Robin Johnson
Host of Heartland PoliticsRobin A. Johnson is a governmental relations, public policy and political consultant. He is an expert on government reform issues and has consulted with numerous local governments on consolidation/merger, public-private partnerships and full-cost accounting of public services. Robin has also helped candidates win elections for the U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, state legislature, judiciary and local government. Robin served as a consultant to the Office of Statewide Performance Review in the Illinois Governor’s Office and is former director of the Illinois Center for Competitive Government, a partnership between the Illinois Comptroller’s Office and the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University. Prior to that, he was Director of the Local Government Affairs Division of the Illinois Comptroller’s Office. Robin served on the Board of Directors of the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships (NCPPP) in 1999-2000.
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GovernmentUS Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-17) looks back on his first year in Congress and talks about bipartisanship, the economy, climate, AI and much more.
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Campaigns & ElectionsSteven Conn questions the idea of a single rural America that is “left behind” or in crisis and instead says there are many rural Americas and they have been shaped by the same forces that impacted the rest of the country. His book, The Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is—And Isn’t also challenges the notion that rural America values capture the “real America” and why rural areas supported Donald Trump.
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Max Fraser, author of Hillbilly Highway: The Transappalachian Migration and The Making of a White Working Class, discusses the differences with other parts of the white, working class, misperceptions of this overlooked group, the role of country music, their political impact and much more.
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Allison Jaslow, CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) talks about key issues facing our nation’s veterans, including the need for better leadership, the Afghanistan withdrawal, impact of the hold on US Military nomination in the Senate, the VA and veterans health care, and much more.
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Campaigns & ElectionsGerry Baker, author of American Breakdown: Why We No Longer Trust Our Leaders and Institutions and How We Can Rebuild Confidence and former editor-in-chief at the Wall Street Journal, talks about growing distrust in government, big business, media and medicine, the widening gap between elites who control these institutions and the public, solutions to rebuild confidence and much more.
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Josh Kraushaar, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Insider, author of Sunday Sneak at Axios, and FOX News Radio political analyst, talks about the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, the upcoming invasion of Gaza, the possibility of a wider Middle East War, rising anti-Semitism in the US and around the world, and much more.
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Jared Strong, senior reporter for Iowa Capital Dispatch, provides a primer on the three proposed carbon dioxide pipelines in Iowa, the process for approval, risks and benefits, uncommon alliances among those in favor and opposed, and much more.
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Veteran Iowa Republican consultant David Kochel, talks about the leading candidates, roles of momentum and organization, impact of the Hamas terrorist attacks, a possible endorsement by Gov. Reynolds and much more.
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James Bennet, Senior Editor for The Economist magazine and author of the Lexington column, talks about the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republican presidential primary, the legacies of Dianne Feinstein and Robert Kennedy and how they relate to today’s politics, and much more.
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Steve Greenhouse, long-time labor reporter for the New York Times and author of Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor, discusses the impact of Covid on the American working class, the UAW-Big Three auto strike, challenges with organizing electric vehicles and other emerging clean-energy industries, union issues at Starbucks and much more.