It's All Political

Rita Beamish covered the first President Bush for the Associated Press from the 1988 campaign through his years in the White House and his unsuccessful run for re-election in 1992. As the media paints a glowing picture of the 41st president, Beamish talks to Joe Garofoli about the real George Bush. And she has something surprising to say about Vice President Dan Quayle! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stacey Abrams may have lost her historic run to be the first African-American female governor in the U.S., but she did not concede her race to be Georgia’s governor. That is because she is starting a new effort: To fight voter suppression that plagues Georgia and many other states. We talk with her about Fair Fight Action, a new organization that wants to modernize Georgia’s voter rights laws — an effort that could have national implications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nancy Pelosi is on her way to becoming Speaker of the House — but she’s not quite there yet. Thirty-two Democrats voted against her and three handed in blank ballots during Wednesday’s closed-door, secret-ballot vote. San Francisco Chronicle Washington correspondent Tal Kopan explains it to us — and whether ageism and sexism was behind Rep. Barbara Lee losing out on a leadership position. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An all-star cast of Chronicle political experts breaks down the biggest races and issues on election night 2018. San Francisco Chronicle senior political writer Joe Garofoli hosts this episode with editor in chief Audrey Cooper, editorial page editor John Diaz, political writer John Wildermuth, Sacramento bureau chief Melody Gutierrez and columnist Heather Knight.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco Chronicle editor in chief Audrey Cooper moderates a panel at the Grand Theater in San Francisco on the midterm elections with columnist Heather Knight, columnist Phil Matier and senior political writer Joe Garofoli. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Avenatti says he will decide “in the next 60 days” whether he will run for president. It’s a remarkable rise for the Los Angeles lawyer who zoomed into the national consciousness for his bare-knuckled representation of adult film star Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with President Trump. He’s been touring the country to gauge popular opinion on his candidacy. We caught up with Avenatti when he was in San Francisco recently for a mini-episode of “It’s All Political.” He has a warning for Democrats: Don’t underestimate Trump’s chances of re-election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Democrats need to flip 23 Republican-held seats to retake the House. To reach that goal, they’re targeting seven GOP seats in California that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. But after visiting several of those districts in the final days of the 2018 midterms, San Francisco Chronicle political writer John “The Big Man” Wildermuth is dubious that the Democrats win more than two. After visiting the Central Valley recently, I’m feeling the same. Find out why as we’re talking California midterms with The Big Man on “It’s All Political.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. Senate debate in the nation’s largest state wasn't broadcast on statewide TV but it was livestreamed. San Francisco Chronicle Senior Political Writer Joe Garofoli and Editorial Page Editor John Diaz break down the first - and likely only - showdown between the two candidates. The event, billed as a “conversation” at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco, with the nonprofit’s president doling out questions, was a historic occasion: Not since 2000 had Feinstein engaged an election challenger one-on-one. She’s had no pressure to do so until now, having faced only nominal opposition. De León, however, is a different brand of challenger, even though he trails in the polls. He’s the author of California’s main sanctuary legislation, giving him credibility with the Democratic “resistance” to President Trump. It helped win him the endorsement of the state Democratic Party over Feinstein, a stunning rebuke to a senator seeking her fifth full term. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m

It sure looks like Julian Castro is running for president in 2020. He’s got a new memoir out and he’s spending a lot of time in Iowa. We talk about his life growing up in a working class neighborhood of San Antonio - and how he made it to Stanford and Harvard Law School. He also responds to criticism he receives for not being a fluent Spanish speaker - and whether he is tough enough to stand up to President Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meet Tal Kopan, The San Francisco Chronicle’s new Washington, D.C., correspondent. Tal and Joe Garofoli preview what will happen if Democrats win the House. Would Nancy Pelosi become speaker? Would she get the “pound of flesh” from Republicans that left-wing Dems are demanding? If the GOP holds, would Kevin McCarthy be leader? Tal forecasts what’s next in D.C. — including an “epically dysfunctional” scenario. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Garofoli and San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Page Editor John Diaz break down the KQED California gubernatorial debate between Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Republican John Cox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco Chronicle senior political writer Joe Garofoli interviews California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom about his childhood and time as San Francisco mayor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk with Carolyn DeWitt, the President and Executive Director of Rock the Vote. Rock the Vote? Is that still something? We find out and ask the question on everybody’s mind: Are young people going to vote in a midterm election for a change? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We sit down with John Cox, the Republican businessman running for governor. Cox is running for office for the fifth time and he’s never won anything. Why does the wealthy businessman keep running -- and losing? What drives him? Who is this guy? A profile of the Republican candidate for governor in California -- a state he just moved to less than a decade ago Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco Chronicle Senior Political writer Joe Garofoli sits down with lifestyle writer Tara Duggan, political writer John Wildermuth and The Chronicle's Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper to assess the political, cultural and social impact of Thursday's historic hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee where Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her while they were in high school, and Kavanaugh testified. The group assesses what this will mean for Kavanaugh's chances of reaching the Supreme Court, the message it sends to high school students, and what journalists need to remember when forcing private citizens into the limelight of the national news cycle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Liberals loathe John Yoo. Some still want him tried as a war criminal for co-authoring the legal memo that the George W. Bush Administration used to justify authorizing “enhanced interrogation”  after 9/11. But Yoo is a sharp legal mind, Never Trumper and Constitutional expert who knows Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh well. In advance of next week’s SCOTUS confirmation hearings, we talk to him about what kind of legal trouble Trump is in and how Kavanaugh might rule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gina Ortiz Jones is a first-time candidate running for Congress in what may be the most expensive House race ever in Texas. She’s 37, a Filipina American daughter of a single mother immigrant, and a former Air Force officer who would be the first out lesbian ever elected in Texas. And she actually has a shot at beating the incumbent Republican. Plus: Stephanie Schriock, the head of Emily’s List, which has given millions to pro-choice women running for Congress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democrats blew off organizing in many states during the Obama presidency and lost more than 1,000 legislative seats over the past decade. That’s led to GOP control in two-thirds of statehouses — and more restrictions on abortions and fewer on guns in some states. But that is starting to change, and we talk with one of the people leading the Democrats’ comeback: Jessica Post, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Pod Save America” co-host Dan Pfeiffer talks about how the next presidential campaign will be fought on Facebook, and right now Democrats are losing that battle. In conversation with Joe at the San Francisco headquarters of Scribd, Dan explains how Democrats can change their strategy — and offers more from his best-selling new book, “Yes, We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter and Trump.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe talks with Shaughnessy Naughton, founder of 314 Action, an organization that recruits and funds scientists, technologists and doctors to run for office. Tons have expressed interest, but so far only about half have won their races. Naughton talks about why that is.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices