Domenico Montanaro

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast for Monday, February 9th, 2026.

I'm Miles Parks.

I cover voting.

I'm Stephen Fowler.

I cover politics.

And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

And today on the show, a midterms temperature check.

We are just somehow only a month away from the first primary elections of this midterm season.

And already a record number of House lawmakers have decided that they are not running again.

So, Domenico, I want to start big picture here.

Lay out the landscape for the Senate and the House right now as we see it.

OK, so they would need to win basically every seat they currently have and then pick up four other Republican seats to pick up the Senate.

Is that right?

Right.

So there's all these indicators pointing seemingly towards Democrats right now.

And another one of those indicators, right, Stephen, is retirements, because more Republican incumbents at this point have announced that they're going to not seek their seat in 2026.

Can you tell us more about that?

Can you dig in a little bit more on the reasons for why people say they're not running for reelection?

I mean, is this just I feel like I've talked to congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt a lot about like, this also just currently in the current moment feels like a bad job.

Like, is a lot of this just members of Congress aren't having very much fun right now?