On Tuesday, August 18, as I was getting my haircut in the early afternoon, my barber suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, I almost forgot. NBC News is sending a crew here to my shop later today to talk to people about the upcoming election.”

I said, “What!?!”

He stated that he got a call from someone at the NBC News Bureau in Washington to confirm that the shop would still be open in the evening, as the likely arrival time of the broadcast crew would be between 6:30 and 8pm. I don’t know why NBC selected my barber’s shop for their stop in Toledo (and I don’t think my barber does either).

As the Libertarian Party candidate for US Senate in Ohio this year, I decided to ditch a trip to Columbus with several other Libertarian candidates to attend a Teamsters cocktail party for the chance to possibly get on national television as an interviewee. I returned to the barber shop about 6:15pm.

About 7pm, in walked NBC News reporter Jon Allen and two cameramen, Frank and Marshall. I then learned that they were travelling from New Jersey to Iowa to cover eight US House races that are considered to be close this year for Meet the Press NOW, which streams Monday through Friday at 4pm ET on nbcnews.com and Peacock. Their stop in Toledo was to cover the 9^th Congressional District race involving incumbent Democrat Marcy Kaptur.

I introduced myself as the US Senate candidate, and they proceeded to interview me and at least three other people in or near the barber shop, which is located in a small shopping center.

They left at about 9pm, only to return shortly thereafter to interview my barber before departing by car for Davenport, Iowa, their next stop on their cross half country tour.

The story ran on Wednesday, August 19, and, alas, I and other interviewees were left out of the broadcast, except for my barber. Here is the broadcast, and the story starts at 33:55 on this video.