Politics

Airs Tuesday, February 12 at 8 pm. President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address and  NPR News will offer live anchored special coverage starting at 8 pm CT. Our special coverage will be hosted by Melissa Block. She'll be joined in the studio by NPR National Political Correspondent Mara Liasson and Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving.

Area political scientists have takeaways from Tuesday's election returns.

Louisiana’s big turnout matters, according to Greg Granger a professor of history and political science at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. Granger said turnout was high, despite the fact that many races were uneventful contests.

"When we have a tight election, I think people think their vote matters more, and they're more likely to turn out,” Granger said.

Airs Tuesday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m. Join Red River Radio and NPR News for and election night broadcast special on November 6, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Robert Siegel and Melissa Block will host. NPR's Washington Editor Ron Elving, National Political Correspondent Mara Liasson, and Political Junkie Ken Rudin will be in our DC studio. Our hosts will also be joined by NPR Contributors E.J. Dionne and Matthew Continetti. We'll have exit poll analysis from Andrew Kohut and Michael Dimock of the Pew Research Center. NPR's Ari Shapiro will join us from the Mitt Romney election night event. Scott Horsley will be at President Obama's election night event. 

Tonight beginning at 5:00 p.m. we'll have the NPR Election Blog site up on our web site. They will be posting information and observations from across the nation as returns begin to come in. Listen to live coverage and join us online for full coverage of Election 2012.