Runoffs, voting mishaps and Trump endorsements in TX and NC primaries
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.4 • 25.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, political correspondent Ashley Lopez, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org. |
| 0:18.3 | Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. |
| 0:23.3 | I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. |
| 0:27.5 | And we are taping this at 109 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 4th. Today on the show, we have election results. |
| 0:36.8 | Do we have music? No. Something. I know, but it's really |
| 0:41.4 | exciting to actually have election results. Kind of. Yes. It's starting. This is it, right? This is the first |
| 0:49.1 | primaries. You know, we had three states that voted, Arkansas, Texas, and North Carolina. And look, it's |
| 0:56.8 | finally kicked off. We've been talking about the midterm elections. And we had some pretty |
| 1:00.3 | consequential races last night. Indeed, we did. Let's start with North Carolina, where there is an |
| 1:05.3 | open seat because Republican Senator Tom Tillis is retiring. So last night, Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael |
| 1:13.0 | Watley won their primaries. Cooper is the former governor of the state. Watley is the former chair |
| 1:20.0 | of the Republican National Committee under President Trump. Domenico, how's that race shaping up? |
| 1:25.4 | You know, it's interesting because Cooper won, uhattley won, obviously. So those were sort of |
| 1:29.9 | formalities. Trump had backed Wattley. Although, you know, about 15% of the vote went to another |
| 1:35.2 | kind of more MAGA candidate in the race. And, you know, if you were to describe like a generic |
| 1:40.4 | Republican candidate, he kind of fits the bill. And you wonder where a generic Republican |
| 1:46.0 | candidate is going to do, how he's going to do in a year that, you know, leans toward Democrats in a |
| 1:52.7 | state that leans toward Republicans, right? Trump won the state three times. Roy Cooper was seen as a |
| 1:58.9 | big get for Democrats. He's the former governor of the state. |
| 2:02.4 | And listen to why people think that he might have the right profile for a state like North Carolina. |
| 2:08.7 | I'll be a strong, independent senator who will work with this president when I can |
| 2:14.0 | and stand up to him when the people need me to. I will always, always put the people of |
... |
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