Hey there, it's Tamara Keith from the NPR Politics Podcast and I am so excited because we are getting ready to go back out on the road and Houston, you're up first.

Join Susan Davis, Osma Halle, Ashley Lopez, Domenico Montenarro, and me at Zilca Hall on Thursday, September 15th.

You can find more information about tickets, including for students at nprpresents.org. Thanks to our partners at Houston Public Media. We hope to see you there.

Hi, this is Sean in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where I am enjoying my first weekend of fatherhood. This podcast was recorded at 1.08pm Eastern Daylight Time, August 22nd, 2022.

Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but I and most importantly, my wife will probably still be catching up on some much-needed sleep.

Okay, here's the show.

Congratulations!

Yes! That's wonderful!

Aw. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Danielle Kurtzleben, I cover politics. I'm dear Dr. Walsh, I cover Congress.

And I'm Domenico Montenarro, Senior Political Editor and Correspondent.

And today we are looking ahead to the midterms on the podcast, and more specifically, we're looking at the US Senate.

At this point, control of the Senate next year looks like a toss-up, and that represents progress for Democrats.

So, Domenico, you have a new article out about the 10 Senate races that will decide control of that chamber.

And the last time you looked at this four months ago, your analysis favored Republicans. So, what changed?

Yeah, it's interesting. Talking to Republicans in April, they were growing more confident that they would win the Senate, but obviously the entire landscape has shifted

at least somewhat after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, which has really lent itself to a huge increase in Democratic enthusiasm, Democratic fundraising,

and most importantly, the ability for Democrats to try to get their base voters out to the polls.

On top of that, we've also seen, you know, former President Trump emerge as, you know, a main and central figure on the Republican side of things,

not just in the candidates' endorse, which is a big problem for Republicans as they see it heading into the general elections, but also the search at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home,

have really threatened to kind of make this a choice election, once again, rather than a referendum on Democratic governance.

Right, and reflecting these potentially tough races that Republicans are facing, Deirdre, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged last week that the GOP may have some work to do to

win the Senate. Tell us what he said exactly.

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