October Un-Surprise
Kate and Josh talk some of the last polls of the cycle, a repulsive new ad from the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign and the persecution of Ilhan Omar. Correction: While discussing the fall out over the Ramaswamy/Amy Acton ad, Kate and Josh misstated the outcome of Acton's stepfather's case. He was indicted by a grand jury, but because he fled his case never went to trial. Welcome to Polltober! A TPM YouTube Exclusive Series: You have questions, we have answers. Since TPM readers are as obsessed with political minutiae as our reporters are, we’re launching a special limited-run bonus version of the pod in this final month before the 2026 midterms. If there’s anything you want to know about specific races, candidates, chamber control, the courts, the polls, whatever, just drop your queries in the YouTube comments on the latest episode.Psst, you’re a TPM member, right? You asked, and we answered: we’re launching a members-only podcast feed where you can listen to episodes of Polltober! Head to your account settings page to find the special RSS feed that you can add to your preferred podcast player and enjoy!To watch this episode on video, go to our YouTube page.We also have newsletters: subscribe here!Follow us on:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/talkingpointsmemo.comFacebook: https://facebook.com/talkingpointsmemoTwitter: https://twitter.com/tpmInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkingpointsmemo/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.