Full Episode - Decoding Missouri’s Election Map Mess + Remembering The “Voice Of A Century”

Chuck Todd reads the New Hampshire results as a straightforward establishment win — the progressive dog didn't bark, outside groups largely stayed out, and Jeanne Shaheen's decades of organization-building still define the state party. He expects a four-to-six point Senate race and would be surprised, though not shocked, if it flipped, since Sununu's politics run a bit conservative for New Hampshire. Then he turns to the redistricting chaos in Missouri, where the state's electoral process has been thrown into genuine disarray: Secretary of State Denny Hoskins sat on 300,000 referendum signatures until primary election day before rejecting them, the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled the 2025 map never took effect and ordered November run on the old lines with the new map going to a statewide vote with the August primary already conducted on a map that isn't law. Chuck argues Hoskins created this mess through partisan hackery, points to Texas in 1996 as precedent, and says a special election would be the fairest resolution. He also flags Dan Osborn's tricky balancing act in Nebraska, and a New York Times report that Roger Marshall's practice sued roughly 700 patients over unpaid medical bills — some for just a few hundred dollars — before he later voted to limit hospitals' collection powers. Chuck’s read: damaging material doesn't land on a reporter's desk by accident, the timing could matter enormously in a race Democrats have put in play.

Then, Anthony Tommasini — chief classical music critic for the New York Times from 2000 to 2021 — joins the Chuck Toddcast to discuss Voice of a Century: The Life and Artistry of Marian Anderson, out September 8th as part of the Significations series curated by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Tommasini didn't seek the project; he was asked to write it. His argument is that Anderson has been flattened into two civil rights milestones — the 1939 Lincoln Memorial concert before 75,000 people after the DAR barred her from Constitution Hall, and breaking the Met's color line — when the reason she mattered in the first place was the voice. He describes her extraordinary range, her European breakthrough (and the promoters who essentially whitewashed her race to sell her), her decision not to learn Italian because she knew American opera was closed to her, and the fact that had she been born thirty years later she'd have had an opera career.

The human material is remarkable: conscripted into a church choir at six, largely self-taught at piano, denied a hotel room and put up by Albert Einstein, who became a friend and pushed her to speak out more than she wanted to. Anderson's aim was to be a great artist, not an activist. They also get into the state of classical music in 2026 — why symphonies are so expensive to sustain, why live performance can't be replicated, and which American orchestra he'd send you to first.

Finally, Chuck presents his ToddCast Top 5 potential red state sweeps for the Democrats and answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment.

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Timeline:

00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction

02:30 The establishment got its way in NH primary elections

04:45 The progressive dog didn’t bark in New Hampshire

05:15 Outside groups mostly stayed out of NH races

06:45 Jeanne Shaheen built & basically is the NH Democratic Party

08:15 NH senate race will likely be in a 4-6 point range

09:45 Sununu’s politics are a bit conservative for NH

11:30 Would be surprised but not shocked if NH senate goes Republicans

13:30 Missouri election map battle risks disenfranchising voters

14:00 Federal court puts temporary restraining order on the map

14:45 Missouri Republicans drew new maps to achieve 7-1 or 8-0 result

15:45 Voters collected enough signatures for referendum on map

16:30 Missouri secretary of state delayed until day of primary election

18:30 State Supreme Court unanimously ruled new map didn’t take effect

19:30 The old map is still in effect, but primary voters voted on the new map

20:15 SCOTUS declined to intervene, it’s a state issue

21:00