Politics Is Everything

In response to a false narrative perpetuated by mainstream media suggesting that Congress has yet to propose legislation "to protect individuals or thwart the development of A.I.'s potentially dangerous aspects," Anna Lenhart shows in a new report that Congress is working to address the harms of Artificial Intelligence. She joins us to discuss A.I., data, privacy, transparency and accountability, and the many legislative proposals Congress has introduced to address harmful content.

Anna Lenhart is a Policy Fellow, Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics (IDDP) at George Washington University.She most recently served in the House of Representatives as the Senior Technology Legislative Aide to Rep Lori Trahan (117th Congress) and as a Congressional Innovation Fellow for the House Judiciary Digital Markets Investigation (116th Congress).

Prior to working for Congress, Anna was a Senior Consultant and the AI Ethics Initiative Lead for IBM's Federal Government Consulting Division, training data scientists and operationalizing principles of transparency, algorithm bias and privacy rights in AI and Machine Learning systems.

Links in this episode:

• Federal AI Legislation: An Analysis of Proposals from the 117th Congress Relevant to Generative AI tools
• "As A.I. Booms, Lawmakers Struggle to Understand the Technology," New York Times

First-past-the-post is not baked in the U.S. Constitution and single-member, winner-take-all elections have not always been a given in Congressional elections. But why did Congress mandate single-member districts for U.S. House of Representatives elections in 1967 with the passage of the 1967 Uniform Congressional District Act (UCDA)? And, could replacing current winner-take-all elections with a proportional system of representation curb political extremism and gerrymandering, restore competition to congressional races and expand opportunities for racial representation? Grant Tudor from Protect Democracy joins Kyle Kondik and Carah Ong Whaley to discuss the evidence from decades of research and a new report.

Links in this episode:

• Towards Proportional Representation for the U.S. House
• There's a way to fix gerrymandering (and it's not through the courts)
• Is Ranked Choice Voting a Cure for What Ails Politics?

Legal scholars, voting rights and racial justice advocates alike are expressing surprise at the Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling in Allen v. Milligan on June 8, 2023 that upholds Section 2 of Voting Rights Act. The court upheld a lower court's decision to strike down an Alabama congressional map because it discriminated against Black voters in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Dave Daley, Senior Fellow at Fair Vote, joins Kyle Kondik and Carah Ong Whaley to discuss the ripple effects of the ruling for representation, redistricting and the 2024 elections.

David Daley is the author of "Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count" and "Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy." His work has appeared in CNN, the New Yorker, New York Times, Atlantic and Washington Post, among other publications.

Links in this episode:

• Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act
• Allen v. Milligan
• Bronovich v. DNC
• Ruccho v. Common Cause
• Shelby v. Holder
• Thornburg v. Gingles
• Fair Vote

In this episode, Natalie Jackson, who writes the "Leading Indicators" column at the National Journal, joins Kyle Kondik and Carah Ong Whaley to discuss what polling tells us about whether anyone from the crowded field of Republican presidential candidates really has a chance against Donald Trump and critiques the new debate rules the Republican National Committee released for the first debate set for August 2023. Jackson also shares her research on the role that reproductive rights played in the 2022 elections and the role it might play in 2024.

Links in this episode:

• Herding Cats and Polls
• "Leading Indicators" at the National Journal

On May 31, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to increase the debt limit by a vote of 314-117, with more Democrats supporting it than Republicans. The debt limit simply allows the United States to spend money on programs that have already been authorized by Congress. However, this debt ceiling deal includes provisions to restrict non-defense spending, amends the National Environmental Policy Act, approves a controversial natural gas pipeline, ends the pause on student loan payments, and imposes work requirements on some people who receive SNAP benefits. Out of 100 members of the House Progressive Caucus, 60 voted yes and 40 voted no; while of the 43 hard-right Republicans who are either members of the House Freedom Caucus or voted no against McCarthy as speaker, 8 voted yes, 34 voted no and 1 didn't vote. Kyle Kondik and Carah Ong Whaley discuss the U.S. House of Representatives vote on legislation to increase the U.S. debt limit and what it means.

Also in this episode we talk with Paul Hobby, UVA '82 and co-founder of the private equity firm Genesis Park, about Texas politics, including the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and about his new book Glorious Tension: Rediscovering Our Sacred Middle Ground in an Age of Extremism.

Just one in seven Black voters cast a ballot for Republican House candidates in 2022, and while that represents a nearly 50 percent increase from 2018 (14 percent up from 9 percent), Black Republicanism remains the red, according to new analysis of Black voter behavior by Ted Johnson, a contributor to our 2022 post-election book The Red Ripple: The 2022 Midterm Elections and What They Mean for 2024.

Black voters have largely been and remain a uniform voting bloc because the parties have organized themselves around civil rights - either taking a proactive stance or by opposing or remaining silent on civil rights issues. Johnson joins us to discuss what Black Americans want and need from both political parties and from our political system in order to realize the ideals set out in the Declaration of Independence.

Ted Johnson is a Senior Advisor at New America leading its flagship Us@250 initiative and contributing columnist at The Washington Post.

Links in this episode:

• Us@250 Initiative
• When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America (Grove Atlantic, 2021)
• The Anger Gap by Davin L. Phoenix (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

The 2022 election defied conventional wisdom and historical trends. Michael Frias and Haris Aqeel with the firm Catalist join Kyle Kondik and Carah Ong Whaley to discuss why and share findings from a new report analyzing what happened in the 2022 midterms elections.

Michael Frias is the CEO of Catalist with over twenty years combined experience in politics, state government, and the federal government. Prior to joining Catalist, Michael was at the Department of Homeland Security.

Haris Aqeel is Senior Advisor at Catalist and the report lead author. He has a decade of experience in political analytics, campaigns, and organizational strategy.

Links in this episode:

• What Happened™ in 2022: An Analysis of the 2022 Midterms
• Leaning Into State Trends: The West Coast – Sabato's Crystal Ball

With some 65 elections across 54 countries slated for 2024, how can social media and other online companies prepare? Katie Harbath, Chief Executive for Anchor Change and a fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, shares how companies, individuals and government entities can support election integrity, increase transparency around artificial intelligence, and combat mis- and malinformation.

Previously Katie was a public policy director at Facebook (now Meta) where, over the course of ten years, she was credited with building out and leading a 30-person global team responsible for managing elections. Prior to Facebook, Katie held senior strategic digital roles at the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, DCI Group and multiple campaigns.

Links in this episode:

• Integrity Institute, Elections integrity best practices
• A Brief History of Tech and Elections
• EU Regulatory Framework on AI
• EU Digital Services Act

In this episode, Nathan Sanders joins us to discuss how Artificial Intelligence technologies are impacting political processes in complex ways, including increasing disruptive risks to legislative processes but also providing enforcement mechanisms. Sanders also addresses what regulatory frameworks and Codes of Ethics should include.

Nathan Sanders is a data scientist and an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University where he is focused on creating open technology to help vulnerable communities and all stakeholders participate in the analysis and development of public policy.

Cover art for this episode was generated by DALL-E.

Links in this episode:

• How ChatGPT Hijacks Democracy (NYT)
• We Don't Need to Reinvent our Democracy to Save it from AI
• Large Language Models as Lobbyists
• How AI could write our laws
• Massachusetts Platform for Legislative Engagement
• White House AI Bill of Rights
• Share GPT

"We need the next president to be a financial expert," says Steve Laffey, two-term former mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, financial expert and 2024 Republican presidential candidate. Laffey joins us to discuss America's financial crisis and what he would do to address it, most importantly by tackling entitlements.

Laffey is a Harvard Business graduate and has served as a financial executive and a university professor. When he was mayor of Cranston, the city experienced the fastest economic turn around for a city in American history. Laffey also ran for Congress, for Colorado House District 4 in 2014 and for U.S. Senate in Rhode Island in 2006.

Links in this episode:

• Fixing America
• Steve Laffey on Substack