There are few topics nearer and dearer to us than state legislative races, which is why we welcomed Heather Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, on this week's episode of The Downballot podcast. Williams tells us all about Democrats' top targets this year, including protecting skinny majorities in Michigan and Pennsylvania and flipping GOP-controlled chambers in Arizona and New Hampshire. She also emphasizes how the DLCC plays the long game, since it often takes more than one cycle to come out on top.

Meanwhile, co-hosts David Nir and David Beard spotlight The Downballot's new special report on the size of the immigrant population in Springfield, Ohio. For all the attention the city has gotten, no major publication had done a deep dive to understand just how many Haitians now live there, so contributor David Jarman stepped into the breach. The hosts also discuss a pair of court rulings about misleading summaries of ballot measures written by Republicans—one rejecting an attempt to gaslight voters, and the other allowing it.

The long primary season that began—if you can believe it—more than six months ago has at last come to an end, finally setting the stage for November's general election. First, though, we have a few races to recap on this week's episode of The Downballot podcast, including the Democrats' primary for New Hampshire's open governorship, their most enticing flip opportunity in the nation. Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also excoriate Ron DeSantis for using Florida's state government to fight an abortion rights amendment, a maneuver direct from the authoritarian's playbook.

Our guest on the show this week is Lauren Gepford, whose group, Contest Every Race, recruits Democratic candidates nationwide to run in races far down the ballot that often go uncontested. Gepford explains how her organization figures out which of the nation's half-million elected positions to target (it's a huge task!) and tells us about its remarkably effective recruitment tool: texting folks to ask them if they might want to run. Even in the reddest areas, it's all about giving voters a choice when they might otherwise have none.

It wasn't long ago that campaigns would target voters by obtaining printed precinct maps, then literally cut them into pieces so they'd know where to send door-knockers. This week on The Downballot podcast, veteran operative John Hagner explains how he helped voter targeting emerge from the dark ages to become the sophisticated tool it is today. Hagner, the director of business development at the polling firm Civiqs, also shares some surprising insights about how to survey "low-trust" Donald Trump supporters who don't like to answer polls. One simple technique: shorter polls!

Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard kick us off by previewing the year's final Democratic primaries in Delaware and New Hampshire, several of which have turned into unexpectedly nasty affairs. But it's looking like Republicans are facing serious headwinds in the Granite State with reports that Trump is pulling out, giving Democrats a strong shot at flipping the governorship. The Davids also zoom in on a House race that's suddenly looking competitive in, of all places, Florida.