Irving Calderon is a 27-year-old from Austin and the sole Dreamer and DACA recipient in his family. As the 2018 midterm election cycle draws to a close, Irving talks about coming to terms with his status, the frustrations of myths surrounding immigrants, and the importance of advocacy in the ongoing search for a permanent legislative solution.…

16-year old Sydna Kennedy and her mom, Melissa Harris, are a rare breed in Modoc County in rural, conservative northern California: progressives. In this episode, we talk about voting, activism, and what life is like advocating against gun violence in an area of the country where the local sheriff’s office gets funding from the NRA.…

Mary Ibarra is a Texas native from the Rio Grande Valley and Swing Left’s Central Field Director. We talk about her organizing work for Democratic campaigns in Texas, Nevada, Colorado, and Georgia, her role as a congressional aide for Congressman Lloyd Doggett, the challenges facing progressives and America today, and what she loves most about orga…

Originally from Zimbabwe, 20-year-old Amanda Musvosi came to California when she was 7 and grew up surrounded by family with a strong appreciation for civic engagement and free and fair elections. Today Amanda is taking her passion for democracy and health care and motivating others to become more involved through her work as a Swing Left fellow in…

Originally from Trinidad, Jendayi London lives in Florida’s 27th district and is a student at the University of Miami, where she took a class with FLA-27 Democratic primary winner Donna Shalala. We talk about immigration, growing up with a mom in the military, the struggles of minority communities, and her work this summer with Swing Left in TX-31,…

Grace Curtiss is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, a university fellow for Swing Left, and a great ambassador for Democratic candidates in two districts. In particular, Grace supports Angie Craig in Minnesota's 2nd District and Dean Phillips in Minnesota's 3rd District, both of whom won their respective Minnesota primaries on …

This week's episode is with student leader Gary Enrique Bradley-Lopez of Wyandotte County in Kansas. As chair of the Wyandotte County Young Democrats and second vice president of the Kansas Young Democrats, Gary is passionate about helping communities of color get out the vote and become politically and civically engaged. He is also a passionate su…

This week's episode is with Abby Karp, a resident of Guilford County, North Carolina, and a volunteer for Swing Left. Abby is a longtime political activist working to help elect Democratic candidate Kathy Manning to the congressional seat in North Carolina's 13th District.

This week's episode is with Rebecca Shukla, one of the founding activists on Swing Left's team in Texas' 7th congressional district, where she is working to elect Democratic candidate Lizzie Pannill Fletcher. Swing Left helps volunteers support progressive candidates in their closest swing district in a country-wide effort to take back the House in…

This episode's interview is with Joe Helle, Democratic candidate for District 89 of the Ohio House of Representatives. The primary took place May 8, 2018. Joe talks about his candidacy, the importance of communication in politics, and his own experience as a voter, when he discovered he had been purged from Ohio's voter rolls when he came back from…

This episode's interview is with Vaibhav Dwivedi, originally from India and now living in New Jersey. He talked about his life as a graduate student at Rutgers University, his political volunteering, and his advocacy with the graduate student union, where he works to raise awareness in the broader community about the challenges graduate students fa…

Today's episode is with Antionette Carroll, founder and CEO of Creative Reaction Lab, a civic engagement and design social enterprise that empowers and challenges community members to design inclusive cities by developing solutions to address personal and structural racism. Antionette talked about her life growing up, what policy issues matter to h…

Today's episode is with Rena Cook, a voice coach, a speaker and an author living in Oklahoma's state house district 77, where Shay White is running for state representative. Rena talked about the policy issues that matter to her, as well as her support for Shay, a young woman of color and activist with a master’s degree in social work.…

Today's episode is a wide-ranging interview with Erin Anhalt. Erin is a navy spouse with three children with special needs living in Maryland, but is still registered to vote in Ohio, where she just left as campaign manager for Michael Galbraith, who just won the Democratic nomination for the House seat in Ohio’s 5th district.…

This episode is with Barbara Bessette, a 33-year old Democrat from Great Falls, Montana, running for the state house in district 24. She is a member of the Chippewa-Cree tribe, a federally recognized tribe on Montana’s Rocky Boy Reservation and descendants of Cree who migrated south from Canada, and Chippewa (Ojibwe) who moved west from North Dakot…

Today's interview is with graphic designer Jayvn Salomon, the creator of Vibe Switch, who lives in Missouri’s 1st congressional district in St. Louis. Vibe Switch was born out of a 24-hour design challenge focused on solutions to racial inequality and police brutality, which was held by the non-profit social enterprise, the Creative Reaction Lab, f…