Hey podcast listeners, Brian Lehrer here. Starting October 9th, join me for America Are We Ready,

a series of three weekly national call-in specials that will air on public radio stations around

the country. We're looking for a few good stories to kick things off. Tell us specifically

your story about health care costs for episode one, why they're impacting your politics, and which

candidates approach to health care policy is winning your heart and your vote. Go to wncy.org

slash economy story or find the link in the description, share your story, and will use some

of your recordings on the air on health care and how it affects your politics.

Again, that's WNYC.org slash economy story. Thanks.

From WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Wednesday, October 9th.

Now to the race for Senate in the New Jersey seat, once held by Bob Menendez. Congressman Andy Kim,

the Democrat, and businessman Curtis Bashar met this week for the first of three scheduled

debates. There was a concerning moment on stage when Bashaw froze for several seconds and looked

to be on the verge of passing out. That came about 10 minutes in. After a pause, things did get

started up again, and the two candidates faced questions about affordability, immigration, and abortion, among other topics.

It was mostly cordial, but there were a couple pointed exchanges, which we'll hear some excerpts from.

By the way, both these two candidates would make history, if elected to the Senate, Bashaw, who's presenting himself as a different kind of

common sense Republican, would be New Jersey's first ever gay U.S. Senator, and Kim would be the

first ever Korean American senator from any state. So we'll hear clips and get some analysis now

from Brent Johnson, political reporter in the State House Bureau of the Star Ledger,

and their website, NJ.com. Hi, Brent. Welcome back to WN.YC.

Happy to be here. Thank you for having me. First, how is Curtis Bashar doing?

Fine. I reached out to his campaign the day after this happened, and they said it was not a

...