Eye on Congress:The Big Story

If you’ve been anywhere near cable news or social media in the last few months, you have probably seen an ad by the Lincoln Project. The group of Republicans who have aggressively gone after President Donald Trump on cable news and social media. Lincoln Project Senior Advisor Kurt Bardella, explains what motivates the group, what they hope to accomplish and the pushback they've gotten from their GOP brethren. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you ran for Congress in 2018, there was a pretty good chance you are part of a political documentary. First came “Knock Down the House,” which featured a (then) little known candidate, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and now comes “Surge,” which follows women who ran against veteran Republican incumbents. Political Reporters Bridget Bowman and Kate Ackley spoke to Rep. Lauren Underwood, a star of “Surge,” and filmmakers Wendy Sachs and Hannah Rosenzweig about their new movie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the few things that is not different about this year’s political conventions is that the parties are providing valuable national airtime to candidates for Congress whom they want to see succeed. Who shows up, and who doesn’t, provide context for those House and Senate races, even if some of that context is, quite frankly, mystifying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We don’t need hindsight to see that 2020 is a year unlike any other in recent memory. The coronavirus pandemic has touched every fiber of our lives and woven itself inextricably into the fold of presidential politics, including the national conventions blanketing the airwaves this week and next.  Usually, the Republican and Democratic parties live up to their collective nouns and really get down at these weeklong rallies, but that’s a no-go with a pandemic raging. Instead of convening in person, the conventions are going virtual. It’s yet another wholly unconventional move made this year that still somehow feels inevitable and even downright sensible. The conventions haven’t served their original purpose — actually picking a presidential candidate — since 1952. Both parties shifted to letting primaries and caucuses select their electoral champions — a move begun during the Progressive Era that accelerated in 1968 following the chaos that unfurled outside of the DNC in Chicago when several nights of protests l

Kamala Harris' historic run as vice president comes at a time of big societal and generational changes. Roll Call columnist Mary C. Curtis, who covers the intersection of politics, culture and race, discusses the significance of the California Democrat's spot on the 2020 ticket with Joe Biden. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress has a record number of women in its ranks, and it doesn't matter if they are Democrats or Republicans, junior members or elected leaders: They share a common set of experiences about being talked down to, overlooked or outright scorned. Heard on the Hill's Kathryn Lyons spoke to some of them and recounts their stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jamaal Bowman isn’t your average former middle school principal. That’s because the 44-year-old recently beat veteran Congressman Eliot Engel in the Democratic primary in New York’s 16th District. He's part of a changing of the guard of younger, minority politicians who are on their way to Congress. Clyde McGrady discusses his recent conversation with the educator-turned-prospective lawmaker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since Rep. John Lewis' death on July 17, his colleagues have paid tribute and remembered him in ways big and small. And his own words, like the ones we gathered here, make a fitting memorial to a figure whose public service crossed boundaries and generations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The struggle to ensure people have access to the ballot box is one that G.K. Butterfield and his family have been involved in dating back to the early 20th Century. The North Carolina Democrat’s history in Wilson, N.C., is indelibly shaped by his immigrant father and his decades-long advocacy on behalf of Black suffrage in a place notoriously resistant to it. It extends through Butterfield's own place in the Civil Rights Era, and continues to the present day with his own legislative priorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It doesn’t matter if you went to Morehouse, or if you were an undercover CIA officer or even a police officer yourself, if you are a Black man, odds are your interactions with the police are more dangerous and memorable than for others. CQ Roll Call’s Clyde McGrady interviewed three members of Congress who reflect on what it was like for them and what was different for them in their encounters with law enforcement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Dawn Porter had a unique challenge in making a documentary about Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat who recently turned 80 and has been a civil rights hero for more than half a century. How do you say something new and interesting about someone so familiar? She talks about that and more on the latest Political Theater podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is a third-generation Washingtonian who has been witness to the biggest turning points for the Capital city’s long struggle for civil and political rights. One thing has been constant, though: Citizens of the District of Columbia — federal tax paying citizens — have been denied full voting representation. This week, the House will vote on a bill granting Washington full statehood. That’s the first time that will happen in almost 30 years. And the bill’s sponsor, Eleanor Holmes Norton, talks about it on the new episode of the Political Theater podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been five years since the deadly, racist-motivated shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. But the scars are still present in the current debate over racial justice, Black Lives Matter and the legacy of white supremacist ideology. Roll Call columnist Mary C. Curtis discusses how the tragedy in Charleston still resonates as the United States grapples with its ugly history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It might not seem like it, but we’ve come a long way as a country in the last couple of weeks. On May 25th, George Floyd, a black man, died at the hands of Minneapolis Police officers, an all too familiar scene. But this time feels different, in the streets, in the Capitol and everywhere you look. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Dawn Porter's new documentary "John Lewis: Good Trouble" arrives at a time when racial justice is on everyone’s mind. Protests over the death of George Floyd have broken out in major U.S. cities. John Lewis’ life has been all about, in his words, getting into the right kind of trouble, good trouble, protesting for civil rights, the right to vote and justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social media was supposed to connect people by bringing them into a common shared space to exchange views, jokes and news. It has become a dominant force that enhances political and cultural divides, and that is largely a result of its founders being people who never learned how to get along with others, like in a bar, says podcaster and author Brandon Wetherbee. If social media was run like a bar, a place where people gathered and where everyone has to respect each other or get thrown out, things might be very different. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This isn't the first pandemic the United States, and Washington, has grappled with in the last century. But there are some key differences in our culture, like our ability to eliminate much of the risk of disease to public health. And there is one constant: Congress finds a way to meet amid the outbreak, for better or worse, and no matter who got sick, including speakers, vice presidents and rank-and-file members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The comedian and ‘The Daily Show’ correspondent dives into her new podcast ‘That Black Ass Show’, how she keeps her comedy personal and why she still has to wait to be seated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're less than six months away from Election Day and the political dynamics have changed little: Donald Trump is a slight underdog for re-election, control of the Senate is a toss-up and conditions favor Democrats to retain the House. CQ Roll Call Elections Analyst Nathan Gonzales explains why not even a pandemic can change the basic facts about the 2020 campaign. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The coronavirus pandemic has upended daily life as we know. But the coronavirus might have met its match in some truly indelible parts of our culture: full service gas stations in New Jersey, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. And voting in person in Congress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices