National Agenda 2022

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Clicks, views, follows.

Up in the polls, down in the polls.

Packing and cracking electoral districts.

Net gains, net losses for seats in Congress.

When it comes to elections —​ especially high-stakes elections like the upcoming midterms —​ the numbers matter. From understanding your state's voter registration laws to public opinion polling to just why your vote matters, the University of Delaware's National Agenda 2022 “Politics by the Numbers" will keep you informed. Hosted by UD's Center for Political Communication, the series features journalists, political figures, and influencers in American politics. ​​​

Read the news story​. Watch a video of the complete program​​. Read the transcript​.​

Veteran Capitol reporter Paul Kane, AS 92, became part of the story on January 6, 2021. He was covering the joint session to certify the 2020 election results when the attack on the U.S. Capitol began. During a talk with a UD class last year,​ Kane recounted the experience of evacuating the Senate Chamber, escorted by armed officers​. “They marched us all — a phalanx of senators, staff and press—through multiple office buildings in search of the safest grounds to shelter on the Capitol complex.”​

UD alumnus Paul Kane is a senior congressional correspondent and columnist​ with the Washington Post. He has covered Washington's response to the global pandemic, the Jan. 6 attack, two impeachments, and now writes about the Biden administration's legislative agenda on Capitol Hill.​

Kane got his start at the congressional news outlet Roll Call in 2000, with a beat focused on the U.S. Senate. He joined the Washington Post in 2007, covering the 2008 financial crisis and the Obama-Republican fiscal wars. In his column @PKCapitol, Kane reports on Congress and its interactions with the presidential administrations. Kane is a recipient of the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Coverage of Congress.​

Read the news story​. Watch a video of the complete program​​​. Read the transcript​.​

According to a September 2019 Pew Research poll of 9,895 adults, Americans mostly agree that they disagree with each other: "Overall, 73% of the public not only disagree over plans and policies, but also cannot agree on the basic facts."​

As the founder and chief executive officer of the Listen First Project, Pearce Godwin is working to reverse extreme partisanship and demonization across differences​. Described as a national voice for bridging divides in America, Godwin founded the Listen First Project in 2013. His organization has now built a coalition of more than 400 organizations, including retail corporations, mass media corporations, and universities. The Listen First Project and its partners have hosted​ thousands of conversations through the annual America Talks and National Week of Conversation, reaching more than 50 million people.

Godwin has testified before Congress about civil discourse. He writes for USA Today, and he has been interviewed by Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, and the Wall Street Journal. After graduating from Duke University, Godwin spent five years working in the U.S. Senate and as a national political consultant for presidential and statewide campaigns. He earned an M.B.A. degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 2018.​

Read the news s​tory​. Watch a video of th​​e complete program​​​. Read the transcript​.​​

In an era of the 24-7 news cycle and big data, visual storytelling shines a lens on complex trends and events shaping politics and society. It may even spark deeper conversations and empathy.

Denise Lu ​is a graphics editor at the New York Times. Her interactive maps, charts, and motion graphics unpack complicated concepts while being delightful and engaging at the same time. Lu has worked on stories about demographics​, voting patterns​, redistricting and election results. Some of her popular pieces have also explored topics off the beaten path, such as solar eclipse paths, subway chimes​ around the world and the origins of Chinese street signs in Manhattan. Lu has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and her work has been recognized by the Malofiej Awards for Infographics, the Society of News Design and the American Astronomical Society. Previously, she was a graphics reporter at the Washington Post. She holds a journalism degree from Northwestern University.​

​Taily​r Irvine is a Salish and Kootenai journalist born and raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. Through her photojournalism, Irvine represents the lives and complex issues within the diverse Native American communities. Irvine is a 2019 National Geographic Explorer​ and a We, Women Artist currently working on a project that explores the complexities of blood quantum and Native identity.​ She is a co-founder of Indigenous Photograph, a global database that supports the media industry in hiring more Indigenous photographers to tell the stories of their communities. Irvine graduated from the University of Montana with a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in Native American Studies. She worked in newsrooms across the country before beginning her career as an independent journalist and documentary photographer.​

Read the news story​. Watch a video of th​​e comple​te program​​​. Read the transcript.​

Delaware's candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives met for Delaware Debates 2022 on Thursday, October 20. The virtual event was live-streamed without an audience from a studio on UD's campus. Incumbent candidate Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat, and Republican Lee Murphy discussed state and national issues with moderator Ralph Begleiter. 

The event marks the seventh biennial Delaware Debates since 2010, a joint initiative of the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication (CPC) and Delaware Public Media.

Ralph Begleiter, founding director of the Center for Political Communication and former CNN journalist, returns to the University of Delaware to moderate. He will pose questions about key issues facing Delaware and the nation.​

Watch the video of the complete program. Read the transcript.

​UD alumna Nora Kelly Lee (AS 12) is a contributing writer at The Atlantic. She previously served as a senior editor on the magazine’s politics desk. Lee is a proud Blue Hen, but she credits her career to field experience at The Review​​, where she worked as a writer and editor. This year, UD's independent student newspaper celebrates 140 years as a voice for students.

"I wouldn't have my job if I hadn't worked at The Review," said Lee ​in her UD Journalism profile. "UD's journalism professors are fantastic, but students who want to work in the field need to learn outside the classroom, too. And they should start with The Review."​​

In her role on The Atlantic's politics team, Lee directed coverage of the 2018 and 2020 elections, both impeachments of President Donald Trump, and the January 6 insurrection, among other major stories.

Lee graduated from UD with a B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature and minors in Journalism and Political Science. Working at The Review as a copy editor, copy chief, managing news editor and executive editor helped secure internships with The News Journal and Philadelphia Magazine. After graduation, she worked as an assistant managing editor for Philadelphia Magazine, a copy editor for Science magazine and a staff correspondent for National Journal before moving to The Atlantic.​

Watch the video of the complete program. Read the transcript​.

According to the Spring 2022 Harvard Youth Poll​, almost half of young Americans reported that politics has had a negative impact on their mental health. Among those who identified as LGBTQ, the rate was nearly two-thirds. Each spring and fall, Harvard University undergraduate students collaborate with polling director John Della Volpe to conduct the national poll of approximately 2,000 18- to 29-year-olds.

UD welcomes John Della Volpe and Jing-Jing Shen, a Harvard University senior who served as the 2021 chair of the Harvard Public Opinion Project. They will unpack the midterm elections from the perspective of Gen Z voting attitudes and behaviors.​​

​Della Volpe is director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics and the founder and CEO of SocialSphere, a public opinion research firm. In 2020, John served as pollster and strategic communications advisor to the Biden-Harris campaign. The Washington Post called Della Volpe one of the world's leading authorities on global sentiment, opinion, and influence―especially among Millennials. He is the author of the critically acclaimed new book "Fight: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America​." Della Volpe appears regularly on MSNBC's Morning Joe and the 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle.

Harvard University senior Jing-Jing Shen became interested in gun violence issues and mental health activism while still in high school in Cleveland, Ohio. She​ joined HPOP as a freshman at Harvard because she was fascinated with poll data. Beyond the numbers, she was even more intrigued by the stories that underlie people's perspectives. Shen also volunteers as a Crisis Text Line counselor and researches renewable energy, sustainable development, and global mental health. ​