication
- Sep 17, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 9, 2026
Latest episodes
Americans Won't Tolerate a Loser (opens the original)
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After last week's tour of competitive House races, it's time to look to the Senate battlegrounds. Though nobody can predict the future, our friend Kyle Kondik brings his Sabato's Crystal Ball to assess this cycle's key toss-ups, leans, and tight holds—the races that will decide who controls the upper chamber. He and Henry dart about the map to consider the latest on the campaigns in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Maine, Iowa, Ohio, Texas, and Alaska. Plus, since we live in an era of models r
Rate Changes and Coordinated Expenditures (opens the original)
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The primaries are nearly finished, and Labor Day is behind us—that means it's officially midterm season! To mark the occasion, Henry catches up with Cook Political Report's Erin Covey to discuss the races that look competitive now in mid-September and how she'll gauge contests as we approach November. From consideration of surprising events and the movement of outside expenditures, Henry and Erin dive deep into the circumstances that might yield a good election return for either party in a midte
Take Nothing For Granite (opens the original)
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With all due respect to grammarians, when we at Beyond the Polls think of New Hampshire, hard facts and rock-solid political analysis from our friend Dante Scala are foremost in mind. In anticipation of Tuesday's Democratic primary, he and Henry discuss the tectonic political shift in the Granite State now that Jeanne Shaheen is retiring—along with the new presidential primary ordering that has pushed New Hampshire back in the Democratic Party's queue. Plus, Henry looks ahead to the midterms, fi
Dissuadable Disapprovers? (opens the original)
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With the primary results in from the most competitive states, we're entering the calm-before-the-storm season of this year's midterm election. But rather than letting their guard down, top election analysts are bracing for another wacky cycle like the one that defied forecasts in 2o22. NBC's chief data analyst, Steve Kornacki, returns to Beyond the Polls to discuss how current conditions resemble those from four years back, and how he braces for the unpredictable before heading into live coverag
A MAGA Contest, Southern Cackalacky-Style (opens the original)
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South Carolina Republicans are heading back to the voting booth for the Senate runoff to select their nominee. Their choice is between Ralph Norman, a self-described MAGA outsider who has represented the state's Fifth Congressional District since 2017, and Darline Graham, the Trump-endorsed incumbent appointed last month following the sudden passing of her brother Lindsey. For a survey of this sudden showdown in the Swamp State, Henry is joined by Jessica Taylor of the Cook Political Report. The
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