• 

  

  Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett

  Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has purposefully made every decision with one goal in mind: protecting the civil liberties of those in underrepresented communities. As a public defender, civil rights attorney, State Representative, and United States Congresswoman, Jasmine Crockett dedicates her life to public service, with the goal of serving justice and ensuring equality for all.

  In the midst of political turmoil, economic distress, and racial inequality, Congresswoman Crockett laced up her shoes to march for justice and run for the Texas House of Representatives. The sole Black freshman and youngest Black lawmaker in Texas during the 87th Legislative Session, Congresswoman Crockett navigated what has been marked as the most conservative session in Texas history. Despite the uphill climb, Congresswoman Crockett filed more bills than any other freshman, assembled a wide coalition to pass landmark criminal justice reforms in the House, and brought more accessibility and accountability to her office than before. She was a founding member of both the Texas Progressive Caucus as well as the Texas Caucus on Climate, Energy, and the Environment. As State Representative, she fought for economic opportunity as a member of the Business & Industry Committee, and advocated for reform on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. Congresswoman Crockett was one of the lead architects of the 2021 Texas House Quorum Break, which brought attention to the draconian and restrictive voting measures being proposed in the legislature.

  Her passion for justice and the protection of peoples’ rights led her to pursue a career as a public defender, and civil rights and criminal defense attorney. She focused on defending our most vulnerable among us from exploitation in the criminal justice system. As she began her career in the Bowie County Public Defender's Office, Congresswoman Crockett worked tirelessly to keep children safe and out of jail. Her time there serves as a reminder that criminal justice is an intersectional issue.

  Following her service in the Texas Legislature, Congresswoman Crockett accepted the call, and won the election for retiring Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson's congressional seat in Texas’ 30th District. Following her election, she hit the ground running and won a seat at the Leadership table as Freshman Leadership Representative, a position she will use to advocate for all Texans. As Freshman Leadership Representative, she is one of a few Black women ever elected to Democratic House Leadership. In Congress, Congresswoman Crockett hopes to continue to build on the legacy of Chairwoman Johnson, and will fight to expand access to healthcare, voting rights, economic opportunity, and dignity for all. She will fight to protect Medicare, Social Security, and expand critical social safety net programs. She will continue to be a tireless advocate for civil liberties, immigrant rights, and economic equity for women and the diverse communities across the State of Texas.

  Congresswoman Crockett earned her B.A. in Business Administration from Rhodes College and her J.D. from the University of Houston. She is licensed to practice law in Texas, Arkansas, and Federal Courts. Crockett is the past Bowie County Democratic Party Chair, held various leadership positions within the legal community, is a former board member of the Dallas County Metrocare Services, and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. As a Congresswoman for all Texans, she's looking forward to continuing our fight and ushering in the next generation of servant leadership in the halls of Congress and Washington, D.C.

  Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett

• 

  

  Jess McIntosh

  Jess McIntosh is a national communications strategist, national cable news political analyst, and former co-host of the award-winning SiriusXM radio show Signal Boost. Currently Jess serves as a consultant to progressive candidates and organizations looking to strengthen their social impact through message strategy, media training, combatting disinformation, and story development. With 20 years of campaign experience, Jess has worked at every level of American politics from school board to U.S. President. She spent 5 years leading the EMILY’s List communications team, helping to strategically craft and amplify the narratives of women across the country. She served as a senior communications advisor to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, where she directed outreach to influencers and served as a national spokesperson. Her writing about politics and gender has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ELLE Magazine, Refinery29, Shondaland, The American Independent, Lenny Letter, and more. Jess lives in New York with her partner and a rescue puppy who turned out to be an extremely large dog.

  Jess McIntosh

• 

  

  Errin Haines

  Errin Haines is editor at large and a founding mother of The 19th, a nonprofit, independent newsroom focused on the intersection of gender, politics and policy. She is also an MSNBC Contributor. Prior to joining The 19th, Errin was national writer on race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. She has also worked at The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Orlando Sentinel. Errin’s expertise on issues of race, gender and politics make her a sought-after voice and thought leader in her industry. She has taught classes on race, gender and the 2020 election at the Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Princeton University. Errin is currently writing her first book, exploring the growth of Black women’s power and leadership.

  A native of Atlanta, Errin is based in Philadelphia.

  Errin Haines

• 

  

  Tara Setmayer

  Tara Setmayer is a former CNN political commentator, contributor to ABC News and former GOP Communications Director on Capitol Hill.

  She is a senior advisor for The Lincoln Project and hosts the live show The Breakdown along side co-founder Rick Wilson.

  Setmayer is currently a Resident Scholar at the UVA Center for Politics. Prior to joining UVA, she was a Harvard Institute of Politics Resident Fellow in 2020.

  She’s appeared numerous times on ABC’s The View as a guest host, contributed to ABC’s Good Morning America and Nightline programs and has joined HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on several occasions. She regularly appears as an on air commentator on MSNBC and other various news outlets.

  After spending 27 years with the Republican Party, Setmayer publicly left the GOP in November 2020 after Donald Trump refused to concede the election to Joe Biden.

  Tara Setmayer

• 

  

  Laura Barrón-López

  Laura Barrón-López is the White House Correspondent for the PBS News Hour, where she covers the Biden administration for the nightly news broadcast. She is also a CNN political analyst.

  Barrón-López was part of the News Hour team honored with a Peabody Award in 2024 for its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

  Previously, Barrón-López was a White House reporter for POLITICO. In her time covering the Biden administration for POLITICO, she focused on the power dynamics between the White House and Capitol Hill, covering the president's agenda on gun violence, immigration, voting rights, infrastructure and more. Barrón-López previously covered the 2020 presidential election for POLITICO as a national political reporter, focusing on voter demographics, and policy shifts within the Democratic Party.

  Barrón-López previously led 2018 coverage of the Democratic Party for the Washington Examiner. Before that, Barrón-López covered Congress for HuffPost, focusing on climate change, criminal justice reform, and coal miner pensions, among other policy debates in the Senate and House.

  Early in her career, she covered energy and environment policy for The Hill. Her work has been published in The Oregonian, OC Register, E&E Publishing, and Roll Call. Barrón-López earned a bachelor's degree from California State University, Fullerton.

  Laura Barrón-López

• 

  

  Bill Kristol

  William Kristol was the editor at large of The Weekly Standard, is a regular on ABC’s This Week and on ABC’s special events and election coverage, and appears frequently on other leading political commentary shows. Before starting The Weekly Standard in 1995, Mr. Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory. He served as editor for 21 years.

  Bill Kristol

• 

  

  Kenji Yoshino

  Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law and the Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. A graduate of Harvard (AB summa cum laude), Oxford (MSc as a Rhodes Scholar) and Yale (JD), he specializes in constitutional law, antidiscrimination law, and law and literature. He received tenure at Yale Law School, where he served as Deputy Dean before moving to NYU. Yoshino has published in major academic journals, including the Harvard Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. He has also written for more popular forums, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Yoshino is the author of three books. His fourth book (co-authored with David Glasgow), Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice, was published by Simon and Schuster in February 2023. Yoshino has served as the President of the Harvard Board of Overseers. He currently serves on the Oversight Board for Meta, the Board of the Brennan Center for Justice, on advisory boards for diversity and inclusion for Morgan Stanley and Charter Communications, and on the board of his children’s school. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship, including the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, the Peck medal in jurisprudence, and the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, two children, and a Great Dane.

  Kenji Yoshino

• 

  

  Daria Dawson

  Daria Dawson is the Executive Director of America Votes. In this role, Daria leads day-to-day management of the organization, overseeing all department heads and implementation of strategic objectives, including fostering a culture of strong civic participation, voter engagement and mobilization, and advocating for fair, modern elections.

  Daria joined America Votes in 2020 and previously served as Deputy Executive Director and National Political Director. In these roles, she planned and implemented America Votes’ electoral programs and managed the organization’s strategic initiatives, external communications, and programmatic budgets.

  During her career in democratic and progressive politics, Daria has served in many capacities on electoral campaigns and organizations including serving as the Director of Strategic Engagement for then-Senator Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and the Deputy National Political Director at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), where she also led the congressional lobbying efforts of the Fight for $15 campaign in its early stages. In 2021, Business Insider named Daria one of the “20-sought after female strategists to watch in 2022 and 2024 as more women in the US enter the arena.”

  Born and raised in Florida, Daria is a graduate of Florida A&M University and the University of Florida, Levin College of Law.

  Daria Dawson

• 

  

  Debra Cleaver

  No one has registered more voters than Debra Cleaver. Over the last seven election cycles, Debra has proved time and time again that she is the voter strategist willing to try any tactic to reach voters and boost turnout. With over 20 years of experience and seven election cycles under her belt, Debra has consistently been ahead of the curve in political strategy, pioneering methods that have transformed how Americans vote. As the founder and CEO of VoteAmerica, she has consistently been ahead of the curve, creating impactful organizations like Vote.org and ElectionDay.org.

  From registering 100,000 voters with just $1,000 developing mobile-friendly vote-by-mail applications, her work exemplifies efficiency and impact. Debra is a vocal advocate for vote-by-mail and a critic of the outdated focus on voter registration, instead emphasizing the importance of turnout. Her ability to leverage technology to scale voter participation has made her a sought-after commentator and a recognized leader in the voting rights space.

  Debra Cleaver

• 

  

  Sam Montaño

  Sam Montaño, prior to being elected, worked for most of the last decade with communities in Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill and Roxbury advancing affordable housing, equity, and climate resistance. Sam served in City Year at the McCormack as their intro to Boston. They then worked at a women’s shelter before transitioning to community organizing at the JPNDC. Through their work and life, Sam got to know this community from all sides. From youth work at Mildred Hailey to the 3 Main Streets to legislative advocacy to running for the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council to so much more. Sam is deeply rooted in the 15th Suffolk community.

  Sam Montaño

• 

  

  Joshua Martin

  Joshua Martin is a community organizer from Houston, TX. A rising senior at the University of Houston, Martin served as the institutions 59th Student Body President and the first freshman to ever assume the role. Currently, Josh serves as the President of the Black Student Union, the Leader of #ForTheStudents, and the National Political Director of the College Democrats of America.

  Martin has championed numerous projects such as the Full Support Partnership with the Harris County DA’s Office to bring 150K in funding for sexual assault resources, the 2K Voters in 2022 initiative which registered over 2,000 students and resulted in a 107% voting increase at the University of Houston, and the #SafetyFirstAgenda to enhance campus safety.

  Joshua Martin

• 

  

  Madiba K. Dennie

  Madiba K. Dennie is the author of The Originalism Trap, and deputy editor and senior contributor at the critical legal commentary website Balls and Strikes. She is also the co-director of the Democracy Committee of the New Jersey Reparations Council, and was previously a counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. Her legal and political commentary has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She has taught at Western Washington University and New York University School of Law. Dennie is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Princeton University.

  Madiba K. Dennie

• 

  

  Justin Levitt

  Justin Levitt is the Gerald T. McLaughlin Fellow at LMU Loyola School of Law, and has taught as a visiting faculty member at Caltech and at the Yale, UCLA, and USC law schools. He served at the White House from 2021-22 as the inaugural Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights on a team devoted to racial justice and equity, and from 2015-17 helped to lead the work of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on voting rights and employment discrimination, supporting activity on more than 120 cases (including 20 in the Supreme Court). Based on his extensive scholarship, Levitt has been invited to testify before committees of the U.S. Senate and House, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, multiple state legislative bodies and redistricting commissions, and federal and state courts. Before entering academia, Levitt worked as in-house counsel to the country’s largest independent voter engagement operation, and at several nonpartisan nonprofits; he also served several presidential campaigns, including as the National Voter Protection Counsel in 2008. He has advised and represented officials of both major political parties and neither, and those whose partisan preference he does not know, and has also represented individuals and organizations seeking to compel officials to comply with their obligations under state and federal law. Levitt clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and earned law, public administration, and bachelor’s degrees from Harvard University.

  Justin Levitt

• 

  

  Wilfred Codrington III

  Wilfred U. Codrington III is the Dean’s Research Scholar and Associate Professor of law at Brooklyn Law School. There he teaches courses on constitutional law, constitutional theory, and election law, which correspond to his research in constitutional theory and reform; voting, elections, and the law of democracy; and race and antidiscrimination. Currently a Visiting Associate Professor of law at Texas A&M University School of Law, Professor Codrington is also a non-resident fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at N.Y.U. School of Law, where worked full-time as the inaugural Bernard and Anne Spitzer Fellow and Counsel prior to joining the Brooklyn Law School faculty. He is the co-author of The People’s Constitution: 200 Years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union (The New Press 2021), a book that examines the history and future of constitutional change in the United States, as well as a contributing author of The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2024). Professor Codrington’s scholarship has appeared in the N.Y.U. Law Review, Columbia Law Journal Forum, N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change, and Kentucky Law Journal, among other legal journals. He is a frequent commentator on legal matters for national and international press, and has written op-eds including for the Atlantic, Slate, and The American Prospect, in addition to several articles, reports, and essays in his areas of expertise. Professor Codrington was previously a litigation associate at a DLA Piper, a law clerk for the late Hon. Deborah Anne Batts, U.S. District Judge (S.D.N.Y.), and a congressional staffer for the Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). He lives in Brooklyn.

  Wilfred Codrington III

• 

  

  Brandon Tensley

  Brandon Tensley is a national politics reporter at Capital B, where he covers the impact of policy and political movements on Black people in America and the Black political influencers shaping our future. Previously, he was a national political writer at CNN, where he covered the intersection of culture, identity, and politics and wrote Race Deconstructed, CNN’s newsletter about race and equality.

  Before joining CNN, Brandon was the associate editor at New America, a co-host of Slate’s Outward podcast, a contributing writer at Pacific Standard, and the advocacy and communications associate for the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress.

  In 2018, Brandon was selected as a fellow for the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Taiwan-US Policy Program. Before moving to DC, he was a 2015-16 Luce Scholar in Thailand, and traveled between Thailand and Myanmar. Brandon was an editor and a staff writer at The Irrawaddy, an independent publication covering news, culture, and politics in Myanmar and Southeast Asia. He was among The Irrawaddy’s small group of journalists who covered Myanmar’s 2015 election, which many observers billed as the country’s most democratic election in decades.

  Prior to crisscrossing Asia, Brandon received an MPhil (a master’s) in politics from the University of Oxford in 2015. He was a 2012 American Fellow with Humanity in Action in Denmark and a 2012-13 Fulbright Scholar in Germany, and he received his BA in German studies and political science from Furman University in 2012.

  Brandon’s work has been widely published, including in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs, and has been recognized by The New York Times.

  Brandon Tensley

• 

  

  Jeff Jarvis

  Jeff Jarvis is Tow Professor of Journalism Innovation Emeritus at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author of three current books: The Web We Weave (Basic), The Gutenberg Parenthesis, and Magazine (both Bloomsbury). He cohosts the podcasts This Week in Google and AI Inside. In his career in journalism, Jarvis was creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, president of Advance.net (online arm of Advance Publications), Sunday editor of the New York Daily News, TV critic for TV Guide and People, and a reporter and columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and Chicago Tribune.

  Jeff Jarvis

• 

  

  Siva Vaidhyanathan

  Siva Vaidhyanathan is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia.

  He is the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018). He also wrote Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017), and The Googlization of Everything -- and Why We Should Worry (University of California Press, 2011). He has written two previous books: Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York University Press, 2001) and The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System (Basic Books, 2004). He also co-edited (with Carolyn Thomas) the collection, Rewiring the Nation: The Place of Technology in American Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).

  Vaidhyanathan directs the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, which hosts a Democracy Lab, produces several podcasts, and the Virginia Quarterly Review magazine. He has appeared in an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to discuss early social network services. Vaidhyanathan has appeared in several documentary films, including Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013), Inside the Mind of Google (2009), and Freedom of Expression (2007). In 2016 Vaidhyanathan played a prominent role in the higher-education documentary, Starving the Beast. Vaidhyanathan was portrayed as a character on stage at the Public Theater in New York City in a play called Privacy (2016). Vaidhyanathan served on the board of the Digital Public Library of America. from 2012 through 2018.

  Vaidhyanathan has written for many periodicals, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Bloomberg View , IEEE Spectrum, American Scholar, Dissent, The Chronicle of Higher Education , The New York Times Magazine , Slate.com, BookForum, Columbia Journalism Review , Washington Post, Esquire.com, The Virginia Quarterly Review , The New York Times Book Review, and The Nation. He is a frequent contributor to public radio programs. And he has appeared on news programs on BBC, CNN, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and ABC. He is currently a regular columnist for The Guardian.

  After five years as a professional journalist, he earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Vaidhyanathan has also taught at Wesleyan University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Columbia University, New York University, McMaster University, and the University of Amsterdam. He is a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities and a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He was born and raised in Buffalo, New York and resides in Charlottesville, Virginia.

  Siva Vaidhyanathan

• 

  

  Mona Charen

  Mona Charen, syndicated columnist and author, is Policy Editor of The Bulwark, host of the weekly podcast Beg to Differ and co-host of the Just Between Us podcast. She is a contributor to TIME magazine and a regular commentator on BBC.

  A graduate of Columbia University and the George Washington University law school, Ms. Charen began her career at National Review magazine.

  Ms. Charen served as Nancy Reagan’s speechwriter and later as Associate Director of the Office of Public Liaison. Later in her White House career, she worked in the Public Affairs office helping to craft President Reagan’s communications strategy.

  In 1986, Ms. Charen joined the presidential campaign of then-Congressman Jack Kemp.

  Ms. Charen launched her syndicated column in 1987. It is featured in more than 60 newspapers and websites. She spent 6 years as a regular commentator on CNN’s Capital Gang and Capital Gang Sunday has served as a judge of the Pulitzer Prizes. She is the author of four books: Useful Idiots (2003); Do-Gooders (2005), Sex Matters (2018) and Hard Right (2023).

  In 2010, she received the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism.

  Mona Charen

A part of the Newmark Civic Life Series of Recanati-Kaplan Talks

An initiative of the Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact