How rising energy costs factored into Virginia's elections
Make Me Smart
Marketplace
4.6 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s edition of Economics on Tap, we’re heading to Virginia! The state held major elections this week, and affordability was top of mind for voters. VPM News reporter Patrick Larsen joins Kimberly to debrief the election results and explain why rising energy costs were a key campaign issue—and what data centers have to do with it. Plus, we’ll play a round of Half Full/Half Empty!
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- "How do data centers figure into Virginia's 2025 elections?" from VPM News
- "Virginia’s Rural Voters Shift 12 Points Toward Democrats" from The Daily Yonder
- "Soaring energy prices gave Democrats a winning message" from Semafor
- "Pumpkinscaping could be coming to a porch near you" from Marketplace
- "iRobot Is in Trouble, but Roomba Is Already Dead" from Wirecutter
- "How is this novelty team outselling over half the MLB?" from Marketplace
- "What Travelers Need to Know About the Shutdown, Flight Reductions and Delays" from The New York Times
We love hearing from you. Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email [email protected].
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense. |
| 0:12.3 | Thanks everybody for joining us, whether you're listening or watching our YouTube live stream |
| 0:17.2 | for our happy hour because it's Friday and we need a happy hour. And it is time for |
| 0:22.7 | our economics on tap and we are going to talk about the news. We're going to play games. It's |
| 0:28.2 | going to be a blast. For those of you who have been watching the news, there were some big |
| 0:32.8 | elections across a handful of states this week, Virginia being one of them. |
| 0:37.9 | So joining me today is Patrick Larson, |
| 0:40.4 | who's a reporter for VPM News in Richmond. |
| 0:43.4 | Welcome to the show, Patrick. |
| 0:45.4 | Hey, Kimberly. Thanks for having me on. |
| 0:48.1 | We are going to get to the news of the week |
| 0:50.6 | and what you've been covering there in Richmond |
| 0:52.8 | and the state more broadly, but first we've got to get to some drinks. Patrick, what are you having? |
| 0:58.6 | Tonight, I'm having a hot toddy because it's getting a little bit chilly. So instead of whiskey, I actually have some honey, habanero moonshine in here from Bell Isle Distillery. Oh, yeah, it's really good. It's a little spicy, a little sweet. It's really, yeah, giving me the right comforting vibes. |
| 1:17.6 | That sounds so cozy. It's what Habanero? What again? |
| 1:22.6 | Honey, Habanero Moonshine. And it's from Bell Isle Distillery, which is local to Richmond. |
| 1:29.2 | Shout out. |
| 1:30.8 | And this is also a Richmond restaurant, if you ever are in the area and get some Cuban food, |
| 1:36.3 | go to Cuba Cuba, Cuba. |
| 1:38.7 | I love it. |
| 1:39.7 | I actually was in Cuba in January of this year and had a great time. |
| 1:45.3 | We had some Make Me Smart fans along for the ride as well. |
... |
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