Democrats swept the 2026 midterms, winning control in Washington and across Michigan. But what were voters really saying — and what will they expect now? Stephen Henderson talks with NPR veteran political correspondent Don Gonyea, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, Bridge Michigan reporters and callers from across the state about political realignment, divisions that remain, and the challenge of turning an electoral landslide into meaningful change.

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Monroe County, in the far southeast corner of Michigan along the western shore of Lake Erie, went twice for Barack Obama, and then to Donald Trump for the next three elections.

There aren't many places in the nation like that.

So we went to Monroe, just a week and a half before the 2026 mid-term elections, to talk with voters - Democrats, Republicans and independents, about what's on their minds.

What we heard, mostly, was concern about local issues -- a community college, farms and businesses, how the national immigration debates are playing out in a small community.

What we didn't hear, mostly, was talk about the political parties and their bitter differences. When we did hear about that, it was when people said they were tired of party interfering with solution-making.

Of course, that's not an uncommon sentiment. But there was something powerful about hearing voters talk specifically about how wide they believe the margin is between their concerns, and what gets the political parties' attention.

Many thanks to Randy Richardville, former state senate majority leader from Monroe, for assembling the voters we talked with.

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The U.S. Senate race between Abdul El Sayed and Mike Rogers is disrupting traditional political alignments in the Black and Jewish communities in southeast Michigan.

In this episode Stephen goes to talk with voters and organizers in both communities about how they're managing difficult conversations about El Sayed's Arab American and Muslim background. The show includes interviews with canvassers who are knocking doors on Detroit's west side, and organizers of a house party where members of the Jewish community gathered to talk about the election's

In studio, we were joined by former congressman Andy Levin, Branden Snyder of the Working Families Party, Kermit Williams of Oakland Forward and Eli Williams-Szenes of Bend the Arc.

Callers from around the state shared intimate stories about their experiences sorting through these issues in the election.

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In the third episode of our Michigan Decides shows about the 2026 elections, Stephen and guests discuss political ads - how and why they're made, how they've changed, and whether they're effective.

Jill Alper, who has done political consulting for nearly 40 years at the state and national level, talked about a number of ads in the current cycle, especially in the contested U.S. Senate race between Democrat Abdul El Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers.

Jason Cabel Roe, also a longtime political consultant, and Michal Traugott, a research professor at the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan, joined Stephen in studio to talk about the ads and talk with callers, who rang in from around the state.

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Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers faced off in a U.S. Senate debate with just weeks to go before Election Day. Immediately afterward, Stephen Henderson was joined by longtime NPR political correspondent Don Gonyea and Gongwer Michigan reporter Liz Nass to make sense of what Michigan voters heard.

What were the candidates trying to accomplish? Who were they trying to persuade? And what did the debate reveal about the larger political divide in Michigan?

Plus, listeners call in with the moments that stood out to them, the issues they still want the candidates to address, and what they need to hear before casting their votes.

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As Michigan: We Need to Talk launches its Michigan Decides series ahead of the 2026 election, Stephen Henderson asks how voters can sort fact from fiction in an increasingly complicated information environment.

Bridge Michigan journalists Jonathan Oosting and Jordyn Hermani take listeners inside their fact-checking process, including claims emerging from Michigan’s U.S. Senate race and the growing use of AI-generated political content. Longtime national political journalist and Knight-Wallace Fellow Libby Casey discusses social media creators, trust and the new challenges AI poses for voters. And PolitiFact’s Caleb McCullough looks at misinformation nationally and explains what he’s finding as he fact-checks Michigan campaigns.

Plus, Michigan listeners share the political mailers, advertisements and online claims that have made them stop and ask: Can I actually believe this?

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In Episode 7 of "Michigan: We Need to Talk," Stephen goes to the source, first, for discussion about AI: He interviews an AI model, Claude, about its uses, its promise and its dangers. The results were surprising, and informative.

We then welcomed Shobita Parthasarathy to the show; she leads the University of Michigan Ford School for Public Policy's Science, Technology and Public Policy Program, and has been researching the effect new technologies have on our culture, norms and practices.

And Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Michigan) joined to talk about what Congress should do to rein in AI development.

Listeners chimed in from all around the state and beyond: Owosso, Milan, Three Rivers, Grand Rapids, Lansing - and Tennessee.

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Michigan Congressman Tom Barrett joins Michigan: We Need to Talk for an extended conversation about the growing anxiety around artificial intelligence — including warnings from people inside the AI industry that increasingly powerful systems could create profound risks for society.

Barrett talks with Stephen Henderson about how seriously Congress should take those warnings, what kinds of guardrails lawmakers should consider, and whether the United States can regulate AI without falling behind China and other global competitors.

They also discuss the rapid growth of AI infrastructure and data centers, the role local communities should have in deciding where those projects are built, and the broader question facing policymakers now: How do you govern a technology that is developing faster than the rules meant to contain it?

This is the full version of an interview excerpted in this week’s broadcast of Michigan: We Need to Talk.

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