Midterm Money, Botched Executions, Trump Ads & Measles
With the 2026 midterms less than four weeks away, Republicans still hold a major financial advantage—but increasingly have to decide which House and Senate races are worth saving. Mike and his fellow political scientist Michael Levy look at GOP spending pullbacks, Democratic opportunities, whether polls may still underestimate Republican support, and what it could all mean for control of the Senate.
Next, Tennessee’s second botched execution this year raises a larger question: is the problem lethal injection, or the death penalty itself? The guys discuss wrongful convictions, the economics and deterrent value of capital punishment, whether executions should be public, and the moral distance between supporting an execution and actually carrying one out.
Then they turn to the Trump administration’s use of taxpayer money for ads promoting the president and his policies. Mike argues the spending was almost certainly illegal regardless of whether the ads qualify as propaganda, while the two consider why Trump picked this fight—and whether Democratic outrage plays directly into his political strategy.
Finally, Pennsylvania’s massive measles outbreak leads to a broader discussion of falling childhood vaccination rates, growing vaccine skepticism, RFK Jr., Trump’s false claims about the MMR vaccine, and Ken Paxton’s investigation of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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