2020 National Post-Election Conference

The Dole Institute’s Pose-Election Conference will take on a new form during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our Post-Election Conference is one of the most anticipated events we have at the institute,” said Director Bill Lacy. “However, COVID-19 made it impossible to hold the conference the way we have in the past. Given the historic nature of this year’s election, we felt canceling the conference was not an option. So, we have gathered eleven world-class guests for a video series that delves deeply into one of the most unique national elections in our country’s history.”

In this new format, each guest was interviewed individually by Lacy, allowing for in-depth analysis and insight. All eleven videos are currently available for viewing. The series can be binge-watched or doled out over time.

Michael Glassner

Michael Glassner, Chief Operating Officer for Trump’s reelection campaign, discusses how the election played out from the Trump campaign’s point of view. He focusses on the time between the midterms and now, and how things like the pandemic, racial justice protests, and the debates were approached by the campaign. He also discusses the trump campaign’s messaging strategy and stories from the campaign trail, especially the rallies.

Michael S. Glassner was Senior Advisor and Chief Operating Officer for Donald J. Trump, Inc., as well as a top strategist of the President’s 2020 campaign organization, and currently serves as President of C&M Transcontinental. Michael formerly served as Regional Political Director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in the Southwest Region, Senior Vice President for External Affairs at the IDT Corporation, and was a top political and policy advisor to Senator Bob Dole. He was also a Dole Institute Visiting Fellow.

Jeff Greenfield

Jeff Greenfield, author, journalist, former political analyst for CBS, CNN, ABC, and current analyst for PBS, talks about his background as a long-time political analyst in journalism. He discusses his experience covering Trump’s presidency and the election, and why he thinks the election played out the way it did. He gives his insights into America’s political landscape, talking about where the two parties stand now and what he thinks their challenges will be in the future.

Jeff Greenfield, a veteran political, media and culture reporter, and analyst has spent more than thirty years on network television while also working as a print journalist and best-selling author. In his 30+ plus years at CBS, CNN, ABC, and PBS, he has reported on matters political and cultural. Greenfield also has reported on the media, culture, and trends for the cable network. He is currently a columnist for POLITICO and a contributing correspondent for PBS’“Newshour.” Greenfield also worked as a speechwriter for the Senate, Robert Kennedy, and John Lindsay and served as a columnist for TIME Magazine.

Eric Pahls

Eric Pahls, who managed the campaign for Senator-elect Roger Marshall, gives an account of the campaign from start to finish, adding his insights about various points in the campaign. He talks about messaging strategies and T.V. ads and Marshall as a candidate and how he stacked up against Barbara Bollier. He also talked about Republicans and Democrats in general and what he thinks about the challenges the parties will face in the future.

Eric Pahls is a proud native Kansan who served as Campaign Manager for Dr. Roger Marshall’s successful 2020 U.S. Senate Campaign. Prior to 2020, he served as businesswoman Carly Fiorina’s Communications Director, and as the youngest Press Secretary on Capitol Hill after working on Dr. Marshall’s successful 2016 Congressional campaign, which notably unseated the incumbent. Eric is a graduate of the University of Kansas and was a Student Advisory Board Member and student staff member at the Dole Institute of Politics throughout college.”

Max Glass

Political Campaign Manager Max Glass discusses the Barbara Bollier campaign, including its strengths, weaknesses, and challenges as they faced their competition for a senate seat. He reflects on what he would have done differently and why the campaign made the decisions they did. He has worked on a variety of Democratic campaigns including the congressional campaign of former Presidential candidate Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of HI.

Katie Glueck

New York Times writer Katie Glueck discusses the early campaign of Joe Biden, what his campaign did for Super Tuesday and primary season in general, and how both campaigns operated during the pandemic. Glueck speaks about what it’s like covering a campaign during a pandemic and goes on to address the general election and Biden’s path to victory. She discusses the results of the election for all sections of politics and the upcoming Georgia Senate race runoff.

Katie Glueck is a national politics reporter at The New York Times, where she covered the 2020 presidential campaign as a lead reporter on Joe Biden. She previously covered politics for McClatchy’s Washington bureau and Politico. Her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Washingtonian magazine, Town & Country magazine, and The Austin American-Statesman. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and is a native of Leawood, Kan. She lives in New York City.

Erin Wilson

Erin Wilson, National Political Director for President-Elect Biden, describes what working on the Biden campaign was like at the beginning and what trials the Biden campaign went through to secure their path to the candidacy and ultimately the presidency. She addresses how the campaign reacted to the George Floyd incident. Wilson discusses the selection of Kamala Harris as the vice president. Differences between how Republicans and Democrats campaigned. Pathway to victory. She describes creating a virtual campaign and now a digital inauguration in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wilson, a Philadelphia native and national political director for Biden’s presidential campaign, currently serves as deputy executive director of the inauguration committee. She formerly worked for Sen. Bob Casey and the Democratic National Committee.

Joe Lenski

Pollster Joe Lenski discusses exit polling and the unique challenges of the 2020 election. He examines what type of people voted for which candidate and analyzes the data from the past year.

Joe Lenski is co-founder and Executive Vice President of Edison Research. Under his supervision, Edison Research currently conducts all exit polls in the United States for the four major news organizations. Joe has also served as Councilor-at-Large for the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Secretary-Treasurer of AAPOR, and Statistical Analyst for the CBS News/New York Times Poll.”

Frank Fahrenkopf

Frank Fahrenkopf, former RNC chairman and co-founder of the Commission on Presidential Debates, talks about the history of presidential debates in our country, sharing stories about past debates. Additionally, he discusses how the debates work and their importance. He recounts how he founded the commission.

Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. is Co-Chair of the Commission on Presidential Debate, which he co-founded in 1987. He was President and CEO of the American Gaming Association until he retired in 2013. A lawyer by profession, Frank gained national prominence during the 1980s when he served as chairman of the Republican Party for six of President Ronald Reagan’s eight years in the White House. He also was a founder of the National Endowment for Democracy and the International Republican Institute.

Dan Balz

Washington Post Chief Correspondent Dan Balz discusses Biden’s path to victory – from the primary election season to November 3. He speaks at length about how the pandemic affected both campaigns, the importance of adaptability during the pandemic, and how campaigns put together their respective conventions. He also analyzes what the campaigns did to reach their electoral votes. Balz shares his insights on the first presidential debate, polling, and the months leading into November.

Dan Balz is chief correspondent at The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 1978 and has been on the front lines of the Post’s political coverage as a reporter or editor throughout his career. He is the author or co-author of several books, including two New York Times bestsellers: Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America and, with co-author Haynes Johnson, “The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election.”

Steven Jacques

Democratic advisor Steven Jacques reflects on the beginning of the year for the Democratic race, how both campaigns reached voters during the primary and their different approaches to conventions. He discusses the presidential debates and what cable news has done to politics. He offers insight into the future of campaigning.

Steven has served on the White House staff and worked for the White House as an outside contractor in three administrations, leading presidential and vice-presidential advance teams throughout the U.S. and the world. He served as a senior official in the U.S. State Department, U.S. Commerce Department, and U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. He has served on national staff in twelve presidential campaigns, from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, and was Obama’s senior national lead advance throughout the ’07 – ’08 campaign. He is a former senior fellow of the Dole Institute of Politics.

Francesca Chambers

Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent for McClatchy, talks about her experience covering the White House over the course of the last year. She gives insight into how the White House responded to various events, such as COVID, racial justice, the debates, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, and how they affected Trump’s reelection campaign. She also discusses what it was like being a reporter in the White House during the pandemic, the election, and her plans to cover the Biden Administration.

Francesca Chambers is a White House Correspondent for McClatchy. She previously held the position of Senior White House Correspondent at DailyMail.com and its Emmy-winning, syndicated newsmagazine DailyMailTV. She has covered the White House since late 2014 across two administrations – Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump – and reported on the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in 2016. She is a proud graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, from which she also has a B.A. in political science. She was a member of the Dole Institute Student Advisory Board.