As the midterm elections get closer, a lot is at stake on both sides of the state line — and around the country.
In December, two politicos from opposite sides of the aisle will be in Kansas City for American Public Square’s annual “Evening at the Square” event. On Monday, they joined KCUR’s Up To Date to preview what could lie ahead in November.
Ben Rhodes is a former deputy national security advisor who served during the Obama administration, a New York Times bestselling author and a co-host of the Crooked Media podcast “Pod Save the World.” He told KCUR that he is optimistic about the Democrats’ chances in this political moment.
“An affordability crisis, a profoundly unpopular war, you know, kind of some a degree of fatigue with like Donald Trump and his dominance of politics for so long, overwhelming news about corruption on a daily basis. Those create the structural dynamics for a wave,” Rhodes said. “I think when you look at candidate quality and the Democrats who are running in some of the races we've talked about in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Georgia, I feel like the the the factors and stars are aligned a bit.”
Annie Kelly Kuhle of FP1 Strategies is a prominent Republican strategist who has served as a regional political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
She sees “strong headwinds” against the Republicans, but doesn’t think it will be as bad of an election for the GOP as others might think.
“I would say that we are not going to see a huge swing of an election the way we have in other years, like 2006, for example. I think the country is more polarized than that. I think Republican areas will continue to perform as Republican areas, Democrat areas will continue to perform as Democrat, and certainly in the swing areas, the Democrats have a leg up right now.”
As for how they will measure success this election cycle, they both believe that their party winning the U.S. Senate would make all the difference. When it comes to the House, they are both in agreement that it will likely go blue.
- Annie Kelly Kuhle, partner at FP1 Strategies
- Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor, “Pod Save the World” co-host
Evening at the Square 2026, 5:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 7 at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak St, Kansas City, Missouri 64111.
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