What can we expect in the U.S. Midterm elections? As Americans head to the polls, what are the key issues, races and political forces that will shape the outcome? 

Join Sam Tanenhaus, leading expert on American conservatism and biographer of William F. Buckley Jr., and Maya Kandel, a journalist and scholar of American foreign policy, for a discussion of the state of the MAGA movement, the battle for Congress, and the roles of immigration, the Supreme Court, geopolitics, and the economy in this pivotal election. This panel will be moderated by journalist and author Martin Gelin, President of the Anglo-American Press Association.

About the speakers:

Sam Tanenhaus, the former editor of the New York Times Book Review, is the author of the national bestsellers Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize) and The Death of Conservatism. His feature articles and essays have appeared in the Atlantic, New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, and many other publications in the United States and abroad. His new book, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, was published to wide acclaim in 2025.

Maya Kandel is an independent researcher specializing in the United States. She works as an analyst, consultant, speaker, and expert commentator. Trained as a historian, she has worked as a journalist and at Policy Planning in the French Foreign Ministry, and is an affiliated researcher at Sorbonne Nouvelle University. She is the author of four books, most recently Une première histoire du trumpisme (Gallimard, 2025). More information about her work is available on her blog, Froggy Bottom.

Martin Gelin is a Swedish-American journalist and the author of seven books on American politics, foreign affairs and culture. His latest book, Why Soft Power Matters in Hard Times, will be published in English in 2027. He has written for the Guardian, Foreign Policy, Washington Post, and New York Magazine. After two decades in New York, he now lives in Paris, where he is also the president of the Anglo-American Press Association, the oldest foreign press organization in France.

Important information: Please note the early start time of this event. The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.