The Electorette Podcast

Laura Packard is the Executive Director of Healthcare Voter, an organization that holds elected officials accountable for their votes on health care. Laura is also a healthcare advocate, and cancer survivor who credits the Affordable Care Act with saving her life; in this episode, she discusses the details of President Biden's Cancer Moonshot Initiative which aims to reduce cancer deaths by 50 per...

Meagan Hatcher-Mays, the director of democracy policy at Indivisible, discusses the historic nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the Supreme Court. We discuss Jackson's unimpeachable record as a federal appellate court judge, conservative pushback to her nomination, and why Jackson has been embraced by all factions of the Democratic Party, from progressives to moderates. Listen to All Electore...

Financial Journalist and co-host for NPR’s Planet Money podcast, Mary Childs, discusses her new book, "The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All." The Bond King is the story of American Investor, and fund manager Bill Gross, who was the co-founder of the powerful, and wildly successful investment firm, PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Co.). Gross also played a...

When members of the Progressive Caucus released a statement regarding United States involvement in Ukraine, Kimberly St Julian-Varnon, a PhD student in Soviet, Russian, E. European history and presidential fellow in the Department of History at Pennsylvania, had some concerns over some of the talking points. Kimberly St Julian-Varnon is in an expert on the region, and its history, and she wrote an...

The economic fallout following the pandemic will affect certain segments of the population harder than others; women, people of color, Black Americans, and other marginalized groups will have a tougher professional and economic road ahead of them once the pandemic ends. The effects of the pandemic on groups who are burdened by intergenerational poverty will be even deeper. Alison Moore, the CEO of...

Political Strategist, Atima Omara discusses the recent democratic losses in Virginia, including the gubernatorial race between political veteran, and former VA governor Terry McAuliffe, and political newcomer, Republican Glenn Youngkin. What could Democrats have done differently? What role did the Critical Race Theory debate have on the election outcome? And were Democrats too "woke" as some pundi...

Greisa Martinez Rosas, the Deputy Executive Director at United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led community in the country, discusses legislation for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, and DACA recipients, and whether a pathway to citizenship will finally pass under President Biden's Build Back Better agenda. Listen to All Electorette Episodes https://www.electorette.com/podcast Suppo...

Kathleen Belew discusses her "There Are No Lone Wolves: The White Power Movement at War," from her new book, "A Field Guide to White Supremacy." She explains what white supremacy is, and how it differs from racism, white nationalism, and white power movements. She also discusses how the narrative and public discourse around violence white nationalist, and racist events helps their efforts by perpe...

Meagan Hatcher-Mays, attorney, and director of democracy policy at Indivisible.org, discusses the process of expanding the Supreme Court as a remedy to its current make-up which heavily favors conservatives. We also discuss the history of court expansion, the popularity of the current proposal to expand the Supreme Court in Congress, and Biden's commission that was formed several moths ago, and ta...

Gaby Goldstein, cofounder of The Sister District Project, discusses the history of how Republicans gained majorities in state legislatures, and the ways in which they've used that power to shrink rights, including voting rights., and reproductive rights. She also provides some practical solutions for Democrats to begin to win over majorities in state legislatures, starting with Virginia: one of th...

Maya Contreras is an activist, a voting rights advocate, and now she's running for Congress in New York's 12th District. Maya was one of the very first guests on The Electorette, and has always been passionate about legislation that works for everyday working people. We talk about what drove her to run for office, and why she chose to primary a sitting Democratic incumbent. We also discuss current...

Historian and author of the prize winning book "Set the World on Fire," and co-editor of the New York Times bestseller, "Four Hundred Souls," Dr. Keisha Blain discusses her latest book, "Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America" which explores the extraordinary life, and work of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. EPISODE REFERENCES Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's En...

Activist and healthcare advocate, Laura Packard, is the Executive Director of the group Health Care Voter, and the founder of Health Care Voices, a non-profit grassroots organization for adults with serious medical conditions. Laura credits the Affordable Care Act with saving her life while battling Stage 4 Hodgkin Lymphoma; now she helps others use their voices to achieve comprehensive healthcare...

Heidi Sieck, the Cofounder and CEO of #VOTEPROCHOICE discusses the extreme anti-choice legislation that's happening at the state level, and gets into the details of the legal, and legislative process behind the latest bills. We also talk about the upcoming Mississippi anti-abortion case that will soon go before the Supreme Court, and provides a list of actionable steps to fight back against these...

Dr. Krystale Littlejohn discusses her book "Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics," which argues that the burden placed on people who give birth is unequal, and that they are held accountable for preventing and resolving pregnancies in gender-constrained ways. We discuss how this is a reproductive justice issue, and that balancing the responsibility for pregnancy prevent...

Lala Wu, the Cofounder and Executive Director of Sister District, Lala Wu, the Cofounder and Executive Director of Sister District, an organization focused on building progressive political power via state legislative seats, discusses the outcome of the 2020 Census Data. Additionally, we discuss how the GOP has been able to use the census data over the past decade to build unfair redistricting map...

In this two-part episode, Erin Vilardi, the Founder and CEO of the Vote Run Lead, discusses the organization's plans to elect women to the majority of state legislative seats by 2024, with their RUN/51 campaign. In Part 2 of this episode, Rhonda Briggins, Co-Founder, and Board Member of Vote Run Lead, discusses the unique barriers women face when they seek elected office, and how Vote Run Lead tra...

Tatenda Musapatike, the Founder and CEO of the Voter Formation Project, discusses how they leverage technology, and employ unconventional digital strategies to mobilize voters in underrepresented communities. Before launching the Voter Formation Project, Musapatike was with AnotherAcronym.org (an org we discuss at the beginning of the episode), a nonprofit that creates digital infrastructures to b...

Janelle Wong is an AAPI Victory Alliance board member and professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland and a core faculty member in its Asian American Studies Program.  In this episode, she delves into recent survey results and resulting data around anti-Asian hate incidents, and hate crimes. We also discuss these incidents in the broader context of racial bias in America, as well a...

Lorelei Williams, Senior Vice President of Grants Programs for Comic Relief US,  a nonprofit organization which uses the power of entertainment to create a more just world, and a world free, discusses America's crisis of child poverty, and food insecurity. We discuss how the American Rescue Plan addresses child poverty, and what's needed to create sustainable, long-term change to address his crisi...

Karen Boykin-Towns, Vice Chairman of the NAACP discusses the goals around racial equity outlined by the NAACP for the Biden/Harris administration. We also discuss how recent events involving police violence, the Derek Chauvin trial, and the death Daunte Wright have elevated the urgency for police reform and police accountability. Listen to All Electorette Episodes https://www.electorette.com/podca...

Jaslin Kaur, candidate for New York City Council District 23, if elected would be the first South Asian person and youngest woman ever elected to the New York City Council. In our conversation, Jaslin explains what drives her leadership, and why she was inspired to run for office in the first place. Listen to All Electorette Episodes https://www.electorette.com/podcast Support the Electorette Rate...

Jennifer Klein, the Executive Director, and Co-Chair of the newly formed White House Gender Policy Council discusses the administration's plans to address gender-based inequality. The goal of the Gender Policy Council is to advance a government wide agenda to address systemic factors that have lead to gender-based inequality for women and girls. They will tackle everything from pay inequality, gen...

Andrea Mercado, the Executive Director of Florida Rising, an independent organization working to increase the voting and political power of Florida's black and brown communities, discusses what went wrong for Democrats during the 2020 election cycle, and what they can do to flip the sunshine state Blue during the upcoming midterms, and the 2024 election. More about Florida Rising Listen to All Ele...

Tiffany Gardner, CEO of Reflect. US, a nonpartisan coalition working to increase the number of women in office, looks back at the 2020 election cycle with an analysis of how women candidates faired at all levels of government. More about Reflect. US Listen to All Electorette Episodes https://www.electorette.com/podcast Support the Electorette Rate & Review on iTunes: https://apple.co/2GsfQj4 Suppo...