How two swing states changed American voting

September 17, 2026

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5 min read

In the summer of 1986, the Senate held confirmation hearings for William Rehnquist to become Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The most dramatic moments did not involve his 14 years on the bench. Instead, witnesses testified about something he had done decades earlier, when he was a young lawyer in Phoenix, Arizona. They said they saw Rehnquist approach Black and Hispanic voters at polling places, demand they read from the Constitution, and challenge their eligibility to vote. Rehnquist denied the accusations but acknowledged he had given legal advice to Republicans executing what he called an “election day program.” That program, and the strategy behind it, did not end in Phoenix. It went national, and its legacy is still shaping the fight over who gets to vote in America today.

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What you'll learn

1 Timestamped Outline
2 (00:00) **Episode Introduction** - Host sets up the episode's two-part story about how Arizona and Michigan became battlegrounds for controlling the vote
3 (00:28) **The Rehnquist Confirmation Hearing - 1986** - Dramatic testimony about a future Chief Justice's actions at polling places in 1960s Phoenix
4 (04:42) **Roadmap for the Episode** - Host explains the two-part structure: Arizona's top-down voter suppression story and Michigan's bottom-up community organizing story
5 (07:21) **Who Was William Rehnquist?** - Journalist John Jenkins describes interviewing the famously reclusive Supreme Court justice
6 (09:32) **Rehnquist's Formative Years** - Tracing how a white, segregated Milwaukee suburb shaped an unflinching worldview
7 (11:33) **The Brown v. Board Memo** - At age 28, Rehnquist wrote a memo arguing the Court should not force school integration

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Today on the show, the balance of Congressional power is up for grabs in this midterm election. It could be determined by a small number of voters in a few battleground states. Blueprints from the past could be the guide for big wins. The GOP has embraced a block-the-vote strategy set in motion in Arizona in the 1960s. And the Democrats are embracing a grassroots power base set up in Michigan in the 1970s.

Guests:

John A. Jenkins, author of The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist

Tova Wang, Director of Research Projects in Democratic Practice at the Ash Center at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of The Politics of Voter Suppression: Defending and Expanding Americans' Right to Vote.

Ismael Ahmed, co-founder of the Arab American Center for Economic and Social Services.

Sally Howell, Professor of History with a focus on Arab American studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

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Correction: An earlier version of this episode incorrectly said that Michigan voters could send the first Arab American to the Senate. South Dakotan James Abourezk became the first Arab American U.S. senator in 1973.

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