Paint The Polls Black: Symone Sanders Townsend On Why Speaking Truth To Power Still Matters

If there’s one factor Symone Sanders Townsend has never struggled with, it’s discovering something to say. The former White House advisor has made a profession out of talking her thoughts, a high quality that has earned her recognition in Washington and helped set up her presence on national tv. Her expertise working inside the authorities gives her a perspective that viewers don’t usually get from conventional information protection. Now, as a journalist, she brings that data to her reporting, offering insight into how selections are made and what they imply for the people affected by them.

In latest years, maintaining up with politics has become exhausting for many Americans. The fixed stream of breaking information can make it troublesome to distinguish what deserves consideration from what will be forgotten by tomorrow. It’s an setting in which the Nebraska native’s conversational fashion feels significantly suited to the occasions. As co-anchor of MS NOW’s The Weeknight, she brings an unmistakable persona to information protection, an method that carries over to Clock It with Symone & Eugene, her weekly podcast with longtime pal Eugene Daniels. The community is also increasing its relationship with viewers through the just lately launched MS NOW Membership, which provides dwell discussions with journalists and alternatives for audiences to ask questions instantly. The initiative has included in-person occasions, starting with a dwell version of The Weeknight in Dallas that includes Symone and her co-anchors.

Sanders Townsend’s transition from strategist to media persona has introduced a totally different set of tasks. Her expertise provides a priceless perspective as Americans navigate growing divisions and questions about the credibility of the establishments they rely on for data. With another election cycle approaching, the need for impartial reporting stays as urgent as ever.

In a dialog with ESSENCE, Sanders Townsend discusses her newest initiatives, displays on the experiences that have influenced her profession and shares her ideas on the state of journalism and American politics.

ESSENCE: I needed to begin with the Clock It podcast. What impressed you and Eugene Daniels to create it, and what were you guys attempting to accomplish with that explicit sequence?

Symone Sanders-Townsend: It’s so humorous. The thought for the podcast really came when I was still working on the weekends, when I co-hosted The Weekend and when Eugene was still at Politico. And he had carried out the show one morning, and after the show, we’re sitting in my workplace with my senior producer, Brittany Ruff, who is now a senior producer on the podcast, and we’re just in there speaking. And Brittany said, “Y’all should have a podcast.” And I said, “Really? Do you think anybody wants to hear this?” And we thought we should have a podcast. And so we went to the people at the community, Madeline Herringer, who is the guru at MS NOW for all issues digital, long-form and audio. And she favored the thought. So we went through months of development, and this all occurred last yr. So it seems like it’s fast, but we’ve been speaking about this since, I would argue, perhaps last summer season. Went through a lot of totally different development concepts. And the unique thought of the podcast, which I think we are still true to right now, is that politics and tradition aren’t separate. What is occurring in tradition leads politics. Culture is politics, and politics is, in truth, a half of the tradition.

It’s not that people aren’t paying consideration to what’s occurring in politics. I absolutely reject that. All my non-political group chats appear to really know what the hell is going on. What the drawback is, I think, was out there, and I think the evidence is borne out in what we hear from people when we see them out in the actual world, as I like to say, is that sometimes people are not discussing the occasions of the day, the politics and the tradition, in a manner that is accessible or comprehensible or like they would speak about it. And so when you tune into Clock It, Eugene and I, this is an precise dialog we would have. We are really associates. When people are becoming a member of the group chat, this week, who joined the group chat was Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore, whom I know very, very effectively. Me and Mayor Scott came up collectively at the same time. He is somebody who is actually in one of my group chats. And so when we’re speaking, the familiarity is there, but we’re also giving you the details and serving to people unpack what is going on and go a little deeper. Honestly, it was only supposed to be an eight-episode sequence, and then we just stored going. And then they put podcast tools in our properties, and now we are on the cusp of, by January, we’ll be a yr into Clock It. It’s actually superb.

For someone who desires to become politically conscious but may be struggling with where to begin or may really feel overwhelmed, what steps would you advise them to take?

SS: Well, one, I would advise them to signal up for Clock It. So wherever you get your podcasts, we’re also on YouTube at ms.now/clockit. But two, I think two issues. One, most people, and there’s some new Pew analysis that really just came out yesterday, that talked about the truth that more and more people are getting their information from their telephones, from the gadget in their hand. So, I would encourage people to comply with the information organizations on social media and then some of the reporters or journalists or hosts that you’ve seen that you like, go forward and give them a comply with. Because I’m somebody that I’m going to give you your fashion content material and my nails and the lashes, but I’m also going to give you some political commentary in my tales or on my TikTookay or as I tweet a little bit. But I’m on Threads now.

I would argue I’m very good at it, but I’m not distinctive. And I think that more and more, information organizations, particularly at MS NOW, have understood that you have to meet people where they are. And so I don’t think people have to… Obviously, I would love to say tune into The Weeknight, but one of the best entry factors, if you’re somebody that’s just like, “Look, I’m overwhelmed. I see what’s going on, and I want to be a little bit more informed, especially because an election is literally around the corner as we talk. It’s about 10 days away.” And so go forward and click on the comply with on the social media websites that you’re already on.

I need to speak about MS NOW. How did you initially join with them, and why do you think MS NOW is more important than ever at present?

SS: I came to MS NOW after I left the White House, and I had a bunch of conferences when I left with all of the information organizations, actually. MS NOW, then called MSNBC, the former president of the community, I met with her. I said, “I want to have a show.” And she said, “What kind of show would you like to have?” And the other executives that I met with at the other networks, they all tried to speak me out of it. They’d say, “Oh, you don’t really want a show,” or “Isn’t that too much of a lift for you? Don’t you want some flexibility to do something else?” Or someone flat-out instructed me that “nobody’s going to give you a show.” Well, MS NOW took a likelihood on me, and I would argue it was a actually great guess. And so I used to have my own show called Symone at 4:00 pm, and then we went to the weekend, and then we went to The Weekend, which was Saturdays and Sundays in the morning, and now we are very excited that we are at 7:00 pm on The Weeknight, every evening in people’ residing rooms.

And what I love about what we do, and frankly, what I love about the people that watch us, is that for the people that watch us, we have a very loyal viewer neighborhood because when they come, they’re coming to hear what we, the hosts, have to say. Sure, they might get pleasure from a great visitor. We always endeavor to have great bookings and the newsmakers, but they’re coming to hear what me, Michael and Luke have to say on The Weeknight. I was just in my kitchen watching Steph Ruhles. People who are tuning into Money, Power, Politics, they need to hear Steph’s take on the business and the money and what’s actually going on with Wall Street and why the billionaires aren’t doing more because Steph actually knows it because this is what she used to do. She’s so educated, and she’s personable in the manner that she delivers it.

And so what I love about what we are doing proper now is that we have our finger on the pulse of what’s occurring out there, particularly when it relates to politics. We’re not one of the information organizations that is kowtowing or backing down. I have never sat in a assembly with the executives where they have instructed me not to say something or I can not say something. I think in this day and age, that’s very important. I am excited about what we do on The Weeknight every evening, because you’re going to study something on our show, and you may really feel involved, but you would’ve got a snigger out of it. And I think at the finish of the day, you’ll really feel good about it. And that is a privilege, frankly.

The last factor I’ll say is that it is a powerful time for journalism. And journalists have a goal on their backs. Obviously, information organizations across the nation, frankly, are not being funded at the ranges that they should. Local newspapers are closing. My mom owns the oldest Black newspaper in Nebraska, the Omaha Star. And so it is a very powerful time for journalism, but this is the most important time because, as I talked about, we speak about how people are getting their information from social media sometimes, and sometimes they’re clicking on creators, sometimes they’re clicking on people like me or the precise information group’s web sites. But if they’re clicking on a creator, to be very clear, the creator is getting their data from a story that a journalist went out and reported. Somebody at MS NOW is on the ground on our national security beat or out in these campaigns, or our White House reporters that are doing the reporting, that are writing the articles, that are placing the data out there for the creators and the people on the web to take in and then repeat out there to the world. And so journalism is vitally important, particularly with a authorities that desires to inform you one model or their model of a story. I really feel actually blessed to be ready to do this work proper now, particularly in this time. Every day it’s like you have to snigger to keep from crying, but this is, I think, a pivotal second. When I look back on this second in our historical past, I will really feel great about what I will be ready to say about what we did here at our community, what I did to contribute to the national dialog and to actually just speak about and speak actually about what is occurring in this nation proper now.

You’ve constructed a profession in areas where Black ladies haven’t always had a seat at the desk. What has been the largest problem you’ve confronted in making your voice heard all through your profession?

SS: I think that’s such a good query because for what I would call the first half of my profession, I was a recurring marketing campaign staffer. I ended my political profession as a strategist, but I began off as an organizer. I was an outside organizer. And it was attention-grabbing because I was oftentimes the youngest individual in the room and sometimes the only individual of colour, actually the individual of colour, period. I’m initially from North Omaha, Nebraska, and my first huge race that I labored was while I was in school, and I labored for my mayor. They were attempting to recall the mayor. So I went to work on the mayor’s marketing campaign to beat the recall, and I met these guys who were consultants that they had employed out of Tennessee. It was a Black-owned firm. It was Chris Smith and Robert White, and they had employed them to manage North and South Omaha, the predominantly Black and Latino elements of the metropolis. And when the marketing campaign was over, we beat the recall, but the mayor lost reelection two years later because the writing clearly was on the wall. They let me proceed to work with them while I was still in faculty.

And that expertise was really very formative for me in phrases of understanding my voice. I labored on judges’ races. They flew me out to go with them when they would do the candidate evaluation conferences where these candidates or potential candidates were deciding if they were going to get into the race, and this explicit firm had carried out the analysis, and they’re presenting. It wasn’t just me watching. I was taking notes. And that is where I actually discovered, one, you got to concentrate. Two, you got to do your analysis. But three, if you are not talking up or participating in the dialog, there’s no manner that what you think can change anything. I took those classes into all of the further work that I’ve carried out. And actually, some days I am shocked because somebody like me, a little bald Black lady from North Omaha, Nebraska, is not supposed to make it to the highest echelons of American politics. I am not supposed to be sitting in primetime tv every evening. I’m not supposed to be someone that can call up presidents and senators and some prime ministers, but I’m not supposed to occupy a place of energy, somebody that seems like me and who comes from where I’m from.

That’s superb to hear.

SS: But the truth that I do is a testomony, frankly, to not me, but I actually think to the neighborhood around me and these superb alternatives that I’ve had all through my profession. I guess I’ll finish this reply with saying, not that talking up has always been simple because it’s always troublesome, but I have always prioritized going into a place where my voice is valued, and that sometimes is dangerous because in my skilled profession, I have had to make selections about where I’m not going to go or somewhere that I need to go away or a contract I was not going to take because I didn’t really feel like my voice was going to be valued. And that is a tough tightrope to stroll. It has been all through my complete profession. But trying back on it, I actually really feel like prioritizing a place where my voice was valued, not that my voice was the most important voice in the room.

On Senator Sander’s marketing campaign in 2016, it wasn’t that my voice was the most important voice in the room, but Senator Sanders valued what I had to say. He sought my counsel. He requested me what I thought, and when I gave him a response, he would pay attention to it. Also, the motive I went to work for then-Vice President Biden’s presidential marketing campaign in 2020 is because, one, I felt like had the clearest case, and he understood the case he was making, but two, he actually valued my voice, and I was actually shocked by that. I met him at his home. We were only supposed to be assembly for about 20 minutes. I ended up being at the home for an hour and a half. He gave me a tour. We were speaking, and we were very frank and candid. And so the manner that you and I are talking proper now, how I speak on Clock It, how people see me talking when I converse on tv, that’s how I used to speak to all these candidates and senators and presidents. And Vice President Harris used to inform me that one of my best qualities. Now, I could be talking to the vice president of the United States of America. I could be talking to a business chief. I could be talking to a younger individual that is coming into some occasion or something we’re doing. I could be talking to a member of Congress that’s coming on our show tonight, but I’m going to meet the people where they are. And frankly, at the finish of the day, we are all just people attempting to have a dialog.

Your e-book, Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You, has an superb title. What impressed you to write this?

SS: I’m actually in the center of writing the e-book proper now. My manuscript is due December 1st, and so this e-book can get out in fall of 2027. I discovered myself more and more annoyed. I think people that watch our show know that a number of occasions a week, they are like, “I’m concerned.” But I discovered myself annoyed because I think that the diagnosis of what went improper in our politics with the pro-democracy coalition, not just the Democratic Party, but the pro-democracy coalition, what people should do versus the conservative motion in this nation, I just really feel like the evaluation was so flat. And I was so annoyed because going into these midterm elections in advance of the next presidential election, I think we got to make sure we’re having the proper of dialog. We have to be trustworthy about what’s going on.

And for all the people that are like, “Well, Democrats don’t necessarily have the right message,” or “It’s the issues. People don’t care about the issues.” I don’t think America has a values drawback because most people, Democrats, Republicans and independents, agree that people should have healthcare. At this level, everybody agrees gasoline is too rattling high. They agree that childcare is too costly. Most people agree that housing should be reasonably priced and that their elected officers should do something about it. So the points that people on the aspect of the pro-democracy coalition are placing ahead are not points that aren’t well-liked. I reject that. The drawback is energy. And so my e-book is called Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You: America Has a Power Problem because before people solid a poll in the main for the next presidential election and then in the common election, I think people need to be very, very clear about what the challenge is.

The challenge isn’t that the conservative motion has figured out something that the relaxation of us haven’t and that they’re just so much more artful. They haven’t. They actually copied the civil rights motion. I have a chapter in my e-book called “They Copied Us.” They saw how particularly Black Americans modified the tradition of this nation through the courts, through advocacy and activism, through elected officers, through laws. And they saw that, and they copied it. They copied the machinery. They didn’t copy what it was for. And I think that the people in the pro-democracy coalition need to bear in mind that. We speak about Dr. King and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the March on Washington, but we scale back them to these legislative wins and a actually great speech. We don’t speak about the strategy that went behind it. We don’t speak about the truth that there were some arguments and fights. It’s like we forgot how we got those issues.

And so I needed to write this e-book, and I needed it to be out before anybody has to solid a poll because there are just, I think, some frank conversations that I think we attempt to have on The Weeknight every evening, but I had a lot of ideas, so I needed to put them in a e-book. So it’s not a values drawback. America has a energy drawback. And I think that the pro-democracy coalition people in this nation need to get more severe about energy. But it’s not just energy for energy’s sake. I speak about energy for whom and energy for what? And then when you get energy, what are you going to do with it? What are you ready to do? So I’m very excited about it, and I can’t wait for people to learn what I’ve been working on.