From WNYC, I'm Brian Laird. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Wednesday, July 8th.

Yes, we'll talk about Graham Platner and that main Senate race to begin today, but we'll also put it in the context of the midterm

elections generally. Coming up, we'll play two clips of other Democratic primary populists,

and I'll tell you what printed slogans they chose to put behind them in their recent TV

interview shots and why that matters. Joining me for it all is Ested Herndon, host and

editorial director at Vox. The previous

times he was on, as many of you may remember, and you may know his work directly from this,

was when he was a national political reporter for the New York Times and host of their

electoral politics podcast, The Run Up. He was there from 2018 until last year. He's always done such a

great job talking to voters around the country, not just politicians. Same, Ested Herndon,

new platform, his column and podcast for Vox are called America, actually. And he lives in

Brooklyn, actually. Estead, always good to have you in your

reporting and analysis. Welcome back to WNYC. Yay, thank you for having me. I love doing the show, Brian.

So as we speak, Graham Platner has not yet dropped out of the Senate race. Maybe by the time

some of our listeners are hearing this on the podcast later in the day, not on the live radio show.

He will have. All indications are that he will, with all the other stuff swirling around him before this,

why only now is he reconsidering his candidacy and why only now populist leaders like Bernie Sanders and Saramam Dani

calling on him to drop out?

Well, the short answer is a new piece of information or a new story.

We have 48 hours ago political reported that an ex-girlfriend explicitly accused Graham Platner of rape and sexual assault.

You got another story from the Washington Post last night saying

having another ex-girlfriend say that he removed condoms during sexual intercourse, another act of

...