Hi, this is Jen. I'm from Minneapolis, but right now I'm at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC with my son Max here for a performance.

We've been here all weekend sightseeing for his 13th birthday.

This podcast was recorded at

204 p.m. on Wednesday, April 13th.

Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Here's the show.

I love the Kennedy Center. You got some great views from there.

Yeah, absolutely. You might still be able to like Pikachu or Boston or two. I think they're still hanging around for a little bit longer.

Hey there, it's the MPR Politics Podcast. I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress.

I'm Kelsey Snally. I also cover Congress.

And I'm Dominic Lamontanaro, Senior Political Editor and Correspondent.

And today we're going to take a look at the top Senate races across the country.

This year, 21 seats are up for re-election that are currently held by Republicans compared to 14 for Democrats.

And only a handful of these are truly competitive races. Democrats, as you should all know by now,

if you're listening to this podcast, control the Senate, but with a very narrow 50-50 majority.

So control of the Senate next year is very much in play.

We're going to get into some of the top races that are going to decide that majority.

But I think we need to start by talking about sort of some of the fundamental rules of midterm elections.

And Domenico, to me, probably the most critical thing to know about midterms,

is that it has a lot to do with which party is in control of the White House.

Yeah, and this isn't just trivial historical knowledge.

Like the fact is, in Senate races, the president's party in their first midterm since 1950 has lost an average of about two seats.

And that would mean that Republicans would take control in this 50-50 Senate.

...