Articles by Lindsay France

CEO Audrey Henson and her team are disrupting the way internships on the Hill are staffed. They’ve created a pipeline for top students who have overcome major adversity, and who lack valuable connections, to gain access to these valuable internships. Congress can’t get enough of these all-stars. Give it a listen and chime in with your thoughts below! Learn more about College to Congress' programs here. ‍...

Reason Magazine is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The first issue of this well-known libertarian monthly publication was printed in 1968. It was the brainchild of a 20-year-old Boston University Student named Lanny Friedlander. As you may guess, the young man was a fan of Ayn Rand and objectivism. It was his way of commenting on things from a non-conventional left/right perspective. I sat down with Nick Gillespie, Editor-At-Large for Reason Magazine, to talk about how the audience and the j...

Washington, D.C. - On Friday, former President George Herbert Walker Bush died at the age of 94, passing away just months after his wife Barbara. Serving as the 41st President of the United States, Bush’s administration oversaw the end of the Cold War and Operation Desert Storm. As Bush's casket proceeded up the west-facing steps outside the Capitol building cannon fire roared across Washington. Bush called these steps “Democracy’s front porch." As the nation honors its 41st president, it is ...

Washington, D.C. - Ohio will be the first state in the nation to use blockchain technology for tax payments. Businesses will be able to pay 23 types of taxes via bitcoin. But if blockchain is secure enough for a government to collect money from companies, why hasn't it been given the green light for widespread use in securing our votes? West Virginia used a new blockchain pilot program to allow military men and women, as well as their families, to cast their votes in the midterm elections usin...

Washington, D.C. - Tulsi Gabbard is keeping the focus and political pressure on President Trump's foreign policy in the Middle East. Rep. Gabbard, who represents Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District, fired off a much-publicized tweet before Thanksgiving that focused on President Trump and Saudi Arabia after agents of the Saudi Arabian government assassinated journalist and Washington Post columnist Ahmad Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018. https://twitter.com...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Here in Washington, just after Thanksgiving, the newly elected members of Congress will begin week two of orientation to learn how to hire staff, where the bathrooms are located, and the basic infrastructure involved in operating as a legislator. And as the nation heads into a holding pattern over the holiday season, the debate rages over the current power structure on Capitol Hill and whether the parties' successful stifling of the debate will continue as 90 new members of C...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - It’s official. This year was the costliest midterm election in US history. Outside spenders forked out $1.31 billion. That’s an increase of 61% over the 2014 midterms. The total over-all cost of $5.2 billion is a 35% jump over 2014. The political advertising side of a campaign is a massive investment. Rhetoric filters into living rooms across America at all hours of the day and night, while a candidate gives a stump speech to a crowd of thirty. According to Advertising Analy...

Washington, D.C.- You don’t often see this sort of disclaimer: “We made 25,975 calls, and 642 people spoke to us.But remember: It’s just one poll, and we talked to only 642 people. Each candidate’s total could easily be four points different if we polled everyone in the state. And having a small sample is only one possible source of error.” That is right at the top of a single poll result on the New York Times website's live polling section. It posted results in real time with every phone call...

Washington, D.C. - The Republicans have held on to the Senate by grabbing some center-left leaning districts, while Democrats scooped up the 218 they needed to topple GOP control of the House of Representatives. Those numbers weren't necessarily surprising for many Americans. But the details surrounding this election are fascinating. Candidates broke barriers across gender (more than 100 women were elected), race, religion and sexual identity. And inside those states and districts, unique situa...