How two swing states changed American voting

This episode examines two historical blueprints that continue to shape American elections. In Arizona during the 1960s, Republican operatives employed a 'block-the-vote' strategy that pioneered modern voter suppression tactics, a story tied to the career of William Rehnquist. Meanwhile in 1970s Michigan, Democrats built a grassroots power base rooted in community organizing, exemplified by the Arab American community’s civic mobilization. Throughline shows how these state-level models from the past are once again guiding the parties’ approaches to the midterm elections, where a handful of voters in battleground states could determine control of Congress.