The Washington Spectator has developed the Bellwether Project to add a strong progressive voice to the election-year conversation around public values in battleground states.

As Anne Nelson reported last fall in the Spectator, voters in swing districts throughout the country rely disproportionately on an alliance of conservative Christian radio and Fox News.

Our aim is to help broaden the public debate in these communities at a time when many voters have grown skeptical of the status quo and are open to new ideas.

Through the generous support of our Bellwether Project donors, our writers report from key states on the impact of Trump and Republican policies on people’s lives, and how they feel about their future. We distribute these findings online at washingtonspectator.org and throughout social media channels, where we engage bellwether readers and listeners, their co-workers, family members and neighbors in a conversation on political and social issues that ranges beyond the boundaries of right-wing filters and conservative talking points.

Veteran reporter Dudley Althaus went to Ohio for the Bellwether Project, where he found a struggling economy and former Trump voters who were open to new directions and a change in leadership.

The investigative journalist Karen Houppert spent a month criss-crossing Florida and discovered a shifting electoral landscape.

And in his “A Letter to Trump Voters,” Ralph Nader offered an indispensable primer on the critical role that government plays in the lives of everyday citizens.

Click here to support the Spectator’s efforts to expand the political debate this year. And to learn more about the Bellwether Project, please contact Hamilton Fish at [email protected].