Making Sense of the 2022 Midterms: Politics and Public Policy Moving Forward

The 2022 midterms saw historic voter turnout after nail-biting races across the country. What are the political and policy impacts from the midterm results? How will this affect the 2024 presidential election? We will discuss these questions and more in our bipartisan post-election rundown. Join Steve Israel, former U.S. Congressman and former Chair of the Democratic Campaign Coordinating Committee, and Susan Del Percio, political analyst for MSNBC, in conversation with Dr. Basil A. Smikle Jr., Public Policy Program Director at Roosevelt House.

Steve Israel served in the U.S.  Congress between 2001–2017, including 4 years as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (2011–2015). He left Washington – unindicted and undefeated – to pursue new passions. In 2021 he opened a small independent bookshop, Theodore’s Books, in his historic hometown of Oyster Bay, fulfilling a lifelong dream. He also directs the nonpartisan Institute of Politics and Global Affairs at the Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University, which serves as a platform for civic engagement and bipartisan dialogue. He has published two critically acclaimed satires of Washington: The Global War on Morris (2014) and Big Guns (2018). Israel’s commentary has been featured on CNN and MSNBC, well as the New York Times, the Atlantic magazine, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. He was profiled on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliverand has appeared on CBS’s Sixty Minutes. He lives with his wife Cara in Oyster Bay, Long Island. He has two daughters and two grandchildren.

Susan Del Percio is a well-known political strategist and crisis communications consultant.  She is also a political analyst for MSNBC and NBC News THINK contributor. With nearly 30 years of experience in the political, government, nonprofit and private sector arenas, she is a trusted advisor helping leaders develop and execute focused strategic communications and winning crisis management campaigns. She served as Special Advisor to the Governor (2014-2015), and prior to founding her previous firm in 2001, Ms. Del Percio served as a Deputy Commissioner for the City of New York.  She received both her Bachelor and Master’s degrees from Emerson College.

Dr. Basil Smikle Jr. is Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Public Policy Program at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. He was appointed by former Governor David Paterson to serve as the Executive Director of the New York State Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential cycle where he was the “second highest ranking Democrat” in the State. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics and Education and an MPA from Columbia University and received a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.