Red, White, and Confused

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Derek Webb, who is running for Treasurer in Washington County, VA.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Fred Parker, current Treasurer of Washington County, VA, who is running for re-election.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Dove Goodpaster, who is running for Commonwealth Attorney in Washington County, VA.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Josh Cumbow, current Commonwealth Attorney for Washington County, VA, who is running for re-election.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Patricia (Trish) Moore, current Circuit Court Clerk of Washington County, VA, who is running for re-election.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing April Hamby Crabtree, who is running for Commissioner of Revenue in Washington County, VA.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing David Henry, who is running for Commissioner of Revenue in Washington County, VA.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Matney, who is the current Commissioner of Revenue of Washington County, VA and is running for re-election.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Christina Rehfuss, who is running for Commissioner of Revenue in Washington County, VA.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Rex Carter, who is running for Sheriff of Washington County.

Join me on this episode as I chat with Deb Wake, President of the League of Women Voters of Virginia. We discuss all of the great work the League has been involved in over the past few years, including increasing voting accessibility and ending gerrymandering, as well as the future work of the League in the areas of childcare and equity.

This week on the show is the third and final student segment from my Media & Politics course at UVA Wise. Please join Wesley Campbell and Ellie Peterson as they chat with Joshua Darr (Louisiana State University) and Jeff Lester (Editor, Coalfield Progress, the Post in Big Stone Gap, and the Dickenson Star) about the importance of the local press for a healthy democracy.

This week on the show is the second of three student segments from my Media & Politics course at UVA Wise. Please join Trey Stidham and Pria Funk as they chat with Zach Brown, former Communications Director for the late Congressman Don Young (Alaska), about the use of "new media" by congressional campaigns.

This week on the show begins the first of three student segments from my Media & Politics course at UVA Wise. Please join Michael Martin and Morgan Blankenship as they chat with Susan Liebell (Saint Joseph's University) and Annelise Russell (University of Kentucky) about the relationship between media coverage and public opinion and the government's focus on guns.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Ethan Stewart, who is running for the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Wise County.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing two of the candidates for the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Wise County -- and in this clip, I interview Chad Wilson.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing two of the candidates for the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Wise County -- and in this clip, I interview Robert England.

This week on the show kicks off our election interviews with candidates across Southwest Virginia running for various positions in 2023. Today I chat with two candidates who are running for the Wise County Circuit Court Clerk: Robert England and Chad Wilson. Tune in as we chat about their backgrounds, what made them decide to run, and what their primary responsibilities would be if they were elected.

Join me this week as I chat with former U.S. Senator Jim Webb about his initial decision to run for the Senate, the campaign issues he focused on, what he is most proud of during his time in the Senate, what his biggest challenges were, and what he thinks about the filibuster and term limits.

Join me on this episode as we chat about two meetings that happened in Southwest Virginia on Valentine's Day: the Bristol VA City Council meeting and the Washington County Board of Supervisors. What are the next steps in terms of addressing the landfill in Bristol? I talk with Joel Kellogg, co-founder of HOPE for Bristol, about the petition that was presented to the Bristol VA City Council. You may have also heard a bit about the Washington County Board of Supervisors meetings over the past couple months involving the topic of abortion. Can they legally restrict businesses from moving into the county? What does it mean when someone says VA is a Dillon Rule state?

It has now been a little over a year since we covered the Bristol VA Landfill on this program for the first time. Join me today as I chat with Samuel Weddington, Senior Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Bristol, Tennessee, Jackie Nophlin, a resident of Bristol, Virginia, and the President of BAMA and Pastor of Household of Faith Community Church, and Dr. Don Evans, Licensed Engineer in both VA and TN who has been providing his expertise towards solving this humanitarian disaster. What has changed in the past year and what are the next steps? What can citizens do to help with this massive humanitarian and environmental disaster?

On this week's show, I chat with Jennifer Hayes Clark (University of Houston) about what happened last week with the vote for Speaker McCarthy, and what we can expect over the next two years with this U.S. House Republican majority. We also discuss the rules package that was adopted on Monday, and George Santos (NY-3).

The holidays are here, which means getting together with family and friends. While that might sound like a wonderful time of the year, it can also be extremely stressful. So often those get-togethers turn to politics – and why wouldn't they? With high inflation, multiple tragedies, and the midterm elections, it's hard to escape talking about politics all together. If (or rather, when) politics comes up at our dinner tables this holiday season, how can we start to bridge any partisan divides that have developed between our families and friends? This week I chat with Chris Gates, director of Philanthropy Bridging Divides, a national trans-partisan effort to explore how philanthropy can help bridge ideological divides in America, about how we can better engage in civil discourse.

The 2022 midterm election is finally in the books – and now everyone's attention has already shifted to the 2024 presidential election. Will Joe Biden run again, or will there be a new Democratic candidate for president? Will DeSantis or Trump clinch the GOP nomination – or will another challenger step into the fray? At this point, it is anyone's guess.This week the show focuses on the alignment of voters with the American political parties. Are the parties what they used to be, and are we actually experiencing a “realignment” in American politics? Join me as I chat with Lee Peterson about realignment theory and what may be the future of the two major American political parties. Lee is an international political consultant and has worked in more than 50 countries across the globe. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

Listen in this week as I and a few students from my Congress class (Trey Stidham and Kelli Parks) chat with Silas House about all things politics and Appalachia. Silas House is the nationally bestselling author of the novels--Clay's Quilt, 2001; A Parchment of Leaves, 2003; The Coal Tattoo, 2005; Eli the Good, 2009; and Same Sun Here (co-authored with Neela Vaswani) 2012, and Southernmost (June 2018)--as well as a book of creative nonfiction--Something's Rising, co-authored with Jason Howard, 2009; and three plays. His new novel, Lark Ascending, was just released in September.

In this episode, join me as I chat with two students from UVA Wise (Trey Stidham and Katelynn Parton) about one of their class projects this semester which required them to go out into the community and find out what issues citizens care about. Did residents in the 9th district know who was running in this congressional election? What was the most important problem facing people in the 9th? Finally, given all of their research findings, how would they use this information if they were to run for office in the future?

Over the next couple weeks on "Red, White, and Confused", our attention is going to turn to rural America – specifically our little corner of Southwest Virginia, and what we know about the politics of rural America in general. I'm joined in this episode by Dr. Kal Munis (Utah Valley University) and Dr. Nicholas Jacobs (Colby College), who are leading academic experts on the urban-rural divide. Listen in as we chat about rural resentment and how Democrats can become a viable party in rural America again.

November 8th is Election Day, and depending on where you live, you might be experiencing a very competitive election, with lots of ads and mailers coming to you about the candidates – or you might live in a non-competitive district, where you rarely see information about the candidates. This week, join me as I chat with Lia Merivaki (Mississippi State University) and Mara Suttmann-Lea (Connecticut College) about their research regarding how different states' election officials are encouraging people to register and vote, and what activities are paying off for stimulating participation in our political process.

In this current Supreme Court term, the Court will hear Moore v Harper – which is a case that surrounds the drawing of legislative districts by state Supreme Courts. Since many states, like Virginia, have moved their redistricting process out of the hands of their state legislature, the court's decision could have wide-reaching effects for the redistricting process nationwide. Join me today as I chat with Chris Warshaw (George Washington University) and Eric McGhee (Public Policy Institute of California) about the positive effects of independent redistricting commissions, like the creation of fairer and more competitive legislative districts.

Our elections and our dinner tables have become more contentious over time as many studies have shown increasing levels of partisan animosity. Many Americans are concerned that our country is on the brink of losing its democracy, and studies have shown that there is a growing acceptance of political violence. Can we stop this, and is beer the answer? Join me on this episode as I chat with Jan Voelkel, a PhD candidate in sociology and a researcher at the Polarization and Social Change lab at Stanford University, about the “Strengthening Democracy Challenge.”

On August 24, 2022, the Biden administration announced a new initiative on college student debt forgiveness, where borrowers are eligible for $10,000 in loan forgiveness, or $20,000 if they are Pell grant recipients. On today's show, I chat with Mallory SoRelle, assistant professor of public policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, and Serena Laws, senior lecturer of political science at Trinity College, about the public opinion surrounding this initiative and debt relief more generally, and whether this policy might affect the upcoming midterm elections.

How can Democrats turn around politics in rural America? Today on the show, I chat with Chloe Maxmin, who is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate at 28 years old. She was elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate minority leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win a rural conservative district. Join me as we talk about Senator Maxmin's new co-authored book, “Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why our Future Depends on It."

Now that abortion has been returned to the states – some states, like Kansas, are having amendments show up on their ballots about abortion. Join me as I chat with Nathaniel Birkhead (associate professor and department chair of political science, Kansas State University) about what happened in the Kansas primary on August 2nd, and whether the results are good news for the Democrats.

If you have been paying attention to politics on television or online, you might be thinking that we have a huge civics knowledge gap in America. From politicians saying things that are just not true about our government, to your friends and family repeating those claims on social media – the question we will discuss on today's show is whether we have a civics education crisis in America. If we do – what can we do about it? Join me as I discuss this topic with four guests: Lauren Bell (Randolph-Macon College), John Forren (Miami University), Katherine Robiadek (Hood College) and Carah Ong Whaley (University of Virginia).

Over the past few weeks, we have discussed different aspects about the Supreme Court – and today that thread continues with a larger discussion regarding privacy rights. What exactly is a "right to privacy," and how can we get involved if we care a lot about privacy rights? I'm joined on this episode by John Domino. John received his PhD from Miami University and is a professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville Texas. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of civil rights and liberties, constitutional law, judicial politics, and legal history, and he has published books and articles on civil rights and liberties, federal and state judicial politics, judicial recusal, the right to privacy, and a biography of a well-known Texas judge.

Last week there was devastating flooding in Whitewood, Virginia, with over 100 homes and hundreds of people affected. In this episode, I interview Arnold Vance, Bob Blevins, Carnus King, and Jim Edwards, who were spending their day on July 20th digging out the Baptist Bible Church.

With recent Supreme Court decisions in cases like Whole Women's Health v. Jackson to Kennedy v. Bremerton School District and Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, various political scientists and policymakers have been sounding an alarm about our democracy. To make sense out of what is going on with the Supreme Court and how their opinions relate to democracy and the rule of law, I chat with Michael Romano, Associate Professor of political science at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. His research focuses on how politicians communicate with the public - including how judges write decisions and influence public debate around policy issues. He is the co-author of the book "Creating the Law; State Supreme Court Opinions and the Effect of Audience," and is currently studying how state governments impact the strength of democracy and adherence to democratic norms in the United States nationally.

In today's bonus episode, I chat with Brandon Moore about the state of local politics and how the parties are doing in attracting moderates and independents to their side of the political aisle. We discuss attending a local rally for women's rights, the conversation that happened there, and how the parties are working on (and ignoring) issues that are affecting people in Southwest Virginia.

The debate over abortion rights has been looming in this country for years – and last week, the U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade, declaring that the right to abortion no longer exists. To make sense of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and what this decision means for the states, the legitimacy of the court, women everywhere, and the upcoming 2022 elections, join me this week as I chat with Todd Curry (University of Texas at El Paso) and Michael Fix (Georgia State University).

Today on "Red, White & Confused"- join me as I chat with Scott Basinger, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Houston, about his work on the electoral consequences of political scandals, and Brandon Moore about current local scandals involving candidates & officials in Eastern TN and Southwestern VA.

With the recent school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas, there has been a wave of protests across the country surrounding the issue of gun control. This week, I'm joined by two scholars who do research on public opinion surrounding gun policies. Alexandra Middlewood, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wichita State University, and Abigail Vegter, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Berry College, chat with me about how young people, gun owners, those in rural communities, women, and evangelicals differ in their political engagement and attitudes on gun control. Abigail Vegter is anassistant professor of political science at Berry College in Rome, GA. Herscholarship broadly focuses on religion and politics, gun politics, and publicopinion. Currently, she's investigating the relationship between guns andreligion in the United States.

On today's show, I interview three individuals who participated in the march for reproductive rights that was held in Abingdon, VA outside the federal courthouse on May 8th, 2022. We discuss their general activism in politics, their experience at the march, and their opinions and experiences with candidates who are running for the 9th congressional district. Spoiler alert: it has not all been positive.The three guests on today's show are Alyssa Hill (freshman, UVA Wise), Olivia Owens (junior, UVA Wise), and Brandon Moore.

On this week's show, I check in with those who are working directly with those who are most affected by the Bristol VA landfill. Join me as I chat with Samuel Weddington, senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Bristol TN, and Jackie Nophlin, pastor of the Household of Faith Community Church, about how things are going there. We discuss a report that was produced by the Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, as well as the report that was generated by the expert panel from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. We also chat about the air purifier project.

This week on “Red, White, and Confused,” a third group of UVA Wise students get to take over the airwaves! Samuel Watkins, Bryson Roberson, and Emma Fox discuss the lack of broadband internet in the central Appalachian region, what is currently being done to solve this issue, as well as how broadband access may impact the political involvement and leanings of people in our area. Further, they discuss the importance of broadband connectivity for students in the education system. The guests for today's podcast include Wise County Circuit Court Clerk Jack Kennedy and Dr. Christopher Ali, Associate Professor in Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia.

This week on “Red, White, and Confused,” a second group of UVA Wise students get to take over the airwaves! This week's show is titled "Forgotten Stories and Forgotten Bodies" and centers around how the media decides what to report, and why certain people receive news media attention when they go missing, while others do not. Join Andrew Leonard, Katelynn Parton, and Emily Ward as they interview Olivia Bailey (Anchor/Reporter from WCYB) about how news is produced, and Zach Sommers (litigation associate in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP) who researches the intersection between news media, race, and crime.

In this episode, I chat with three guests about what is happening in VA's 9th Congressional District race at the present time. What do we know? Will there be a competitive election? Join me as I chat with Brandon Moore (welder/photographer from Russell County), Katelynn Parton (Junior, Political Science major at UVA Wise), and Bryson Roberson (Junior, Political Science and Administration of Justice major at UVA Wise) as we have a general conversation about what we have seen in this congressional race so far.Date of recording: April 15, 2022

This week on “Red, White, and Confused,” UVA Wise students get to take over the airwaves. Students in my Media & Politics course are producing the next three weeks of the show, and this week centers around how the media impacts the public's opinion of our presidents. Join Emma Duty, Olivia Owens, and Nicholas Martin as they interview John Zaller (UCLA) and Jason McConnell (University of Wyoming) about their studies on presidential approval.

Why are Republican legislators in state after state focused on proposing bills that affect transgender lives? Do these proposals help them at the ballot box? In this episode of "Red, White, and Confused," I chat with Dan Cassino (Professor of Government and Politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University) and Yasemin Besen-Cassino (Professor and Chair of Sociology at Montclair State University) about their research on gender identity and partisanship.

President Biden's approval is currently sitting between 41 and 43 percent, depending on which poll you examine. This week on the show, I chat with Andrew Sanders (Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University San Antonio) and Michael Sances (Assistant Professor at Temple University) about how the economy, gas prices, and the conflict in Ukraine are currently impacting his approval, and the spillover effects for the 2022 Midterm elections.

As we now approach the two week mark on the conflict in Ukraine, I've invited two guests on the program this week to talk with us about how we got here, how this conflict will affect other countries surrounding Russia and Ukraine, and where - or rather how - we see this ending. Join me as I discuss this unfolding situation with Brent Hierman, a professor in the Department of International Studies and Political Science at Virginia Military Institute, and Joseph Wright, a professor in the Department of Political Science at Pennsylvania State University.

This week I continue discussing the 2022 election in the 9th Congressional District. My third guest is Kimberly Lowe, a Republican candidate in the upcoming election. Join me as we chat about her campaign.