Grounded with Jon Tester & Maritsa Georgiou

There’s a whole lot of noise about threats to the midterm elections, now eight days away. We asked David Becker from the Center for Election Innovation & Research to come back and help us get grounded in logic and facts.

Let’s start with the good news: Becker says we will blow past 30 million votes already cast at some point today.

“The highest turnout we’ve ever had for a midterm election was in 2018, 118 million ballots cast,” Becker said. “So we’re going to blow past 25% of that eight days before the election. And still the vast majority of mail ballots haven’t come back in. No one has voted on Election Day yet. Early voting is still going on in almost all of the 47 states.”

Becker notes that we saw the highest ever midterm election turnout in 2018 at 50%. He’s cautiously optimistic we will break that record this cycle, but says if we get to 53%, it would be a “tsunami.”

Now to the bad news. We cover a lot of the major concerns right now, including the fears about ICE at the polls, DOJ voter-data pushes, voting machine worries, and the very real efforts to lay the groundwork to challenge the results of the election. We also talk about why Becker feels confident we will see the results certified.

“I know some people are really worried when they see the federal government mobilize to interfere with our election in a way that we’ve never seen before in American history. And that’s awful,” Becker said. “We should not normalize that. It’s really bad, and it’s taken a lot of work. But on the other hand, it’s really desperate, isn’t it? It’s really kind of pathetic in a way. They’re failing at everything.”

If you haven’t voted yet, make sure you have a plan! If you still have a mail-in ballot to return, it’s probably best to deliver it yourself. Eight days to go!

In the final weeks of the campaign cycle, JT has been traveling across the country stumping for candidates. He returned from Kansas last week and couldn’t quit talking about the Democratic candidate in the KS-02 House race, Don Coover, who’s also a West Point grad, Army vet, veterinarian, and rancher.

Coover joined us to talk about why he jumped into politics, how tariffs are squeezing his fellow ranchers and farmers, and the massive impact ICE raids have had on his community.

You had people, American citizens, afraid to go out and conduct business or travel around because they were afraid of being harassed and picked up. And so It makes a very hostile environment,” Coover said. “I think fear is incredibly contagious. I saw that in the army. And I also believe that courage is very contagious.”

Plus, what’s more difficult? Calving season or campaign season?

Don’t miss our live show Monday, Oct. 26 at noon eastern, when our friend David Becker from the Center for Election Innovation & Research comes back to answer all of your election questions. If there’s something specific you want us to ask him, please drop us a comment!

We didn’t mean for this episode to turn into a lesson on furries for Jon Tester, but here we are.

Former Sen. Doug Jones is in a rematch against Sen. Tommy Tuberville—this time for governor of Alabama. This is a state that has voted for the Republican nominee in every presidential election going back to 1980, and which Trump won in 2024 with 64.6% of the vote. Even while we were live, Alabamians were in the chat telling us about Trump supporters in their lives who plan to vote for Doug in this race.

“It’s kind of that silent majority that we’ve heard so much about in the past, that folks in this era of retribution, they don’t want to put a Doug Jones sign in their yard,” Jones said. “There’s just something that we have felt on the ground. We believe it will translate into a win. I remind people that even in a losing effort in 2020, I got more votes than any Democrats ever gotten in the history of Alabama and enough to win any governor’s race in the history of the state.”

Jones point to fielding Democratic candidates for every constitutional office race for the first time since 2006, along with packed town halls he’s been hosting across the state. He lays out his plan for affordability, why he wants a one-year moratorium on data centers, and yes, his response to the wild video of Tommy Tuberville talking about furries on the Senate floor—a video Jon Tester hadn’t seen before today.

Tester will join Jones, Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Shomari C. Figures on the campaign trail in Alabama Thursday, and we hope to jump on for a short livestream as they’re on the bus. Let’s hope there are no Booker/Tester chest bumps as the bus is moving at high speeds.

We have two weeks to go, friends. If you’ve voted already, great job! If you haven’t, make sure you get those ballots in. If you need to check your registration or polling place, track your ballot, or learn about what’s on your ballot, vote.org is one of many fabulous resources.

We hobbled our way through some more technical difficulties, but are grateful for another chance to talk with retired federal judge Diane Wood, who sat on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal. She is now one of about 60 retired federal judges who formed the Article III Coalition through Keep Our Republic.

Judge Wood stresses the importance of judicial accountability, her proposal for more oversight of the Supreme Cours, and attacks on the judiciary.

“It is uncharted territory, I think. There have always, as you said, been some instances of attacks on the judiciary,” Wood said. “But what’s different now is that the source of the problem seems to be the president, not some random disappointed litigant who doesn’t have good judgment. That’s new and entirely inappropriate.”

With less than four weeks until the midterms, officials across the country are preparing as the federal pressure on our election administrators ramps up.

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, who also chairs the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, joins us to discuss the Trump administration’s decision to shut international election observers out, the new push to seize voting machines through the Commerce Department, and what voters should do if they see any kind of meddling or intimidation at the polls.

Aguilar’s primary message?

“We just need people to make a plan to vote and we just need them to actually f*$&ing show up to vote.”

27 days. Let’s go.