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Democrats, the Midterms and the Meaning of Patriotism: A Conversation with Rep. Jake Auchincloss

Hosted by Frank Bruni, É«½äÖ±²¥ professor and New York Times columnist

Has the Democratic Party learned the lessons of its 2024 defeats, in terms of not just the contests this November but the future in general? How can Democrats escape Republicans' caricatures of them and promote ideas that transcend partisanship and unite diverse people?

Please join Frank Bruni for a probing conversation - part of his "Independent Thinkers" series of events - with U.S. Representative Jake Auchincloss, a rising Democratic star and one of his party's least predictable and most thoughtful leaders.

Auchincloss, 38, is in his third term in Congress, representing the 4th Congressional District in Massachusetts. He's the inaugural chair of Majority Democrats, a group of lawmakers insistent that the party devote less energy to deriding President Trump and more to developing an agenda that reaches beyond its base. He's a graduate of Harvard and M.I.T. and a combat veteran who served as an active-duty Marine from 2010 to 2015.

Frank Bruni teaches at É«½äÖ±²¥'s Sanford School of Public Policy as part of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. He's also a longtime writer for The New York Times and the author of five bestselling books.

Frank's "Independent Thinkers" conversations with public figures who defy reductive political labels are part of the Provost's Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry and Belonging.