The Bulwark Daily
The Bulwark Daily

Wright Thompson and Jesse Lehrich: Hopium and Hate

September 17, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

"The only thing I did wrong was staying in this town."

That's how The Bulwark Daily episode closes — with Wright Thompson, the great sports and culture writer, reflecting on the complicated love and hate that binds people to place, to family, to football, and to a politics that feels increasingly untethered from the facts that once grounded it. The episode is a double-header: first, a midterm election state-of-play with Democratic strategist-turned-streamer Jesse Lehrich, then a deep cultural conversation with Thompson about Mississippi, memory, and the Ole Miss-LSU rivalry. The throughline is the gap between feeling and fact — and what happens when politics, sports, and identity run on inherited emotion rather than lived experience.

The Midterm Map: Hopium and Hard Truths

Jesse Lehrich arrived as a self-described "hopium huffer." His baseline prediction: Democrats will win almost all contested Senate races and flip the House by a comfortable margin. He walked through a map that included Alaska (Mary Peltola winning by six to eight points), Texas, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, and even South Carolina, where he argued Lindsey Graham's unpopularity and a weak Democratic opponent could make the race closer than expected. "I think Democrats will win almost all of these contested races," he said. "These things tend to tip all in one direction in these wave years."

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What you'll learn

  • 1 Timestamped Outline
  • 2 (01:36) **Jesse Lehrich Joins for Midterm Preview** - Tim Miller introduces the show's double-header: a political segment with former Hillary Clinton spokesperson Jesse Lehrich, followed by a cultural segment with writer Wright Thompson.
  • 3 (03:01) **Midterm State of Play: Hopium vs. Bedwetting** - Jesse positions himself as a "hopium huffer" who expects Democrats to win most contested races, but warns against mistaking short-term wins for fixing underlying brand problems.
  • 4 (04:18) **The Vice President's Pitch Problem** - The hosts analyze Kamala Harris's closing argument, where she asks voters for "another chance," and Jesse diagnoses it as a structural communications failure.
  • 5 (06:31) **The Senate Map: Jesse's Bold Predictions** - Jesse goes state-by-state, predicting Democrats will win nearly every contested race, including long-shot prospects in Kansas, Nebraska, and South Carolina.
  • 6 (10:05) **The Heterodoxy Imperative for Red-State Democrats** - Jesse argues that Democrats running in Trump+10+ districts need to distinguish themselves from the national party, even if it means taking uncomfortable positions.
  • 7 (11:52) **Jesse's 54-Seat Senate Map** - Jesse builds his map live on air, predicting Democrats win Alaska, Ohio, Maine, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Mississippi.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Tim Miller

Show Notes

Republicans are reeling, the vibes are shifting, and the wave is building. Jesse serves up a particularly optimistic view of the Democrats' chances in the midterms, with even stretch districts now in play. And ahead of Saturday's Ole Miss-LSU game, Wright shares how Mississippians are responding to the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and says that conservative farmers in the state are turning on MAGA. Plus, the love of a father and Ole Miss football, some Magnolia Bowl lore, why 1956 is the linchpin year in college sports history, and predicting the hate ratio on Saturday in Oxford.

Wright Thompson and Jesse Lehrich join Tim Miller.

show notes:

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