@stphnfwlr.com.bsky.social
political reporter in ATL covering the south + future of GOP/Dem parties + ??? for @npr.org | always thinking of bourbon, biscuits and buc-ee’s newsletter: stphnfwlr.substack.com stories: https://www.npr.org/people/1219684807/stephen-fowler
Derek Dooley, son of legendary UGA football coach Vince Dooley, has filed paperwork to join the crowded GOP primary for #GASEN to try and unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. #gapol
Campaign site will be dooleyforgeorgia.com
docquery.fec.gov/pdf/124/2025...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Many Democrats see their political party as “weak” or “ineffective,” according to a poll that finds considerable pessimism within Democratic ranks.
03.08.2025 20:40 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 1
The annoying spam texts destroying the Democratic brand:
$678M raised through those spam tactics
$282M to one consulting firm: Mothership Strategies.
$11M to actual campaigns (1.6%)
The party isn’t just treating donors like marks—it’s being fleeced itself yet continues to back Mothership.
Today on @npr.org: As Democrats debate the future of their party and ways to fight low approval ratings, some politicians have begun to change both the form and format of their messaging to reach more voters.
My chat with @steveinskeep.bsky.social about my latest reporting:
After listening to dozens of hours of politicians who go on Theo Von, Shawn Ryan, Joe Rogan and other politics-adjacent podcasts, it’s clear that some folks think the future path to national relevance includes being able to shoot the breeze for hours on these shows.
03.08.2025 12:25 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Personally, I look forward to the armchair experts who’ve been blindly sharing loud opinions about NPR and its member stations, what they do/don’t do, and why it’s therefore good/bad that these changes are happening to… move on to the next topic.
02.08.2025 21:00 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
These popular shows are not explicitly politics-focused like the "NPR Politics Podcast" or NBC's "Meet The Press," and the target audience is different, too.
These listeners prefer a longer, organic conversation over buzzwords, short soundbites and questions that feel more like an interrogation.
Many people are checked out of politics.
The next major election is a year away.
But these politics-adjacent podcasts are still driving some of the conversation around what goes on in DC — and serve as a testing ground for those considering higher office trying to emulate Trump's success.
Google’s AI Overviews putting us closer to a zero-click search reality, and they’re only used in about 20% of searches right now! "It's parasitic, it's unsustainable and it poses a real existential threat to many in our industry."
www.npr.org/2025/07/31/n...
World leaders have lavished praise on President Trump in order to smooth diplomatic relations — and get better deals too.
02.08.2025 16:02 — 👍 220 🔁 51 💬 92 📌 24
Thoughts from the @npr.org Politics Podcast yesterday: The MAGA movement isnt going to disappear when Trump leaves office, but there’s nobody that can keep the coalition together like Trump has.
Also, for 2028 purposes, JD Vance = Kamala Harris
www.npr.org/2025/08/01/1...
New on @npr.org:
In 2024, President Trump popped up as a guest in a number of popular podcasts.
Now, even in an off-election year, politicians are taking to the same non-political podcasts to reach a new audience.
Is it working/will it be a prerequisite for national hopefuls in future elections?
Many people are checked out of politics.
The next major election is a year away.
But these politics-adjacent podcasts are still driving some of the conversation around what goes on in DC — and serve as a testing ground for those considering higher office trying to emulate Trump's success.
New on @npr.org:
In 2024, President Trump popped up as a guest in a number of popular podcasts.
Now, even in an off-election year, politicians are taking to the same non-political podcasts to reach a new audience.
Is it working/will it be a prerequisite for national hopefuls in future elections?
Contrary to some folks' fears/cheers, PBS and NPR are not shutting down.
But the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's plan to wind down operations after being defunded by the Republican-controlled Congress will likely have a negative impact on local public media stations across the country.
New @npr.org Politics Podcast: What is MAGA without Trump?
The "Make America Great Again," or MAGA, movement stands for loyalty to President Trump above all else. We discuss what happens to the movement once Trump's term ends and whether there is someone else who can take up the mantle.
With President Trump's political rise in 2016, a movement emerged, entwined with Trump's Make America Great Again branding. But the MAGA movement is intrinsically tied to Trump, making its future after him uncertain.
01.08.2025 20:53 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today that it will begin an orderly wind-down of its operations following the passage of a federal rescissions package + FY 2026 appropriations bill, which excludes funding for CPB for the first time in more than five decades.
01.08.2025 17:21 — 👍 3 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
The Democratic intra-party strife is manifesting itself in a number of ways, including:
-primary challengers to longtime incumbents
-record rally attendance for the populist message of Bernie+AOC
-energy directed towards the No Kings protest movement and packed Congressional town halls
Facing low approval rates, after last year's electoral losses, the Democratic Party is working to figure out its strategy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
31.07.2025 19:21 — 👍 162 🔁 25 💬 132 📌 28
Also today on @npr.org: I listened to dozens of hours of popular non-politics podcasts that have featured politicians like Gavin Newsom and Ro Khanna and JD Vance in recent weeks to try and figure out… why are they doing this, and does it mean anything for future political media strategies?
31.07.2025 22:22 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Chartbeat tells me there mayhaps might be more people commenting on what they think the article means than actually read it, which honestly is the norm for social media and journalism,
but my favorite posts are people who say that I don’t understand the article!
Polling shows voters have historically negative views about Democratic lawmakers and the party brand.
A sizable share of the dissatisfaction comes from people who consider themselves Democrats, favor Democratic policies and ultimately will end up voting for the Democratic candidate.
There's also a growing consensus from Democratic officeholders that the party's reaction to the Trump administration's efforts to cut government programs, fire workers and radically reshape the federal government should not be reflexively undoing it.
31.07.2025 18:54 — 👍 163 🔁 28 💬 119 📌 286
Today on @npr.org: As Democrats debate the future of their party and ways to fight low approval ratings, some politicians have begun to change both the form and format of their messaging to reach more voters.
My chat with @steveinskeep.bsky.social about my latest reporting:
Facing low approval ratings after last year's electoral losses, the Democratic Party is working to figure out its strategy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
31.07.2025 14:37 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Today’s USPS informed delivery might have a banger of a political mailer that might just be printed the instructions for a “realistic-looking campaign poster for John Ossoff.” #gasen
Will report back.
During a presidential trip to Scotland, President Trump hosted a ribbon cutting for a new golf course as one of his properties, just one of several ventures he has launched since returning to office.
29.07.2025 16:58 — 👍 133 🔁 48 💬 69 📌 24
Here's a plot supplement to the piece I published this morning. Left-leaning Democrats don't like the party, compared to how pro-GOP right-wing Republicans are, but these disaffected Democrats still massively prefer their party to the GOP. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/democratic...
29.07.2025 17:56 — 👍 55 🔁 20 💬 7 📌 1
