Can Indy Vet Todd Achilles Pull It Off in Idaho? Does Sen Jim Risch Hate Veterans?

Deadlock in Israeli Elections. Bolsonaro Lands in Miami After Fleeing Brazil. Remember Alex Pretti?

Idaho is one of the most independent-minded states in America, and for the first time in a generation it has an independent on the ballot who can actually win. Todd Achilles — army veteran, longtime public servant, and the first candidate endorsed by Independent Veterans of America — is within single digits of Jim Risch, an 83-year-old incumbent who won't debate, refuses town halls on the Iran war and the farm bill, and voted against the PACT Act. Paul Rieckhoff gets under the hood with Achilles on how a one-man-band truck campaign became a national story, why Republicans and Democrats alike are breaking toward him, and what the dark money machine is about to unload in the final days.

This conversation is a field report from the front line of the independent movement. Achilles and Rieckhoff dig into the closed-primary trap that forces Idahoans to register Republican just to vote, the 45%-plus of Americans who no longer have a party, and the coordinated attacks from Trump and Hillary Clinton alike warning voters not to "waste" their vote on independents. Paul also hits the day's headlines — Bolsonaro landing in Miami after fleeing Brazil, the deadlocked Israeli elections, and the forgotten murder of Alex Pretti. If you want to know what the next America looks like, it looks a lot like Todd Achilles grinding out two yards at a time in Idaho.

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