Just days after the United States elects its 45th president, Policy Network will welcome two of America’s foremost political strategists for a post-election conversation – asking, after six tumultuous political months on both sides of the Atlantic, what are the real lessons progressives should draw?
No one is better placed than Marshall and Brodnitz to not only unpick the presidential result but also to look at the wider implications of the rise of populism – in the shape of Trump, Sanders, Brexit and various insurgents of left and right across Europe.
How should the centre left respond? What does an expected Clinton/Kaine victory tell us about how moderates can fightback? Can Brexit serve as a wake-up call for a new progressive project for Britain?
Join us for what promises to be a lively, and highly topical, conversation with ample opportunity for you to put your questions to two of America’s leading political practitioners.
Will Marshall can fairly be described as the intellectual architect of the Clinton ‘New Democrat’ project. As president and founder, in 1989, of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) he has been at the forefront of the movement to modernise progressive politics for the global age. Dubbed “Bill Clinton’s idea mill”, PPI’s policy analysis and proposals were the source for many of the “New Democrat” innovations that have figured so prominently in US politics over the past two decades. In the 1980s Marshall helped to found the Democratic Leadership Council, serving as the first policy director of the group which is credited with having nurtured a whole new generation of election-winning progressives who went on to reach national prominence.
Pete Brodnitz has more 20 years of strategic research experience at the highest level of politics. As founder and president of Expedition Strategies his clients includes 13 presidents and prime ministers on four continents, US political leaders at all levels, Fortune 500 companies, and leading advocacy and non-profit institutions. In the United States, his clients include five sitting US senators, but his longest-standing client in the United States is Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate. Brodnitz has provided polling-based strategy for Kaine in his past campaigns for lieutenant governor, governor and the Senate. Pete was a key part of the polling team when Hillary Clinton first ran for Senate in 2000 and was on the battleground polling team for the Hillary for America effort throughout the primaries. He has continued to advise Senator Kaine through the presidential campaign.