Candidate Confessional - Defeated Politicians Tell All
Kanal-Details
Candidate Confessional - Defeated Politicians Tell All
Everyone loses. But some losses sting worse than others. This is a podcast about tough defeats. Hosts Sam Stein and Jason Cherkis talk to candidates who came up short in their bid for president, governor, senator and other elected office; those defined by YouTube moments and others who fell by painf...
Neueste Episoden
41 EpisodenThis Democrat Says The Party Needs To Reinvent Itself In The Era Of Trump
Virginia Democrat Tom Perriello lost his congressional seat in the Tea Party wave of 2010. In 2017, he jumped back in the ring with a run for Governor...
What It’s Like To Be At The Center Of One Of The Biggest Political Sex Scandals In American History
In 2006, John Edwards hired Rielle Hunter to produce a series of videos that would help lay the groundwork for his planned presidential run. That she...
These Two Senators Voted Against The Iraq War. They Thought They Were Ending Their Careers
When Senators Kent Conrad and Dick Durbin cast their votes against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002, they knew it was unlikely they’d be able to stop t...
The Only Person Ever To Lose An Election To Mitt Romney
In 2002, Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien decided to throw her hat in the ring in the race for governor. Her opponent would be one Willar...
The South Florida Dem Who Got Hacked By The Russians
In early 2016, the race for the 26th congressional district looked like it was shaping up to be a pretty standard Florida election, as Democrat Annett...
Revisiting The Last Disaster In The Gulf
In the Spring of 2010, one of the worst environmental disasters in history occurred when the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded in the Gulf of Me...
What It Was Like To Be An Openly Gay Politician In 1996
In 1996, two of congress’s only 3 openly gay members were set to retire; only Barney Frank would be left standing. To fill the void, two new gay candi...
The Day The Global Economy Stood Still
In the fall of 2008, President George W. Bush warned top political leaders that without a massive infusion of cash into the market, "this sucker" -- t...
The Real History Of The Infamous Compromise Behind Don't Ask Don't Tell
In 1994, Bill Clinton signed a directive allowing gays to serve in the military, provided they concealed their sexual identity. That policy -- Don't A...
The Senate Candidate Who Put Together An AR-15 Blindfolded
Jason Kander ran what was widely considered one of the best Senate campaigns of the 2016 cycle. He combined an impressive resume with youthful vigor a...
How A Tea Party Darling Was Undone By Hubris, Drugs, and Washington D.C. (But Mainly Drugs)
Trey Radel had a promising congressional career ahead of him -- before it all came crashing down one night after he attempted to purchase cocaine from...
How A Conservative Writer Became A Target For The Alt-Right
David French never thought he'd run for office, let alone the White House. But in the spring of 2016, as the Never Trump movement was growing desperat...
What It’s Like to Campaign Against Donald Trump And Vladimir Putin At The Same Time
When Donald Trump won the Republican presidential primary, most Democrats cheered their good fortune. Not the Clinton campaign. They worried about an...
How One Senator Found His Calling In The Wake Of Tragedy
Chris Murphy never thought much about gun control when he was serving in the House. In fact, he often parroted the NRA's talking points out of politic...
The Incredible Inside Story Of How Bernie Sanders Raised $218 Million Online
When Bernie Sanders launched his presidential campaign, he needed someone to do his online fundraising. He chose the team at Revolution Messaging (or...
Coming Soon: Candidate Confessional Season 2
Sam Stein and Jason Cherkis will go back to look at some of the biggest stories from campaigns past - the scandals, the policy battles, the failures a...
BONUS: The Rise And Fall Of James Comey
Candidate Confessional season 2 approaches! In the meantime, host Sam Stein sits down with Huffpost's senior justice reporter Ryan Reilly and former D...
BONUS: Huffpost's All-Star Trumpcare Panel
Candidate Confessional Season 2 is on the way! But in the meantime, we assembled a panel of Huffpost healthcare reporters to chew on yesterday's legis...
The Man Who Tried To Help Al Gore Win The White House
The 2000 presidential election was 16 years ago. But for Ron Klain, a lawyer for Vice President Al Gore, the loss still hurts. Klain sits down with Hu...
Gary Johnson On His Run For President
Gary Johnson was the governor of New Mexico before he decided to embark on a presidential run in 2012. Johnson talks to Huffington Post's Sam Stein an...
An Obama-Backing Democrat On The Craziness Of Those First Two Years
Tom Perriello eked out one of the closest wins in the 2008 cycle. But rather than tack to the ideological middle once in office, he chose instead to b...
Jesse Jackson On His Two White House Runs
In 1984, Jesse Jackson grew convinced that for black Americans to advance their political causes, they needed a black candidate for president. The pro...
Sandra Fluke On Her Run For State Senate
When Sandra Fluke was called a "slut" by Rush Limbaugh, simply for advocating for insurance coverage of contraception, she faced a choice: step back f...
Jeb Bush's Communications Director On His Run For The White House
Jeb Bush's campaign for the White House ended far more disastrously than many people predicted. In the latest episode, Bush's communications director,...
Clay Aiken On His 2014 Congressional Campaign
When Clay Aiken ran for Congress in 2014, most people assumed it was a vanity project: a former American Idol star trying to hack it in politics. But...
Jon Huntsman On His 2012 Presidential Campaign
Jon Huntsman's presidential campaign never took off in 2012, despite being the candidate that President Obama feared most. Looking back, the former Ut...
The Pain Of Losing By Four Votes
When Karl Kassel was recruited to run for a state Senate seat in Alaska, he had no idea just how historic his race would be. Out of 10,000 votes cast,...
Martin O'Malley Opens Up About His Presidential Campaign
Martin O'Malley brought an impressive resume to his 2016 White House run: a young, former governor with progressive results. But it never seemed to st...
Anthony Weiner Relives His Run For Mayor Of New York City
When Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011, his career in politics appeared over, crushed by a scandal in which he sent lurid tweets and texts...
Richard Carmona On His 2012 Senate Campaign
For years Richard Carmona resisted pleas from both parties to run for office. He was a former U.S. Surgeon General under George W. Bush, a one-time po...
How The Hell Do You Lose To Rob Ford?
Rob Ford, the former mayor of Toronto, is known for many things: an outlandish personality, offensive language, and, of course, the times he was caugh...
Newt Gingrich's Odd And Wonderful 2012 Campaign
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) is one of the most dramatic and divisive political figures in modern U.S. history. And when he ran for pres...
A Republican Dishes On The Dangers Of Being Bipartisan
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) got along well with the opposition throughout his career. He had good relations with Democrats and appeared on shows like B...
Relive One Of The Worst Booings In Political History
During his campaign for mayor of Toledo in 2009, Ben Konop delivered a speech that became Internet lore. Appearing on the street where his mom grew up...
Former RNC Chair Michael Steele On His 2006 Senate Campaign
Before he became an MSNBC personality; before he became chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele ran for the U.S. Senate in Maryl...
Tim Pawlenty On His Presidential Run
Tim Pawlenty had everything a Republican presidential candidate should have. He was a governor with a blue-collar conservative brand and the best oper...
Wendy Davis On Her Run For Governor
Wendy Davis became an icon in 2013 when she stood on the floor of the Texas Senate for nearly 13 hours to beat back anti-abortion legislation. Althoug...
Mitt Romney's Top Aide On The White House Run
Mitt Romney's run for the White House in 2012 featured incredible highs (a boffo debate performance against Barack Obama) and excruciating lows (a wid...
Michele Bachmann On Her Run For The White House
Former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was one of most provocative conservative in Congress. She parlayed that reputation into a brief stint as a fron...
Howard Dean on His Presidential Campaign
In the 2004 campaign, Howard Dean went from being a little known governor of Vermont to a leading Democratic presidential candidate, surging on his op...