I'm Matt Hildreth, and you're listening to Good Skews here on Weekly Skews.

Today, I'm talking with author, political scientist, and professor Tom Schaller.

We're breaking down the record-setting wave of congressional retirements heading into the

2026 election.

More members are bailing on Congress than we've seen in decades.

And we discuss why this is very good news for Democrats.

All right, Tom, thanks for joining me.

I feel like, does anybody ever call you Dr. Schaller?

I feel like I should call you Dr. Schaller because you have a Ph.D., and I know how hard it is to earn a PhD.

A, you should not, and B, not really.

Like, people who don't know me or random emailers will call me Dr. Schaller, but my students just call me Schaller.

And I call them by their last names.

I find that to be respectful but familiar.

So if you were in my student, one of my classes, Matt, you would be Mr. Hildreth at the start.

But by week two, you'd just be Hildreth.

Well, you just put out a piece on public notice. That's what I wanted to talk to you a little bit about. So we're going to talk a little bit about Republicans heading for the doors, which I thought was a very good headline. It gave me a little bit of joy to read through that article. But before we get into that, people might remember you from being on the main show with your book, White Rural Rage.

But maybe just remind folks where you're coming to this work.

You know, where'd you grow up?

What got you into politics?

And what you're up to now kind of on a daily basis.

Well, my day job is college professors.

We discussed at University of Maryland, Baltimore County over near

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