State Capture

Most Americans pay little attention to the massive number of elections that occur at the state level every year. Yet cumulatively, a party's success in state-level races across the country can produce major shifts in policymaking and governance. That is precisely what has happened in the US since 2010. In a wave election that year, the Republican Party began their ascendancy in state-level elections, and by 2016 had solidified their dominance. The party now fully controls 25 state legislatures and governorships-one of the largest advantages either party has had since the New Deal.

On November 18, 2019, the Ash Center hosted a discussion with discussion with Alex Hertel-Fernandez, author of State Capture: How Conservative Activists, Big Businesses, and Wealthy Donors Reshaped the American States -- and the Nation and Assistant Professor in Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University, moderated. 

A transcription of this podcast can be found online here. 

About the Ash Center 

The Ash Center is a research center and think tank at Harvard Kennedy School focused on democracy, government innovation, and Asia public policy. AshCast, the Center's podcast series, is a collection of conversations, including events and experts Q&As, from around the Center on pressing issues, forward-looking solutions, and more. 

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The mission of the Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

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Music is Wholesome by Kevin McLeod.