Election 2024: Super Tuesday

The 2024 presidential election will be one of the most consequential in history, with the future of democracy hanging in the balance. 

Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum invites you to join retired political commentator and Folio board trustee Mort Kondracke and the panel of experts, John Lapinski, chief of the Decision Desk and all polling for the NBC News network; Democratic campaign consultants Sandeep Kaushik and Delana Jones, and conservative Seattle radio talk show hosts John Carlson and Jason Rantz, for a post Super Tuesday discussion and commentary on President Biden's State of the Union address.

Delana Jones is a nationally recognized direct mail consultant and expert storyteller who for the past twenty years has been a part of some of the biggest races in the country. In 2022, she helped expand Democratic control of the U.S. Senate as the direct mail strategist for Senator John Fetterman and led the charge in WA-3 to elect Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the only Democratic congressional upset. Over the course of her career, she has helped change the face of Democratic politics by helping to elect history-making candidates like Deb Haaland, Marilyn Strickland, and Chris Pappas. She was named a “40 Under 40” by her colleagues at the Association of Political Consultants. She has served as a trusted advisor for EMILY’s List, Equality Pac, HRC, LCV, Planned Parenthood and SEIU. While helping to re-elect Senator Murray in 2010, Delana fell in love with the PNW, eventually moving to Washington. She lives in Tacoma with her wife and senior rescue dog.

John Lapinski, Ph.D., is the Robert A. Fox Professor of Political Science, Faculty Director of the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program and the Director of the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies. He also serves as the Faculty Director for the Executive Masters of Public Administration program within the Fels Institute of Government and as the Director of the Elections Unit at NBC News. In his role for NBC News, Lapinski is responsible for projecting races for the network and produces election-related stories through exit polls for NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, and all of NBC’s digital properties. 

John Carlson is a veteran news commentator, and has hosted “The Commute with Carlson” on 570 KVI radio since the early 1990’s.  He was a co-founder and former President of the Washington Policy Center, one of the northwest’s most respected policy research centers, and has also led three landmark initiative campaigns in Washington, including America’s first “Three Strikes, You’re Out” law in 1993.  He was listed in Columns magazine as one of the UW’s most influential graduates of the 20th century.  He received a B.A. in political science with distinction from the University of Washington in 1981.

A partner at Sound View Strategies (SVS), Sandeep Kaushik is a political and public affairs consultant in Seattle. In addition to his extensive public relations, political communications and strategic advisory work for elected officials and civic leaders, governments and non-profits, he has worked on multiple political campaigns in the Northwest, including numerous issue and ballot measure campaigns.

Jason Rantz is Seattle's fresh, contemporary conservative voice. Young and urban, passionate and bold, Rantz is outnumbered by the Progressive chorus, yet refuses to ignore the conservative principles at the core of America's greatness. Prolific on-air and online, Rantz knows he's outnumbered in Seattle, but he's never shy to be outspoken about it.