Winn Tucson

Guest Host - Dave Smith; Guests - Kathleen Winn, Betsy Smith, Jeff Rhodes Kathleen Winn calls in from Al's birthday celebration to announce a federal court victory — Judge Liburdi has enjoined Fontes and Kris Mayes from enforcing the provision that let poll workers remove uniformed officers and military personnel from voting centers, capping a legal fight that included a Tucson cop literally turne...

Guests - Jon Riches, Joel Strabala, James Rogers, Michael Letts Graham Plattner's exit from the Maine Senate race opens the week — and Winn argues he didn't just drop out, he poisoned the well for whoever Democrats scramble to replace him with by July 27th. Jon Riches of the Goldwater Institute explains how Kris Mayes's two-year campaign to bury Arizona's ESA program in paperwork — requiring curri...

Guests - Andy Biggs, Ava Chen, Alex Kolodin, Laurie Moore Andy Biggs calls in with a strong poll and a simple message: don't celebrate before you cross the finish line — there are two weeks left and Katie Hobbs has nothing to run on except a record she's actively trying to hide. Ava Chen delivers a three-part China Watch update: why Miles Guo is refusing a pardon and fighting for full exoneration...

Guests - Anthony Dunham, Jeff Rhodes, Gilda Carle, Elijah Norton, Joel Strabala, Rick Shafton Anthony Dunham brings a retired judge on the record to call his opponent's child abuse mailers categorically false — and names the reporter who was told the same thing months before the hit piece went out. Jeff Rhodes breaks down the write-in mechanics for Supervisor District 5 and explains why getting on...

Guests - Joel Strabala, Betsy Smith, Charles Heller, Dave Smith. Gary Benoit Joel Strabala opens the week with a ballot emergency alert — thousands of voters purged from rolls, Green Valley stripped of 10 polling places while the mobile voting center skips right past it, and a July 10th deadline to fix registration problems before it's too late. Betsy Brantner Smith returns from vacation to cover...

Guests - Rodney Glassman, Joel Strabala, Edward Bartlett Rodney Glassman makes his closing argument for the AG primary — centering on prosecutorial experience, a day-one plan to withdraw Arizona from all 42 of Kris Mayes's lawsuits, and a warning that a sloppily written legislative resolution may accidentally kill the election-integrity measure Republicans worked years to get on the November ballo...

Guests - Ava Chen, Thomas Horne, Juan Ciscomani Ava Chen delivers a gripping firsthand account from inside the Southern District of New York courtroom where Miles Guo was sentenced to 30 years — describing a man who arrived bleeding, dehydrated, and barely standing after a morning medical crisis at MDC, then rose to correct the prosecution's record on the stand and walked out still encouraging his...

Guests - Alex Kolodin, Dan Butierez, Eileen Wilson, Michael Letts, Jeff Rhodes Alex Kolodin delivers his closing argument to Arizona voters as ballots hit mailboxes — and breaks down exactly why Fontes's new directive barring armed officers from the polls is both legally baseless and deliberately targeted. Daniel Gutierrez explains why his name isn't on anyone's primary ballot yet, and why CD7 is...

Guests - Dennis Kneale, John Strand, Tracy Murphy

Guests - Ava Chen, Charles Heller

Guests - Jay Foard, Elijah Norton, Lisa Von Geldern Jay Foard makes the case that the youth reading crisis is a culture war problem, not just an education one — and pitches his novel Rustling of the Sycamore as a deliberate antidote built around faith, family, and critical thinking. Elijah Norton fires back at attack ads from his treasurer primary opponent by leaning entirely on his own financial...

Guests - Art Del Cueto, Alex Kolodin, Warren Peterson Art Del Cueto makes the case for Andy Biggs ahead of the governor's primary while warning that intra-party grudges and "RINO"-shaming are the real threat to Republican unity. Alex Kolodin breaks down the Save Act, a competing Democrat-backed ballot measure designed to confuse voters, and his unbroken win streak against Secretary of State Adrian...

Guests - Seth Keshel, Joel Strabala, Jay Tolkoff Seth Keshel breaks down the midterm map with data instead of doom, arguing Arizona's two competitive congressional seats and LD17's legislative races are winnable if Republicans avoid the ballot-splitting mistakes of past cycles. Joel Strabala explains why poll observers and early ballot returns matter more than most voters realize. And Jay Tolkoff...

Guests - Sheriff Richard Mack, Rachel Keshel, Jack Dona Sheriff Richard Mack returns with a provocative new book co-written to influence the midterms, Representative Rachel Keshel recaps a legislative session that ended in an all-night Democrat meltdown over election integrity wins, and retired Master Sergeant Jack Dona digs into the fight over disabled veterans' tax exemptions and a contentious A...

Guests - Betsy Smith, Steve Mundt The thwarted attack planned around last week's UFC fight at the White House held the day's first and most urgent thread. What was publicly described as a drone threat was, in Betsy Brantner Smith's telling, far more calculated and far more sinister than initial headlines suggested. Retired Brigadier General Steven D. Mundt joined the second hour to provide the mil...

Guests - Ava Chen, Kenneth Abramowitz, Yvette Serino The week's conversation opened with a chilling near-miss: a plot involving drones and snipers, allegedly timed around a UFC fight and reportedly intended to target an area where members of Arizona's congressional delegation and their families were in attendance. Host Kathleen Winn described learning that people she knew personally were on-site w...

Guest Host Lisa Von Geldern with Susan Ellsworth & Ron Desouza While Kathleen Winn was in federal court arguing that the Elections Procedures Manual violates the First Amendment, her guest host for the morning had her own court to hold. Lisa Von Geldern — Arizona state coordinator for the John Birch Society, organizer of the Salt Lake City conference that had just wrapped, and a woman who move...

Guests - Alex Kolodin, Rodney Glassman Monday on Winn Tucson opened on rain — unusual for Tucson in mid-June — and moved into the most consequential news in Arizona electoral politics in years. The legislative session ended at four in the morning. Arizona is now the first state in the country to fully conform to the Trump tax cuts. An Arizona version of the SAVE Act will go before voters in Novemb...

Guests - Peter Churchbourne, Joel Strabala Friday on Winn Tucson opened the last weekend before ballots start dropping with two conversations that could not be more different in scale — one national, one hyper-local — and both indispensable for the moment we're in. A brand-new organization that has actually been around for 36 years announced itself to the country this week. And the man who knows P...

Guests - Terry Gilbert, Scott Schara Thursday on Winn Tucson opened with breaking news from Washington and closed with something more quietly consequential: the final installment of an eight-week series by a father who turned the worst thing that ever happened to him into the most practical warning he could offer anyone who might one day need a hospital. Between those two bookends: a portrait of a...

Hosts - Kathleen Winn & Dave Smith. Guests - Ava Chen, Anthony Dunham Wednesday on Winn Tucson was a show assembled in motion. Dave Smith was holding the studio alone when the show started, Anthony Dunham was in-studio ready to talk about the LD-17 State Senate race, and Kathleen Winn was still in the air somewhere between Washington, D.C. and Tucson — having started the day before 4 a.m. She...

Guest Hosts - Dave and Betsy Smith.  Guests - Eileen Wilson, Steve Selvy Tuesday on Winn Tucson found the hosts in unfamiliar chairs — Dave and Betsy Brantner Smith filling in while Kathleen Winn attended the Presidential 1776 Award finals at the White House in Washington, D.C. The morning covered California's impossible election math, a Sparkle for Freedom Gala update, a Carmelo Anthony trial pre...

Guests - Josh Jacobsen, Matt Beienburg, Stephen Mundt Monday on Winn Tucson came back from the White House with energy and kept it all the way through. Three guests, three completely different battlegrounds — all of them converging on the same diagnosis: institutions that are supposed to serve the public have been captured by people who are working against it, and the only path out is to vote peop...

Guests - Linley Wilson, Elizabeth Weiss The last Friday of the election season's opening sprint on Winn Tucson covered three subjects that don't share a news cycle but share an underlying problem: institutions that are supposed to serve the public using their authority to serve something else instead. A county attorney who doesn't prosecute crimes suing the president. Three county governments claw...

Guests - Dave Smith, Alex Kolodin, Tom Horne Thursday on Winn Tucson opened with justice being served on a man who published his own evidence and closed with a Polish-Jewish father whose love of history saved his family from the Holocaust. In between: a detailed accounting of the internecine Republican fight that is consuming time and resources during a critical election cycle, a secretary of stat...