Our nation’s politics are consumed by questions of gender, as ladies candidates’ “electability” comes up in methods refined and never, the accessibility of abortion is debated, and politicians marketing campaign on limiting the dialogue of sexuality and id. To assist cowl this, particularly as we look ahead to a 2024 presidential marketing campaign, The nineteenth is thrilled to announce the hiring of two reporters to assist construct out our political protection, Mel Leonor Barclay and Grace Panetta.
Mel involves us after masking the fascinating story of Virginia politics on the Richmond Occasions-Dispatch. She reported tenaciously on the blackface scandal round former Gov. Ralph Northam, then lined the state by means of protests for racial justice and the COVID-19 pandemic. She dove into the 2021 gubernatorial marketing campaign, writing about how lots of the divisions which might be enjoying out round our nation had been mirrored there — and the election of a Republican governor who’s now seen as a possible presidential hopeful.
Mel moved to Florida from the Dominican Republic as a youngster. She began out masking authorities within the fertile reporting floor of South Florida, interning on the South Florida Solar Sentinel and Miami Herald after which working on the Naples Each day Information. She got here north to work for Politico earlier than shifting to Richmond, the place she lives now. She’s presently writing a publication for States Newsroom about abortion coverage by means of the states.
Mel joins us November 7.
Grace comes from Insider, the place she began as a college-aged intern and stayed on to cowl the affirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court docket, the pandemic and the 2020 election. She delved into how elections work, reporting on the regulation and the way they’re administered, and went on to earn a graduate certificates in election administration from the Humphrey Faculty of Public Affairs on the College of Minnesota.
She labored on reside elections protection and wrote a chapter on voting within the 2020 election for “A Return to Normalcy? The 2020 Election That (Nearly) Broke America,” a e book produced and edited by the College of Virginia Heart for Politics. Grace is a Massachusetts native who’s presently primarily based in Washington, D.C.
Grace joins us October 3.
We’re excited so as to add to our protection, inspecting how politicians are pitching their candidacies and the way voters see them. We’re eager about having a look at how each events try to enchantment to voters and what insurance policies they’re discussing — and what voters really feel is unnoticed.
