Independent Voter Podcast

Olas Media
Olas Media
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Politics
  • Updated Weekly

Tired of being told what to think by partisan gatekeepers? So are we.The Independent Voter Podcast brings you conversations that challenge the two-party echo chamber and reject the false binaries dominating today’s political narratives. We focus on two things: (1) Election reforms that increase real competition and voter choice, and (2) Policy issues that defy the black-and-white frameworks set by national party agendas. We’ve been called everything: liberals, undercover Republicans, progressives, socialists, libertarians—even anarchists. And depending on the article, they’re all true.We are open to any voice that follows our simple etiquette. If you believe political independence is a mindset, not a middle ground, you’re in the right place.This the Independent Voter Podcast..

  1. 15h ago

    Border Patrol STOPPED Her: Becoming a US Citizen LEGALLY is Harder Than Ever - EP54

    IVP's own producer just became a U.S. citizen, and she's sitting down with Chad and Cara to talk about what it actually took, and what it felt like the moment she finally got to register to vote. Lina Alvarez walks Chad and Cara through her path from a marriage-based green card to studying all 128 U.S. civics questions to passing her citizenship test this month, including the multi-year "removal of conditions" process most Americans never hear about.  She describes how the naturalization process changed under the second Trump administration, including processing delays, lost visibility into her case, and a tense moment of being pulled aside for extra document checks at the U.S. border. From there, Chad connects her story to the data driving IVP's coverage all year: nearly 650,000 No Party Preference voters who had never cast a ballot in an off-year primary turned out this cycle, an unprecedented surge. The conversation turns personal and sharper when Cara adds her own gut-punch comparison and a story about a sitting California state senator who still carries her passport everywhere just in case.  The Independent Voter Podcast now has its own YouTube channel! If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to our dedicated channel for full episodes, interviews, and future content: https://youtube.com/@IndependentVoterPodcast Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us https://independentvoterproject.org Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 Chapters: 00:00:20 – Lina, our Producer Steps Out From Behind the Camera 00:01:40 – Mastery of 128 Questions: The Civics Exam Journey 00:02:43 – Marriage-Based Paths and the Long "Removal of Conditions" Wait 00:04:48 – Analyzing the Surge of Latino Participation in California 00:05:51 – A New Voter’s Dilemma: Party Choice and Independence 00:07:24 – Immediate Registration: The Unique California Experience 00:09;23 – Mobilizing 650,000 NPP Voters through IVP’s Massive Outreach 00:19;05 – Navigating Processing Delays and Visibility Gaps Under Trump 00:21:30 – Tense Encounters: Pulled Aside for Extra Border Checks 00:28:39 – More Choice California Gains LA Times Front-Page Spotlight Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Border Patrol STOPPED Her: Becoming a US Citizen LEGALLY is Harder Than Ever - EP54

  2. 2d ago

    Why Rick Bennett Left the GOP to Run for Governor of Maine (NOT What You Think) - EP53

    Rick Bennett climbed to the top of Maine's Republican Party - President of the Senate - and now he's running for governor without a party at all. His reasoning is blunt: the parties themselves are a major reason government stopped working.Chad and Cara sit down with the independent candidate for Governor of Maine to talk about why a lifelong Republican with the credentials to play the party game decided to walk away from it. Rick lays out Maine's affordability crisis, the endorsements rolling in from Republicans, Democrats and independents alike, and why he thinks the "spoiler" question is the wrong argument entirely. From there it goes places most election-reform conversations don't: no-bid contracts, a state auditor's report on MaineCare violations, spending up nearly 80% in a decade, and a legislature that hasn't held a public hearing on the budget in six years. Then Cara and Rick get into the federal lawsuit they're both intervening in - and what the other side actually argued out loud in front of the First Circuit. The Independent Voter Podcast now has its own YouTube channel! If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to our dedicated channel for full episodes, interviews, and future content: https://youtube.com/@IndependentVoterPodcast Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us https://independentvoterproject.org Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 Chapters: 00:00:45 – Full Disclosure: Why Chad Broke His Own Rule 00:01:47 – Rick Bennett: From Republican Senate President to Independent Candidate 00:03:25 – Maine's Political Tradition & The Affordability Crisis 00:04:47 – Cara's Origin Story: How the Spoiler Problem Led Her to RCV 00:06:20 – Independent Governors in Maine: It's Been Done Before 00:08:03 – Spoiling for Whom? The Whole System Is Corrupt 00:09:48 – Beyond RCV: Inspector General, No-Bid Contracts & the Public Purse 00:13:19 – Should the Secretary of State Be Nonpartisan? 00:15:32 – Super PAC Reform & The First Circuit Court Fight 00:19:35 – The California Initiative That Could Work in Maine Too Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Why Rick Bennett Left the GOP to Run for Governor of Maine (NOT What You Think) - EP53

  3. Aug 13

    Elon Musk's $1.5 Million Attack on Ranked Choice Voting in Alaska - EP52

    Elon Musk just quietly put $1.5 million behind a network aimed at killing Alaska's top-four open primary. The kicker: the same measure would repeal the transparency law that let anyone find out he paid for it. Then the crew digs into Musk's money in Alaska: who's really behind the repeal, why MAGA wants Alaska's system gone, and why Chad argues closed primaries are voter suppression on a scale that dwarfs every voter ID fight in the country. Cara's back from the California Politico Agenda Summit in Sacramento with a Nancy Pelosi scoop about what she actually told Joe Biden before he dropped out - and Chad refuses to let Pelosi off the hook. Along the way: a New York poll where a third of Democrats admit they're not really Democrats and Abdul El-Sayed's viral shot at John Fetterman.  The Independent Voter Podcast now has its own YouTube channel! If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to our dedicated channel for full episodes, interviews, and future content: https://youtube.com/@IndependentVoterPodcast Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us https://independentvoterproject.org Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 Chapters: 0:00 Elon Musk & Alaska's Open Primary 1:03 Welcome Back & Cara's Sacramento Recap 4:19 Chad's Take: Pelosi Ripping Trump's Speech 6:42 Musk, the Aurora Network & Alaska's Primary Fight 10:15 The Case Against Closed Primaries 14:01 New York's Primary Fight & the NAACP Clash 18:05 Abdul El-Sayed, Fetterman & "Electability by Looks" 23:13 Trump, Musk & Gerrymandering: The Devil's Advocate 24:45 Trump's Secret Plane Switch & Congrats to Lina 28:29 Wrap-Up & Where to Follow the Show   Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Elon Musk's $1.5 Million Attack on Ranked Choice Voting in Alaska - EP52

  4. Aug 6

    Missouri Voters Crushed a Partisan Power Grab - the State Blocked Them Anyway - EP51

    Missouri voters showed up and shut down the legislature's attempt to gut citizen initiatives - and then, hours before polls closed, the Secretary of State went in front of a camera and declared their 300,000-signature people's veto unconstitutional anyway. Cara McCormick, Ethan Handelman, and Shawn Griffiths break down what actually happened in Missouri: the legislature's repeat attempts to raise thresholds and choke off petition drives, the mid-cycle gerrymander that made Missouri the third state to redraw its maps in 2025, and the pile-on that followed — a third of signatures thrown out, an ICE referral aimed at petition circulators, a Black Friday mass text campaign, and a map that never got suspended the way the law says it should. From there it's the DNC's August 15 vote to bar ranked choice voting from the delegate process, a Maine primary where 72% of voters picked a nominee the party swapped out anyway, and the case for a mandatory retirement age that applies to everyone on the taxpayer's dime (inspired by Mitch McConnell’s 50 day Senate absence).  The Independent Voter Podcast now has its own YouTube channel! If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to our dedicated channel for full episodes, interviews, and future content: https://youtube.com/@IndependentVoterPodcast Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us https://independentvoterproject.org Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 Chapters: 00:00:00 – Missouri Voters Reject the Legislature's Power Grab 00:05:06 – People Not Politicians vs. Secretary Hoskins 00:09:07 – The DNC's War on Ranked Choice Voting 00:14:12 – How Parties Override Their Own Primaries 00:17:36 – Mitch McConnell, Age Limits & Term Limits 00:21:17 – Trump's Poll Numbers & Truth Social Pay-to-Play 00:25:14 – Two-Thirds of Americans Don't Trust Elections 00:28:03 – Elon Musk's $120M Super PAC Midterm Bet 00:30:32 – Maine's Question 1: Capping Super PAC Contributions 00:35:16 – Money Equals Speech? The Supreme Court's Call Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Missouri Voters Crushed a Partisan Power Grab - the State Blocked Them Anyway - EP51

  5. Jul 30

    27 Years in Uniform, Now Running Against BOTH Parties in Oregon (Jason Faler) - EP50

    A 27-year Army officer with three deployments looked at Congress and decided the problem wasn't which party was winning - it was that both of them were. So Jason Faler is running in Oregon's 6th with no letter behind his name.Jason walks us through the road from four-generation Oregonian to combat tours in Baghdad and the Horn of Africa to healthcare administrator and professor - and the "frog in the boiling water" moment that finally pushed him to run. He lays out the number almost nobody in Oregon knows: unaffiliated voters went from 22% of the electorate in 2012 to roughly 40% today, which means the largest voting bloc in his district belongs to no party at all. We get into why so many veterans end up in nonpartisan reform, why he won't just run in a primary and take the easy path, and what it actually costs to get on a ballot when your two opponents ran unopposed.  The Independent Voter Podcast now has its own YouTube channel! If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to our dedicated channel for full episodes, interviews, and future content: https://youtube.com/@IndependentVoterPodcast Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us https://independentvoterproject.org Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 Chapters: 00:00:00 – The Parties Are the Problem 00:00:37 – Meet Jason Faler 00:03:17 – What Pulled Him Into Politics 00:07:04 – Independent by Conviction, Not by Default 00:08:28 – From Iraq to Oregon – Why He's Running 00:11:55 – Veterans, the Military & Political Independence 00:15:03 – The Barriers to Running as an Independent 00:19:03 – Clipboard Democracy in the Digital Age 00:24:29 – When Elections Become Auctions 00:27:15 – The Largest Voting Bloc Nobody Knows About Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    27 Years in Uniform, Now Running Against BOTH Parties in Oregon (Jason Faler) - EP50

  6. Jul 23

    The First REAL Working-Class Senator? Troy Jackson Explained - EP49

    Everyone's calling Troy Jackson the establishment's safe replacement for Graham Platner. Here's the thing: Jackson has defied Democratic Party leadership more than Platner ever did - and he's got two decades of receipts.    Cara called the whole Maine shakeup before it happened - Platner out, Troy Jackson in - and she explains why she saw it coming and why she's genuinely excited about it. Chad and Cara break down what makes Jackson different: a Senate president who bucked his own party's leadership to back ranked choice voting, outperformed other Democrats with Trump voters, and would be the first bona fide working-class U.S. Senator in a chamber of 100.  The Independent Voter Podcast now has its own YouTube channel! If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to our dedicated channel for full episodes, interviews, and future content: https://youtube.com/@IndependentVoterPodcast Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us https://independentvoterproject.org Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 Chapters: 00:00:00 – First Working-Class Senator in U.S. History? 00:00:20 – Someone Robbed Our Studio 00:02:12 – Cara Predicted the Whole Maine Shakeup 00:05:14 – Troy Jackson Defied His Own Party More Than Platner Ever Did 00:06:47 – 58 Years Old, Two Decades of Receipts 00:09:59 – A Democratic Governor Just Proved Trump's Point 00:12:45 – Why the Best Idea Never Wins in American Politics 00:13:50 – California's AG Rewrote a Ballot Title Overnight 00:17:22 – Unlimited Ballots, No Relationship Required 00:19:16 – Does Voter ID Actually Fix Ballot Harvesting? Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    The First REAL Working-Class Senator? Troy Jackson Explained - EP49

  7. Jul 16

    They're ERASING 71% of the Vote: How Maine Democrats Replace Graham Platner - EP48

    Graham Platner won Maine's Democratic Senate primary with 71% of the vote and record turnout - and none of it matters anymore. Cara, Shawn, and Ethan break down how an obscure section of Maine election law lets 600 party delegates in Bangor erase the biggest primary win in state history. After a barely-there vetting process collapsed under press scrutiny, Platner withdrew - and now the Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 to hand-pick his replacement, with no ranked choice voting and no input from the independents who helped elect him. The crew digs into who's really pulling the strings, why Troy Jackson ("the Johnny Cash of the Allagash") could become the only working-class senator out of 100, and what this saga says about anti-establishment energy from Obama to Trump to the DSA. Then the conversation takes a turn: the sudden death of Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell's "proof of life" photo, and whether it's finally time for an age limit on every federal job. Plus a lingering question about Graham's final trip to Ukraine that the hosts can't quite shake. The Independent Voter Podcast now has its own YouTube channel! If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to our dedicated channel for full episodes, interviews, and future content: https://youtube.com/@IndependentVoterPodcast Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us https://independentvoterproject.org Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 Chapters: 00:00:00 – Power, Parties, and What Your Vote Really Means 00:00:24 – Graham Platner: How a Lobsterman Search Found an Oyster Farmer 00:02:41 – The Vetting Failure That Exposed a Campaign 00:06:28 – When Your Vote Only Counts If the Party Allows It 00:07:33 – California vs. Maine – Two Elections, Two Very Different Systems 00:09:29 – Who's Running to Replace Platner — and Who's Pulling the Strings 00:11:21 – Troy Jackson – The Only Working Class Candidate in the Senate 00:21:26 – Lindsey Graham's Death and the McConnell Proof-of-Life Mystery 00:22:50 – Should There Be an Age Limit on Federal Government? 00:30:09 – Lessons from the Platner Collapse – What Democrats Should Do Next Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    They're ERASING 71% of the Vote: How Maine Democrats Replace Graham Platner - EP48

  8. Jul 2

    Why Latino Voters Backed Trump - Then Mamdani (NOT What You Think) | Mike Madrid - EP47

    The same young Latino voters who swung to Donald Trump in 2024 just handed New York to Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani - and no, they haven't changed their minds about anything. Strategist Mike Madrid explains why the fastest-growing bloc in American politics is walking out on both parties at once.  Madrid - author of The Latino Century - joins the show to blow up the way both parties read the Latino vote. His case: what looks like voters lurching right, then left, then right again is actually a dealignment - a conscious rejection of the entire two-party system, driven by class and generation far more than ethnicity. The crew digs into California's Latino turnout surge behind Becerra, why New York's closed primaries produced a dismal 9% turnout, and what really went down at the first-ever National Latino Summit in D.C. Stick around for his blunt advice on how voters can break the cycle of partisanship. Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us https://independentvoterproject.org 00:00:00 – The Latino Vote: America's Most Misunderstood Bloc00:01:04 – Dealignment, Not Realignment: Leaving Both Parties00:03:00 – It's Not Ethnic — Latinos Vote Their Class00:04:44 – The Turnout Story: California Surges, New York Flatlines00:09:32 – Inside the First-Ever National Latino Summit00:13:24 – Conscious Disaffiliation and the Under-30 Surge00:16:24 – Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, and Starving Voters00:18:06 – Are Latinos Really Going Socialist?00:20:22 – Adams to Trump to Mamdani in Four Years00:23:24 – The Fix Nobody Wants to Hear: Leave Your Party00:30:04 – The Voting-Rights Case Headed to Court00:34:06 – Mike's Book, Substack, and Where to Follow Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Why Latino Voters Backed Trump - Then Mamdani (NOT What You Think) | Mike Madrid - EP47
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
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About

Tired of being told what to think by partisan gatekeepers? So are we.The Independent Voter Podcast brings you conversations that challenge the two-party echo chamber and reject the false binaries dominating today’s political narratives. We focus on two things: (1) Election reforms that increase real competition and voter choice, and (2) Policy issues that defy the black-and-white frameworks set by national party agendas. We’ve been called everything: liberals, undercover Republicans, progressives, socialists, libertarians—even anarchists. And depending on the article, they’re all true.We are open to any voice that follows our simple etiquette. If you believe political independence is a mindset, not a middle ground, you’re in the right place.This the Independent Voter Podcast..

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