The New Politics Podcast

This year marks the 20th anniversary since the attacks of September 11th.  In this special episode, we invite several servant leaders from our community to reflect on how the events of that day impacted their lives, and what this anniversary means for the nation.  Guests include Congressman and Marine Corps vet Seth Moulton (D-MA); Congressman and Marine Corps vet Mike Gallagher (R-WI),...

Adam DeMarco is a West Point grad and army veteran who served multiple combat tours in Iraq during his five years of active duty in the Army.  After the 2016 election, he felt called to serve again through politics, and entered the arena to run for Congress in 2018, ultimately losing the primary to John Sarbanes.  In the years since leaving the Army, Adam has stayed involved wi...

Meet Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, the first openly LGBTQ+ candidate elected to a state-level seat in New Hampshire. Her state-level win came after two terms on the Portsmouth City Council, where she was a fierce advocate for workforce and affordable housing issues. Rebecca has a fascinating background. She grew up in Exeter New Hampshire, where her family owned the local Dairy Queen. Rebecca grew up wor...

Aaron Bos-Lun is an alum of both City Year and Teach for America who is currently the Executive Director of the Miami-Dade Trail Lawyers Association.  In recent years, Aaron has dedicated his energies to serving through politics. He has worked on multiple political campaigns, serving as a strategist and operative for Shannon del Prado, Dr. Nancy Lawther, Representative Dotie Joseph, Congressw...

Meet Beach Pace: West Point grad, Army vet, and non-profit CEO who currently serves as a member of the Hillsboro City Council in Hillsboro, Oregon.  Beach served in the Ordinance Branch of the U.S. Army, where she led teams that defused bombs around the world, and she was involved in State Department security operations for the U.S. President, Vice President, Secretary of State, and other sen...

Meet Sri Preston Kulkarni, the Foreign Service Officer who ran twice for Congress in Texas’s 22nd district in the 2018 and 2020 election cycles. Sri has an amazing background: his father was an immigrant from India, and his mother is a descendent of Sam Houston, the first individual to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate back in 1846 and the man for whom the city of Houston in named.  Sri spea...

Meet Tiffani Skyhammountry, our Director of Development here are New Politics.  Prior to joining our team, Tiffani served as the National Finance Manager for both Representative Joe Kennedy III here in MA, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of NY, so she has years of experience in the world of politics. Tiffani's parents immigrated to the U.S. from Thailand and Laos, and she grew up in a working...

Dr. Jennifer Lawless is the Commonwealth Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, and she's a nationally recognized expert on women's involvement in American politics.  She's more than just a scholar, though: She's a former candidate herself who ran for Congress in Maryland in 2006.  On this episode she is joined by Emily Cherniack, the Founder and Executive Director of New P...

Meet Elizabeth Beck:  Army vet, lawyer, and single mom who stepped into the arena in the 2020 cycle to run for seat in the Texas State House.  She ran a powerful and hard-hitting campaign, but ended up losing in what was a tough election cycle for many downballot democrats.  Just a few months later, though, she is back in the arena running for a seat on the Fort Worth city council....

Amy McGrath is the Marine Corps fighter pilot who stepped into the arena in the 2020 cycle to challenge one of the most powerful figures in American politics:  Six-term incumbent and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  In this conversation, Amy discusses the rock-solid sense of purpose that has guided her through her life, what is was like being among the first women to participate...

Dr. Debbie Harrington served in the U.S. Army for 25 years, and then went on to complete a Doctorate of Education in Innovation and Organizational Leadership from Wilmington University in Delaware. She's also a wife and mother of three adult children who ran to represent Delaware's 8th district in the state legislature in the 2020 election cycle.  In this interview. Dr. Harrington explains wh...

Meet Claudette Williams, an Army vet who served for 30 years before entering politics.  As a single mother of three, Claudette was called to active duty after 9/11 and was deployed for more than a year.  With the help of family and friends, she was able to find the necessary care for her kids, but she sacrificed some of the most formative years of their childhood in order to serve the na...

Matt Wilhelm currently serves as a State Representative in New Hampshire’s 42nd District.  Matt is an alumnus of the AmeriCorps program City Year New Hampshire, where he served as a team leader supporting AmeriCorps members working in high-need schools in Manchester. He went on to found ServeNext, an organization that helped to make national service a priority in the first-in-the-nation prima...

Maura Sullivan is a Marine Corps vet and former business executive who served as the Assistant Secretary of Veteran Affairs in the Obama administration.  She had aspirations to run for office someday, but thought that day would be far in the future when she decided in 2016 to move to New Hampshire with plans to settle down and grow some roots. When NH Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter unex...

Meet Pat Ryan:  West Point grad, Army veteran, tech entrepreneur, and dad.  After the 2016 election, he felt called to serve again through politics, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in upstate New York, where he lost in the primary to Antonio Delgado, who went on to win the seat.  Just months later, he jumped right back into the arena to run for County Executive in Ulster County,...

Kiyomi Kowalski is a Marine Corps veteran and mom who is currently running for school board in Las Virgenes, CA, an upscale district near Los Angeles that includes residents like the Kardashians. This is Kiyomi’s second time in the arena, after running for this same seat unsuccessfully in 2018.  Over the course of her two campaigns, she has learned a lot about what it means to seek political...

Before entering politics, Chris Shays served in the Peace Corps in Fiji along with his wife Betsi from 1968 to 1970.  At the age of 29, he ran and won a seat in the Connecticut House of Representatives as a Republican in 1975.  Twelve years later, he won a seat in Congress, where he represented the 4th congressional district for 21 years, from 1987 through 2008.  When he lost his se...

Meet Paula Phillips:  She's a first generation college graduate and a Filipina American with a deep commitment to service. She completed multiple years of service as an AmeriCorps member with City Year Chicago and then as an ally with Public Allies in Milwaukee; she then went on to join the staff at City Year Milwaukee for several years.  In 2017 she jumped into the arena and ran a succe...

Matt Tito is a Marine Corps vet and businessman who is currently running as a Republican to represent District 68 in the Florida State House.  In this interview, he talks about why he chose to run, what he learned about leadership from his time in the military, and how his service experiences are informing his campaign.   At the end of the interview, he invites listeners to support the f...

Meet Dan Helmer:  West Point grad, army vet, Rhodes scholar, and Democratic member of the House of Delegates in Virginia representing District 40.  Dan talks about his path from service to politics and how he strives to lead with integrity as a candidate and an elected official.   At the end of the interview Dan highlights the following organizations for those seeking to help others...

New Politics Podcast Trailer featuring Dan Helmer of the VA House of Delegates.

Introducing the New Politics Podcast , produced by New Politics !  On every episode, host Dr. Max Klau speaks with a servant leader--a military veteran or an alum of a national service program like AmeriCorps or Peace Corps--who has decided to serve again through politics.  Meet the remarkable women and men fighting to bring a commitment to service back into American politics.