Let’s Find Common Ground

CPF Director Bob Shrum is joined by strategists Stephanie Cutter and James Carville, Journalist Adam Nagourney, and Cristobal Alex, Senior Advisor for Joe Biden's presidential campaign to examine Biden's winning campaign strategy.

Voters sent decidedly mixed messages in the 2020 election. This episode looks at what we can learn from then about how divided the country is — or isn’t. Voters in cities, suburbs and rural parts of the country went to the polls in record numbers. We discuss the extraordinary level of interest in the presidential campaign, and reasons why President-elect Biden won five million more votes than President Trump.  Our guests are Christa Case Bryant, a national political reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, and Story Hinckley, a National Political Correspondent in Washington on the newspaper’s national news desk in Washington. Both traveled extensively during the 2020 campaign, listening to voters and politicians in battleground states. They share their rich and moving experiences on the frontlines of the campaign, and what they learned from the many people they met along the way.

CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy are joined by journalist Adam Nagourney, Republican strategist Mike Madrid, and USC Professor Jane Junn to discuss the future of polling, the Republican Party, and the latest election results. Nagourney has been the Los Angeles Bureau Chief of the New York Times since 2010 and Madrid is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project and a longtime Republican political strategist with an expertise in Latino voting trends and analysis. Junn is a USC Professor of Political Science and the Associates Chair in Social Sciences, who has authored five books on political participation and public opinion in the United States.

CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy talk to journalist Cynthia McFadden about the presidential election with a focus on election security and voting mechanisms. McFadden is a broadcast journalist who is the Senior Legal and Investigative Correspondent for NBC News. She was an anchor and correspondent for ABC News, who co-anchored Nightline and occasionally appeared on ABC News special Primetime.

With just days to go before the 2020 election, we invited a Trump supporter and a Biden backer to join us in the same (virtual) room, and share the personal reasons behind their vote. We have a lively, spontaneous and surprisingly friendly discussion about the President's controversial personality, the final debate, and big policy and leadership differences between the two candidates.  John Pudner is voting for Donald Trump. He is Executive Director of Take Back Our Republic, a non-profit group and a member of Bridge Alliance. John spent three decades managing Republican political campaigns, and was the eldest of 9 children growing up in a 3 bedroom house in inner city Richmond, VA where he attended a conservative, Catholic high school whose alumni included Steve Bannon. Now John is the father of 9 children. Philippa P.B. Hughes is voting for Joe Biden. She produces and creates art projects, and is CEO, Chief Creative Strategist and Social Sculptor at CuriosityConnects.us, a non-profit organization that designs pop-up galleries and physical spaces that bring people together who might not normally engage in dialogue and thoughtful interaction. Philippa is the daughter of a conservative Vietnamese mother and a white father who was a lifelong union member. She also grew up in Richmond, but until our podcast conversation had never met John.

This panel examined the impact climate change has had on primary elections and the 2020 presidential election and the issue’s relevance to voters during an economic crisis, the pandemic, and racial justice movements. Featuring: Michelle Lujan Grisham - Governor of New Mexico, former US Representative (D-NM) Bina Venkataraman - Editorial Page Editor, The Boston Globe; Senior Advisor for Climate Change Innovation, Obama Administration Christine Todd Whitman - Former New Jersey Governor and Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Bush Administration

CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy are joined by Republican media strategist Patrick Griffin to discuss the final Presidential Debate between President Trump and Vice President Joe Biden. Griffin was a Fall 2019 Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Political Future. He is a founding partner and CEO of Merrimack Potomac + Charles ( MP+C), one of New England's leading integrated public affairs and strategic communications firms. He has worked as a Republican media consultant for four U.S. presidential campaigns including Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander.

With just days to go before a bitterly contested election, we speak with two Members of Congress, one Republican and one Democrat, who are reaching across rigid partisan divides, recognizing the value of compromise and seeking constructive change. Democrat Abigail Spanberger is the U.S. Representative for Virginia's 7th Congressional District, and is serving her first term. In 2018, she defeated a Republican incumbent to win the district, which includes most of the northern suburbs of Richmond.  Brian Fitzpatrick is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional district. His district includes all of Bucks County, a mostly suburban area north of Philadelphia. Reps. Spanberger and Fitzpatrick both score highly on the new Common Ground Scorecard rankings.

Center Director Bob Shrum is joined by political strategist Doug Thornell and journalists Ronald Brownstein and Asma Khalid to discuss President Trump and Joe Biden's dueling Town Halls, following Trump's refusal to participate in a virtual presidential debate originally scheduled for the same day. Brownstein is a Senior Political Analyst at CNN and serves as Atlantic Media's Editorial Director for Strategic Partnerships in charge of long-term editorial strategy. Khalid is a political correspondent for NPR who co-hosts The NPR Politics Podcast. Thornell is Partner and Head of SKDKPolitical, having served as a media strategist to the Democratic National Committee, Congressional Black Caucus, and various House, Senate, and gubernatorial campaigns.

Center Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy plus special guest Karen Finney discuss the highlights and lowlights of the Vice Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris and what each candidate needs to do to win the general election. Finney worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as Senior Spokesperson and Senior Advisor for Communications and Political Outreach. She was also Communications Director for Senator Tim Kaine. Finney was the first Black spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee and is currently a CNN political commentator