Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on midterm voter enthusiasm

By — Geoff Bennett Geoff Bennett By — Ali Schmitz Ali Schmitz Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/tamara-keith-and-amy-walter-on-midterm-voter-enthusiasm Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter join Geoff Bennett to discuss the latest political news, including both parties gearing up for a combative and expensive battle for control of Congress with fewer than 100 days to go until the midterms and the 2028 primary schedule. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Geoff Bennett: With fewer than 100 days to go until the midterms, both parties are gearing up for a combative and expensive battle for control of Congress. With more on what comes next, we're joined now by our Politics Monday duo, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR. So we are officially inside 100 days until the midterms. Are you excited? Tamara Keith, National Public Radio: Oh, so excited. Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report: Can't contain it. Geoff Bennett: It's palpable, isn't it? Amy Walter: Can't contain it. Always. Geoff Bennett: Yes, so big picture, what does each party need to do between now and November? And which side has the harder job? Tam, we will start with you. Tamara Keith: I think that they both have hard jobs, actually, though Democrats arguably have an easier job because there is this huge anti-incumbent, anti-establishment mood in the country that they, in theory, can ride. Republicans need to motivate voters who are not typically motivated in midterm years. President Trump won with a very broad base of people, many of whom only vote in presidential years and possibly only vote for people named Trump. And so they're trying to figure out how to rebuild their 2024 base in 2026, which is a very different year and has a lot of challenges, including the Iran war and the cost of things and just general voter angst and frustration. Geoff Bennett: Amy? Amy Walter: Yes, for Democrats or for Republicans? Geoff Bennett: For both. Amy Walter: Oh, for both. So I match it up as it's a really a clash between the environment and the structural realities. And the environment benefits Democrats. The president's unpopular. People are upset about inflation. Enthusiasm is a real factor. Democratic voters are much more fired up to go to the polls. But the structural piece is real, and it's a big challenge for Democrats. There just aren't that many competitive seats held by Republicans in the House, enough for them to be able to win back -- they only need three seats to win back the House. But on the Senate side, they're going to they still have to win in these very dark red states. And what we're seeing in the polling right now is that, even as the president is unpopular, the Democ