Robert F. Kennedy is my political hero. I cannot fully and accurately express when or why my admiration for him arose, simply that it did. My sister, Amanda, first exposed me to Kennedy’s history and impact, as he is a hero of hers as well. Neither of us met the…

When I think about the United States of America, a few common tropes come to mind: the great experiment; land of the free; government of, by, and for the people; but the one that is most fundamental to my conception of our country is the idea that we are a…

Ryan Fecteau could have decided to get lost in a big city somewhere. Perhaps, in another life, he might have stayed in Washington, D.C. Maybe, in another, he might have traveled to New York or Los Angeles, San Francisco or Boston — all of which are more than ten times…

When I look back on Embracing Tomorrow, on the process that brought it about, and the people I met along the way, I cannot help but be filled with both profound excitement and disappointment. Excitement at the experiences I was fortunate to have over the last many months, and disappointment…

Embracing Tomorrow is an attempt to start a conversation, one about our country and its future. This is not meant to be a conversation between the author and the reader per se, but amongst people generally — a conversation about our inspirations and our aspirations; about our hopes and our…

At 11:35 am on the 22nd of March, 2018, I received a message from one of my roommates alerting me to a Politico article on Ojeda. “He’s JFK With Tattoos and a Bench Press,” the title read. I skimmed the article, mostly looking at the pictures, not quite sure what…

When Robert White entered politics, it was a pivotal moment in the history of the United States. A few years shy of 30 years old at the time of President Barack Obama’s inauguration, White found the event profoundly meaningful, as he both admired and saw a lot of himself in…

Andy Vargas was the first elected official to accept an interview with me for my book. To an extent, I had no idea what to expect of our meeting or what he might think of this project. I immediately recognized him as he entered the café we had arranged to…

One of the questions I have received most often since writing my book has been whether there exist perceptible similarities in the individuals whom I wrote about — qualities that mark them out as leaders and could be applied to others. There is no singular quality that alone distinguishes a…