candidates running for u.s. senate in indiana. next, what is like covering residential campaigns with photojournalists from the new york times, associated press, and getty images. they discussed their time on the campaign trail in the past decade. from the annenberg space for photography, this is one hour and 45 minutes. good evening, everyone. how is everyone doing tonight? excellent. publice education and programs manager here at the annenberg space for photography. welcome to this evening's event, which is "deadlines to headlines," in support of our newest exhibition. haven'tibition, if you seen it yet, it is closing in a few weeks, now is a good time. it tells the story of america's

history through photography in the archives of the library of congress, many which have never before been exhibited good we tell the stories that shape america's history come a well-known and less well known. tonight, we are focusing on presidential elections and the people who photograph them. each of the photographers here tonight have photographed presidential campaigns in the past decade. we will hear what it is like running alongside these candidates every step of the journey, and we will appreciate not just the newsworthy less -- newsworthiness but also the artistry of their photographs. our moderator is been the bolt, he was deputy press secretary for barack obama's campaign for president, national press secretary for president obama's reelection campaign, and worked with howard dean's campaign when he was fresh out of college. forerved as press secretary sherrod brown's campaign for

senate, communications director for rahm emanuel's first campaign for mayor, and a spokesman to confirm justices to the supreme court. currently oversees strategic communication services at bully pulpit. without further ado, please join me in welcoming ben labolt and our guests to the stage. [applause] ben: good evening, everybody. i want to start by introducing our distinguished panel, starting to my right, chip is a senior staff photographer forget images, based in d.c.

before moving to washington in 2005, chip worked at daily newspapers including the fort worth star-telegram, and the fort wayne news signal. the white house news photographers association awarded him photographer of the year in 2010, and political photo of the year in 2006. he was part of a team of getty images photographers that were finalists for the 2016 pulitzer prize for breaking news photography. ship has extensively reported on the presidential campaigns of john mccain, mitt romney, barack obama, and many other candidates. carolyn is a photo journalist with the associated press. the ap inoined harrisburg, pennsylvania in 2002, and moved to d.c. in 2009. she has won multiple awards for her work. she has created stills and video essays for national and

international assignments, including sports, volcanoes, hurricanes, nuns, and coal miners. [laughter] she has covered the campaigns of barack obama, john mccain, and her work now primarily deals with u.s. politics, including the trump white house. is ae far right, damon staff photographer for the new york times. he joined the times in 2007 as a feature photographer. previously, he was a staff photographer at the los angeles times. he has covered a broad range of stories, including conflicts in israel and afghanistan, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in new york, the olympic games, and feature stories in cuba, russia, and elsewhere. he won a 2009 pulitzer prize and feature photography for his memorable array of pictures deftly capturing multiple assets of barack obama's 2008

presidential campaign. , somenight for me familiar faces from the campaign trail as well as the government. if i can turn my device on. through each of the photographers' work on various presidential campaigns over the last few election cycles. we will start with you. if you could take us through the moment, through the shot, take us through any memories that are appropriate from the campaigns you covered, and it is particularly poignant to see senator mccain tonight. chip: it is indeed. and i worked closely together on senator mccain's campaign in 2008. i guess i could speak for both of us, that we were very

saddened of the news of his death today. i covered senator mccain in washington on capitol hill and in his presidential campaign, and closely after that in washington. an incredible be human being and a wonderful leader, definitely a maverick, which is what people called him. i think they called him a maverick because they couldn't think of anything else to call him. he was very good at upsetting people on the left and the right. i think that maverick is a great moniker for that. this image is from the 2008 campaign, from pennsylvania. october 21, just a few weeks before the election.

embednews photographers into a campaign. we follow a candidate, sometimes 4, 5, 6 events a day. we try as hard as we can to make sure that we are covering the event as an entirety, as a story , a beginning, middle, and end. if we are doing multiple cities and multiple events per day, those things can kind of become monotonous or repetitive. when an event happens like this and senator mccain has finished his speech, stepped off the stage, and he's working the rope line, a term that is very familiar to us. he goes down and he greets supporters, shakes hands, and it just so happened that at this

moment the room was very dark. someone had a camera. this was before i phones were in everybody's pocket. we still had point-and-shoot cameras. the camera would emit a red beam. you probably remember. the camera would emit a red beam to help you focus in the dark. then you would take the picture. i was shooting in hopes of synchronizing my photograph with the flash from someone else's camera. it didn't work out. i got second place. i got the red beam lighting up his face. actually ended up looking kind of cool. ben: it was before the selfie era. chip: and speaking of synchronizing the flash, someone else's flash with my camera, that is what is happening here. the photographer on the left, his flash is lighting up mitt

romney as he kisses the bride. it so happened that at one of his rallies or one of his events, it was the same time these folks were getting married at the hotel. on his way out, he greeted the groom and bride and gave a good luck kiss. cover bothy of you of the romney campaign's and have any observations on how that changed over time? chip: no. ben: you only got him when he was ready for prime time. chip: exactly. this is senator mccain. florida, along the corridor from orlando over to caps off and it bisects the state. if you want to win the white house, you have to win florida.

and if you want to win florida, you have to win the i-40 corridor. it is a farm stand, but they are famous for making these incredible strawberry shortcake's. i'm trying to remember the name of the place. barksdale farms. right on the side of the highway. , ify presidential candidate they want to win the white house, they stop here and order a giant pile of strawberry shortcake, and eat them. i had gone around behind the counter -- when a presidential campaign lands somewhere and you are not expecting it, it can be a shocking experience. buses pull up, secret service piles out. journalists pile out. ben piles out. all these people come out and land on you and it is chaos.

depending on the temperament of he or sheates, is unpredictable, jovial, fearless, all of that can color the process. i ran around behind the counter and i noticed the screen above senator mccain's head was obscuring him. i thought it was going to be a cool picture. it didn't work. just as i was about to run back around to get him greeting people, he just leans down and cops his head through the window. up making a fun picture. ben: this reminds me of a particular type of event on the campaign trail, which we would call otr. you have several staged events throughout the course of the day, but aside from the rope line, you weren't really getting shots of the candidate with people. the campaigns would set up these

unannounced stops where it looked like the candidate was out on the road, interacting with normal people. i always thought they were the most fun events on the campaign trail. you are drinking coffee and eating pie and going to the little hotdog stands. [laughter] chip: one of the things john mccain and mitt romney had in common was that they did not fear me. they were confident in who they were as candidates and more importantly as people. mey were comfortable with going behind the scenes, so to speak. , senator mccain,

came onto the trail in support of governor romney in 2012, he climbed onto governor romney's bus and invited me along. so i was able to hang out with andwhile they were visiting as you can see from this picture, senator mccain had some advice. he was giving it. in the background, that is one of the original campaign banners for mitt romney's dad, and he kept it hanging there on his bus. it was a really cool little piece of history that kind of ties the future and the past together. i was always working hard to try to include that in the photograph. ben: what is he drinking? chip: diet coke. [laughter] chip: caffeine free diet coke.

ben: senator mccain had a reputation of providing a lot of press access compared to other candidates. did you feel that won the trail? didn't feel different from other campaigns? carolyn: absolutely, for me, especially on the bus. we were talking about the bus earlier. he would invite us to the back of the bus and he would have a milkshake. he would be sucking on the milkshake and talking to you and it just felt a real open, easy thing. you are speeding down the highway on this bus, eating ice cream. he was very comfortable in his own skin. i remember the first thing he did when the campaign was over shed his secret service

detail and bought his own cup of coffee. he just wanted to be out and be himself. but anyway, yeah. [laughter] what was happening here? this is governor romney again. it was in march. we were still in primary season. superk it was before tuesday or it may have been after. he had gone into one of these that you were talking about, and he'd gone into a restaurant. ,his young woman here, jessica she had made a sketch of governor romney and heard that he was coming. she went to the restaurant and presented him with the sketch and he signed it for her.

himself, hebeing kind of held at the sketch to say, really good, looks just like me. [laughter] ben: a question for all three of you. this was not an infrequent occurrence, people bringing gifts for candidates. what is the weirdest thing you saw a voter bring a candidate on the campaign trail? >> this. [laughter] chip: there was -- carolyn: there was a lot of art. a lot of people expressing themselves in very personal ways. i saw a melon. i think hillary got a melon. people grow things. things that mean something to them. that was the most wonderful way to see the country. you got to see people all over the country talking about and bringing things that were important to them. >> i'm trying to remember.

i can't remember which campaign, but i remember somebody bringing a pie to the front row of an event. i don't know if they wanted to get a signature on the pie, but i thought that was pretty bizarre. it is very hard to maintain your weight on a campaign. you are eating more than three meals a day. there's great snacks that are brought to every event. during the ohio primary in 2008 i think i gained 20 pounds in a month. >> not so on the trunk campaign. there was nothing. [laughter] there was water provided at one event, but it was trump branded water with his face on it. >> you didn't even get the line? [laughter] this is the convention in

tampa. governor romney had just given his acceptance speech. then congressman paul ryan, nasty of the house, had joined him on stage. use a lotventions, we of remote cameras. this camera was fired by remote control. i'm actually in the picture, somewhere down there in the front, photographing at the edge of the stage. i was taking this picture at the was taking a tighter photograph. ben: from the campaign side, there's really a year of planning that goes into a convention. you bring in professional television producers and people who worked on the oscars and the golden globes. we had a very specific story we wanted to tell and a very specific picture we wanted to show. obviously you all wanted to see some news and had a slightly

different agenda. when you went to an event that was staged, how did you find a moment that felt different? carolyn: you looked really hard. you know what the story is going into the event, but there's always some little nugget behind shows aes, or somebody piece of paper or makes an chase the -- you light first. that is how i do it. but then you look really hard and work really hard. there's always a story to tell. this is stagecraft, political theater, but you always try to lift the veil so people can see what these people are like, get to know them a little bit. i try to see going

into such an extravaganza. >> i felt like it was my duty to circumvent those controls as much as possible every single day. the picture that the campaign wanted to present, i think i tried my best not to make that picture as best i could, to look for these little moments of sincerity in very controlled, very staged events. i think i remember covering trump's campaign, not going up onto the risers they provide for times,ybe a handful of because they would try to narrow your perspective to such a tightly controlled little window that it forced you to be creative and think differently, to find a way to tell either the story of the day with a larger arc of the story through every possible means at your disposal. ben: this was the constant

struggle, being on a campaign, but hopefully we can all have a drink at the end of the day. >> i hope so. [laughter] chip: kind of talking about the monotony of the campaign and doing something away from where they are shining the spotlight, in 2012, i had gotten my first iphone right before the campaign started. yet. was no instagram or instagram had just started. way torying to find a stimulate myself and make myself feel like i wasn't doing the same kind of robotic thing. i was able to kind of move around between the events that were scheduled and make pictures of campaign life.

the little moments between the moments that were part of the official narrative. i started making these diptychs, where i would take my phone and make a quick picture of something i found interesting, then work hard to try to go at the end of the day and find a couple pictures that i thought worked together, that showed some comparison, some contrast, some humor perhaps. i made a series of these. on the top is senator marco rubio. .hat was at a debate he was doing what we call television hits. a lot of times activates, networks will set up miniature studios in one large room, and each of the candidates will sit for a few minutes at these mini studios and get some time to talk. that was in denver. below their is in the same room,

,he spin room, and that was fox a local television correspondent standing on an apple box. we call those apple boxes. they are a way for the reporters to stand a little higher, look better on television. those are from the spin room in denver. this is before the big debate. ben: you talked about capturing campaign life, which is a life of its own, and feels very different from covering the government or working for the government, but explain to us what it was like to be on the road every day for a year or two, covering a campaign, just in terms of -- what were the logistics? were you staying at the four seasons? were you eating caviar? [laughter] carolyn: you learn a lot about yourself covering a campaign.

you learn what it is like to be absolutely exhausted. you learn about management. when you are exhausted, you don't remember. you learn how to work with people. you will get the flu and that person will haul you on the plane and then you will haul lane person on the p when they get the flu. you see the best and worst of everyone. i learned a lot about myself covering campaigns. you gain a lot of weight. when you are in texas, you eat a lot of tex-mex. when you are in philly, you eat cheesesteaks. there's a lot of logistics, a lot of moving. you can get black and blue running in and out of things. and i have a really great , the hillaryence

campaign, right? no, mccain. it is all just one. rooms, curtains, buses. you tell the person, i'm in a bus. you don't exactly know where you are. but the wheels were falling off the campaign, and as the campaigns kind of lose money and everybody is struggling for air, the organization is moving fast, going from city to city. you probably tell it the best. chip: no, you are doing great. carolyn: we get to the tarmac -- chip: first, we were on in at sign. an airplane. the campaign will rent a charter aircraft. frontndidate sits at the and blocks off the first third

for campaign staff and the candidate. in the back is where the press is. as you get closer to election seats on the airplane become more valuable. sometimes, as was the case with me with mccain, i was deemed not very important and kicked off the airplane so that someone from network television could sit on the airplane. carolyn: the politics of media. chip: which the campaign thought was more valuable. i eventually made an argument otherwise and i was put back on the plane. disappearey starts to , like carolyn said, the wheels start to come off the campaign. at one point we landed, election eve, we landed in one plane -- carolyn: her like a long time. [laughter] chip: that was a whirlwind. we landed on one plane, and

while we were at the event, they took everything off that plane and put it on two smaller planes , because they were less expensive. comforts of the campaign is you end where you start. if a plane lands and you jump in the van with a bus, you are sure to come back to the place where you left. carolyn: and that is like your fourth plane of the day or whatever. you are just kind of holding onto the horse. us onwere no seats for the plane. so they put us in the back of a pickup truck. in the middle of the night. i was really tired. my memory is even kind of crazy. they drove us to the next plane. there were no stairs. they wasted us up. [laughter] chip: like this, into this jet.

carolyn: and then there weren't any -- were there any seats? chip: there were, because we flew. the faa is particular about this. we climb up in the first plane and we literally get on and walk down the entire length of the airplane like this. we turn around and go, there's no seats. well, get off the airplane. so we get off the airplane. that nice guy put us in his pickup truck. we asked the campaign, where is the other airplane? they said, we don't know. that is just kind of what it is like. you are moving really fast. you break everything. [laughter] carolyn: you break stuff. damon: i think on the dean campaign, we knew when people

couldn't fly anymore. there were no planes left. to trajectorynew we were headed on after the scream. that is governor romney at the same event. it was a pancake breakfast. pancakes is what campaigns run on. [laughter] >> that is pretty self-evident. ben: again, 2012, this was an , and onea fairground of the things that you don't ,hink of when you are covering or you are ingesting news, as a consumer of news, you see the

main event. you see the candidate on the stage, people introducing the candidate, the remarks, and then they cut away. but there's a lot of logistical work, as we all know, that goes into these campaigns. this is a line of city buses that are surrounding the fairground as a barrier. that is a mobile wall, a security fence. that was one way that they provided security for the president. he was the president at the time. it is striking, walking around these events, you have a few minutes and you look over and there's a wall of buses. and you know it is there for security purposes. when that dawns on you, you are sort of like, whoa. security is a very serious deal.

that is another aspect of the campaign. ben: building campaign events was an art dating back many presidents. a book i would recommend is from the kennedy campaign that studies the art of how the president is visually presented at events. is lionized for that as well. this is their full-time job, to present the candidate and the event, to determine what shot they would like to see in the paper that day. chip: more of that same fairground event. working to get both sides of the camera, the candidate and the people listening. this was new mexico. this was 2008. ben: he didn't have a lot of gray hair back then. chip: look how young. no gray hair. ben: what were you doing with the light?

chip: this was in an auditorium in new mexico. is, we want todo give people the bread and butter. we want to give them what they need. mantra in sort of a photography, wide, medium, tight. you can do that in motion pictures also. you start with an establishing shot, move in for something medium, then you go for something tight. that gives editors a variety of images to use in a variety of places. after we get our bread and butter shots, then i'm told by the wonderful people i work with, and i say that with no irony, they say, go out, do what you want to do. try to find something interesting. obama wase, senator

taking questions from the audience. there was a lot of young people. i found a spot on this file in the auditorium, where there is a particular group of young people raising their hands to ask questions. , and there's a little serendipity involved in all these pictures. with a person has to stand in just the right place. it just kind of comes together. this isn't your typical newspaper picture. i'm always trying to push the limits also of what people should expect when they see a news photograph. i want to give them something that is not only informative, but also entertaining, and maybe sometimes challenging. 2012. he had walked offstage and worked the rope line a little bit, was headed back to the

motorcade, and the light just felt on the right place at the right time. [laughter] ben: that is a subtle one. [laughter] ben: i see this picture, it is a great one. how do you capture these moments of raw authenticity on the campaign trail? chip: this was actually november 4, right before election day, and i remember -- were you there? it was cincinnati. huge rally.lly there were a lot of people there, and entire arena. obama had deep reservoirs of energy. he was really good about understanding what was needed

and how hard he had to push and when to push and he seemed to be always full of energy. it was amazing. the people that run for president, i don't know how they do it. i remember this event particularly. he was tired. sometimes when we he had his tie on earlier and had taken it off and this was one of the last events of the day. this was on the way in and he had not made his speech yet. he came into the arena. news photographers were always working with the secret service and campaign staff about where we could stand, because they have a very firm idea about where the candidate will go and how the motion will play out. secret service, the last thing in the world they want is a surprise. they do not want anything to go in a way they do not expect.

so there are places they like for us to stand when the candidate or president comes into the room. sometimes that place is not good. and sometimes it is. it is a roll of the dice. every event is different and i happened to be standing near when he saw something that made him happy. i think he was also anticipating the last days of his final campaign. i remember shooting that same moment. it was a big moment. was primaries. this was june 3 in st. paul. june 3 of 2008 in st. paul. it was right before the south dakota and montana primaries. senator clinton had not yet

conceded. but he had the nomination pretty much at this point. going back to what we were talking about with the secret service not liking surprises, president obama got secret service protection earlier than all other candidates, because of the threat against his safety being the first african-american , or the first viable, successful candidate. usually they do not get secret service until after the convention. it is standard a -- standard operating procedure for the nominees to get protection, but not the candidates. he was working the rope line and this young lady could not hold back. she grabbed him and as soon a she pulled the men, he was within proximity of everyone

else. all these hands were grabbing him. i wish i could show you the whole take. you can see the secret service hands come in on top of all of the other hands, peeling them off, pulling senator obama out. it was a fun evening. another hug. this was september 7, 2012 in iowa. the president had a strong emotional connection to iowa. it is where he started and finished. his last campaign rally as a candidate was in iowa. i think that was always part of the campaign plan. if he could win in a state that

was 95% white, there was a potential path for electing the first african-american president . that is what we thought on the campaign. election night, chicago. >> i remember talking with the handlers, people who help get others from place to place. one saw me taking pictures and he said he does not like silhouettes. he said it just like that. silhouettes." and i said, ok, fine. so i laid over.

showed thever and photograph to the handler. it was not this picture, but similar. and the handler went, oh. cool. [laughter] chip: now we are going to get into the most recent election. this was the first republican debate in cleveland, ohio. look a many were on stage. i used reflection in the arena. rally.ampaign several of you covered the trump campaign. when is the first moment you really felt him breaking through with the crowds. it was it from the very

beginning or was there a tipping point in the race? after covering a couple of campaigns, i started to realize that you are so close the campaign, it is hard to get to. i always figured you are around the most ardent, diehard fans and it is hard to gauge how that reflects on the rest of the country. up until 3:00 a.m. on election night that he had a chance of winning. i was of course totally wrong. it was hard for me to come to terms with what i had been seeing over the course of the year reflecting a larger movement across the country and that a good half of the country felt similar enough to what i was seeing at the rallies to vote for him.

that was a big surprise for me. ben: this young man was dressed as trump. he had a blonde wig on and the suit and the tie. through the entire speech. >> i remember that guy. [laughter] what was the moment of first contact between the two of them at the first debate? >> did they shake hands? >> at the first debate, they did. these rallies that pretty intense, at least on television.

not just against the other campaigns, but he would call out the press on the stage. do you ever feel any consequences from that in the crowd or at the events that you had not seen in a campaign before? >> yes, it was constant. it was a daily struggle. it was constant. i have covered conflict before and come home from trips not feeling well. my family noticed the change in me. -- it was like i had been in combat. to internalize it. a couple oft rallies there was a teacher i said- t-shirt i saw that

"rope, tree, journalist. some assembly required." it was shocking to me that he could convince his supporters that a healthy press was not in their best interest. i remember that. this is sarasota, florida, right before the election day. chip: we were there together in new york. anybody in the room a new york on election night thought he was going to win. that heo not think thought he was going to win. mind, he would go

to these campaign events and have fun. he loved the crowds and the crowd loved him. him and he loves them. there is a special energy that happens. it happened with president obama . it happens when you get a person up there who really connects and can receive and transmit this feeling. if you have never experienced it, i encourage you to. if you have not been to a political rally, i encourage you to. there is something very electric and special about it. we try our hardest to capture that in photographs. he was having fun. some but he had this mask on in the crowd. he held it up next to his face

and we were photographing it, going, oh my god. get that picture. damon: do remember on election --ht, the night dragged down dragged on late? the night went on and on and the staff were more and more junk. -- drunk. by the end of the night, they were stumbling drunk. i don't think they thought they had to get up and go to work the next day. i remember his campaign staffs reaction when it started to hit home that they had one -- won. they were genuinely surprised and thrilled at the same time. it was really something to witness.

wheres the convention they make these face cutouts. you guys recently had interactions with people wearing masks. that is always fun. a photographer's dream. walking around the convention floor and trying to find something interesting, and the masks pop-up. he is everywhere. [laughter] again. the convention balloons had just started falling from the ceiling. he was standing and back and he had brought his family on stage. he pushed them forward so they could be part of the event. he was leaning back and made this face and it was kind of funny. what is amazing is how much baron has grown. he is almost as tall as his dad

now. they were doing might check -- microphone checks. at the convention. [applause] carolyn: i took this picture while mccain was actually speaking. when you feel like you can move, you move. this was a flag that was behind him on stage. it was a quick run around. the american flag is one of the main characters of what we do. they are everywhere and they are a part of making it look like a campaign.

the light was pretty. ben: how did you capture the silhouettes in motion? carolyn: what people do a lot of times is put a big flag behind the candidates and they will have people in bleachers cheering behind the candidate at the podium. all of the supporters cheering behind the flag. and the lights were coming toward the stage, so you got this silhouette. -- cast lights cost multiple shadows. but you have to work fast. around.ot be roaming right after sarah palin joined the mccain campaign, which transformed his campaign. , both feetwar hero

himhe ground, people saw and veterans would come to see him. sarah palin came and it went boom. it was something to see and added a whole new energy. >> i remember waking up the day she was chosen and we had had 10 potential vice president takes. picks. -- she was not on the list. herid not have a book on and she had a really great moment at the convention. getere scrambling to ourselves in order and then she did a now famous interview with katie couric and katie did a

better job than we could do on the campaign. [laughter] carolyn: we are going back. was this in ohio? we went to a bar. and that is indiana a shot of crown royal. she picked what she wanted to have. we get to the bar and it was one of those otr's. that is the owner of the bar in white, watching her. if she goes to a bar, i thought, she is going to have to joint. so they are being -- she is going to have to train -- to have to drink. so i wanted to get that interaction. i blew off the rest of the bar, thinking she was going to go drink.

so i got behind the bar and saw where they were clearing the . bar.waited -- clearing the she showed up. it she ordered crown royal. she drank it. you could tell she had had it before. it was a nice moment. those moments don't happen much anymore. everything is very much orchestrated. >> this was at a point in the campaign where obama had been up for a long time and it did not necessarily look like clinton was going to win. but she loosened up as a result and she had these great moments of connection on the campaign trail and became a very good candidate. i think the indiana primary and

particular, i remember what a great candidate she was. see that shecould really worked on the connection and was listening to people. it was genuine. i like how in campaigns, everyone has something to talk to their person about and there is this intense emotion. likef these hands looked they were going to reach out and grab her. this guy looks so sincere and wants to be heard. everyone wants to be heard. again, there is the big flag. it is a wonderful way to see the country and differed people. sometimes you get to stand in the buffer before the candidate comes out and the people will talk to you and say they have been here since 4:00 in the morning. you really understand how people love their candidate. that is why you should go to a

rally. this is on a tarmac. this is a hold onto the horse moment. i cannot believe the energy she had. it was like a manager -- it was like a marital. she came -- it was like a miracle. she came to the back of the plain to see how it was decorated and was having a good time with us. plane to seee how it was decorated and was having a good time. you describe the bowling challenge that happened on the press charter over the years? carolyn: ok. you are in these charter planes and when they take off, the

plane is going like this. so in the back of the plane, they have oranges so we don't get scurvy or something. [laughter] going up,lane is someone rolls the orange to try to get it to the candidate. it is really fun and it makes the whole thing possible, the energy management possible. it is really funny. and this, she came back on valentine's day on the plane and brought reporters chocolate. she is talking to someone's fiancee on the phone. it shows how she led in that campaign with this kind of face, this kind of open, smiling thing.

it was a sweet moment for us. and then, a flash. ben: it takes a lot of courage for a candidate to come to the back of the plane. carolyn: yes. reporters will ask any kind of questions. and if things are on a downturn, it is a hard thing is a candidate to open yourself up to that. so they would have their secret place in the front of the plane. we couldn't just walk up. like thealways felt most important moments for the candidates. you could always tell when they were hiding. carolyn: you could feel it. and you could feel the days when they are tired. he does it is exhausting. because iteel it --

is exhausting. you could feel it. ben: this looks like a rare moment to capture. carolyn: that is what that picture meant. when i took it, that is not necessarily what was happening. we were at old forge, pennsylvania. pennsylvania and had claimed pennsylvania for her heart. so she wanted to go eat pizza. you have to go where she is going to the pizza. so i planted myself by where she would eat the pizza. you always watch and you look really hard. i took a long lens out and i watched her work the crowd. and i thought -- i caught

somebody's flash. so i was trying to play with the light because i was not in the position. so this was a gift, that picture. it told about how tired we all can be. that picture got play after she did not get the nomination. ben: this is such an interesting photo when we talk about perception. you stumble across this photo which i think is very humanizing and a lot of times the candidates want to be presented as superhuman and unbreakable. but this is a photo that is so beautiful and touching and shows all of her lines, all of her

experience in a very vulnerable moment. but i think she would not like this photo. that all of us looking at it, we love it. we think it says a lot in a wonderful way. reminds me of what it is like to walk backstage and see the candidate after they were on stage. carolyn: lifting the veil and showing people what these people are like. every once in a while that happens. veil,ng of lifting the .oe biden goes into a diner [laughter] carolyn: we get into this diner you know how they

work a diner, table to table, eat french fries with people. but the bikers were at the very end of the diner. and i'm like, it has to be about the bikers. before i get started, i go to the main handler and i'm like, it's the bikers. i need to be with the bikers. but they policy out halfway through the diner and we miss the bikers. but this handler, who i have known through hillary's campaign and have known for a long time came back into the van and pulled me out and brought me back in spike could photograph him meeting the bikers -- pulled me back in so i could photograph him meeting the bikers. this woman had pulled up her chair to sit in front and pose for a picture.

the moments are not the moments they give you. the moments are the moments after the picture is posed and taken. this is when they are just talking and saying thank you for being here. funny littles biden moment. he is a minister. thingsre is all of these and an ohio diner. >> carolyn and i are technically competitors, and i can tell you when this picture came across the wire, her competitors were like, oh my god. [laughter] i am quitting. i am done. i could never do it that good, ever. it is finished.

it is an awesome picture. >> i thought that one and this next one captured the essence of joe biden. i thought president obama is charismatic in front of a large crowd, and vice president is charismatic in one-on-one interactions. really, he shared french fries all over the country. he would sit down at a table and start eating and people just love him. women love him and men love him. kids will tell you all about it. he is very personable. this picture shows that. he talked to people and listened to them. this picture also talked about how the picture is good if you can get close. you saynow the room and

to the agents, how about right there? so you place yourself, anticipating the light and who might look sparkly. so this was a post diner moment campaign picture. livese president biden for these moments. this is why he does what he does. there is policy and governance, but this is why he does what he does. carolyn: he is magic. it is something to see. lothis picture, i gave up a to get this picture. you go to a campaign event and obama is on stage and everybody cheers. was more about the stagecraft and they offered us a cherry paper -- cherry picker.

i knew if i went up in it, i would not get down in time to do anything else. but we always have someone on the back stand, doing the front. so i thought, take a chance to do this picture. .t shows some behind the scenes he is coming out of his little security tent and it looks like he is about ready to run and so, this is what a bus tour looks like in the midwest. [laughter] bornen: this picture was out of frustration because obama is in the bus and we are like 50 cars back or whatever. but it is also really important to show where he is and what he is doing. he is talking to farmers. that is a really important part to show where they are. give them some context.

by the time he got to a place, he would have an ice cream gone and we are just stopping -- cone and we are just stopping and we would have to run out and he would be done. you know, so it is part of the manc bus tour. bus tours are great though. lots of ice cream. [laughter] carolyn: this is just a frozen, rainy bunch of people going to see obama and i grabbed this picture on the way in. the lines. i guess we jump back a little. this is hillary, one of those pictures you have to be close to make. when you work a room, you find a place where you think she is going to go and it comes to you sometimes and people just -- people love their candidate. and it is a great way to see different people in the country.

she was really laughing hard. this is the first time i photographed donald trump. this was at the capitol at a tea party event before he got the nomination. i was working the front. he went off the back of the stage. i missed the whole get off the back of the stage. i was like, ok, i'm missing this shot. so i planted myself behind an audio table, this hard, immovable object. he got pushed right to me and this just opened up and there is press all over and you can see -- like the hillary one before, and this one here, just that energy, that interaction with their people. >> was he giving him the pull in handshake? carolyn: totally. the kind of got stuck there for a minute.

there was this thing and they were both making sound and i was kind of taking pictures. [laughter] carolyn: and media is yelling. i planted myself because they were clearing a path for him. you just kind of got to think ahead. and that is how i got that picture. big had come a little head at the convention -- big head, little head at the convention. [laughter] carolyn: they had this big jumbotron behind and there they would be. as a wire service photographer, i work the buffers, that point between the people and the stage, for both the republican and the democratic national conventions. so, yes, this is an example of the pictures i took every day. ben: i think there is one funny little note -- >> i think there

is one funny little note. carolyn: we were there together. >> ap first. ap has traditionally been the wire service that provides the world pictures and news. there is a tradition of having the ap first and they have that center spot of you have that pressure and traditionally the first question at the white house press briefing is from the ap. carolyn: being a wire service photographer is a little different. be curious, but you still have to cover everybody. i don't know if you know sailing. you've got to make sure you have the pictures. every once in a while coming you have somebody on the back stand, you can get in the cherry picker and take a chance. it is an interesting kind of grind. again with the little faces everywhere.

hard to findy something different. i really love the baby arms. [laughter] >> great. carolyn: that was a delegate with his little baby on a little bjorn thing in front. >> so great. carolyn: this is one of those pictures you have to get. this is why we were here. this,oto story behind this is the whole convention to get these. you work the center spot. you will the center spot to get the balloon drop. car anders mess up the my cards went to a different agency. it was crazy. anybody who is like a photographer knows that kind of thing. but it all worked out fine.

but yes, that is what i think. when i see that. i will come back to this. we got a crowd reaction. carolyn: this is a good picture for you. they hit their marks. this was total stagecraft. i looked at the stage and i saw the black x and i planted myself in front of that tape because i knew he was going to introduce wrapped his arms around her and it was the picture they wanted us to have. this was it. you have to figure like, you have to do your mark on the stage. we remember the moments where something was a little bit off. accustomed to help choreographed these moments are.

you've got to know the choreography to work around it too. >> thank you. [applause] >> we will conclude with damon's photographs. damon: all right, so i just talk, huh? so, yes, i covered a bit of romney's campaign in 2008. you were talking a little bit about the rhythms of campaigns before you read campaign was completely different. i remember covering romney early press plane had his and you would spend every day booking your flight, getting a car, trying to get ahead of the next destination. that rhythm was completely different to the five events a day when you are on the plane

and traveling along with the candidate. , i spent a while with romney, but did not cover his entire campaign. this was around the time that he had made these comments about having the binders full of women. i love the fact that he is turning his back on this really tender gesture from this woman and she is just kind of caressing his back as he is turning toward this crowd of old white men. [laughter] damon: the way i think about covering campaigns is you see the same thing over and over and i want each photo to say something beyond of things that are in the frame at this moment. part of the beauty of covering a campaign is you have this repetition at seeing things over and over again and over the arc of a campaign, you can really think about how these photos will all fit together to tell a story or you can work on a specific moment that you really

think is important to the arc of that story. [applause] -- [laughter] this is at the convention during a sound check. i had a really long lens and i was one of the only people in the hall and i love this expression that paul ryan had on his face. this deer in headlights. with all of these shadowy figures conspiring behind him, as if they are pulling the strings. [laughter] >> that kind of has a reservoir dogs feel to it. carolyn: yes. damon: and those years and the piercing blue eyes. and the piercing blue eyes. this is probably one of my favorite photos from obama's first campaign in 2008 in duncanville, texas. without seeing the faces on all these children, i feel like you can feel this energy and this

complete joy of getting to see the first african-american presidential candidate coming through their town, that they get to look on somebody that looks like them running for the nation's highest office. the excitement was palpable. watching the scene, the multiple layers of shadows and gestures, the hands, and without seeing a ear comingn eye or a t you knew exactly how these kids felt. >> as a staffer on the campaign, you lived for these moments. you worked for these moments. every difficult day on the campaign, you were reenergized by seeing what really mattered. damon: these are all choices that you have to make. i have to miss the candidate walking into the arena. you make a choice because you see the scene unfolding to your left.

is this the picture that tells the story of the day? or probably of the campaign? do i give up the bread-and-butter thing. ?o i run over and do this you have to make those calculations all the time. this was in the closing days of the 2018 -- 2008 campaign. he made a campaign stop. this ended up being kind of an iconic photo from his campaign. it was an event that i almost did not make it to. my colleague doug mills and i were both covering the campaign at that point and he was doing some behind the scenes and i was out in front, but we got on the second bus and the daily news reporter had to go to the bathroom before we left, so the homeowner kate left without us and we were just sitting there. we had to fight through traffic and we just made it -- so the whole motorcade left without us

and we were just sitting there. we had to fight through traffic and we just made it. he stayed out there. this was one of the longest events i can remember. he was completely energized. this photo, beyond sort of looking kind of matrix-y and the, it really highlighted use, the vigor, the excitement in his campaign -- youth, the vigor, the excitement in his campaign. mccain canceled his events because of the weather that day. this was a perfect contrast to what those two campaigns represented. this was after he was elected. on a whistle stop tour. i think in the moment i did not really understand how much it meant to people. we would see a lot of people crying, people overcome with joy and emotion.

it took me maybe looking back on that time and having covered some other campaigns to really understand what a powerful moment that was for a lot of people. and also looking at this picture , i think about the mood of the country at the time and how diverse his events were at these rallies, how it really -- i had never really seen people being so civil, sharing the space together, working toward this common goal. it was really uplifting. it was a fantastic time. it was the first time i had covered a campaign feeling so incredibly lucky to be part of that. and this was from covering his second campaign in 2012 as president. you know, the tone of the campaign naturally was different from the first one. the first campaign was the hope

and promise of a new, young candidate coming into government -- or into the highest office for the first time. the second time around was sort of defending a whole ofinistration's worth policies and no longer being the outsider, claiming to be able to make change. years to defend his four in office. i was just sort of taken by the trappings of the presidency and the scale of it and how it is dwarfed by this iconic air force one. everybody who covers the white house knows how much the plane features into coverage. it is really kind of an impressive -- it is a very different challenge -- >> it is a very different challenge. you have to defend something the deputy secretary of agriculture did two years ago. in poetryyou campaign a

and govern in prose and you have to incorporate some of the poetry into the campaigns. damon:: this is also -- this is also from the 2012 campaign. , ipent the entire event don't remember where it was, most photographers, we spend a lot of time in the front, but you could also go way back to where all the pen photographers were and from the one certain angle, you could see the potted flowers reflected in his teleprompter. he sees the words of his teleprompter, but from where i was standing, i could see this bouquet of flowers. it was this really overcast day, this really gloomy day. it really spoke to the challenge of an incumbent running for office.

ad lived through the midterms of 2010, where republicans took both houses and basically stonewalled every single policy that he attempted to put forth. he had a hard time selling is affordable care act to the public. and in that second campaign, trying to put a rosy glow on four years of governance when things were not that easy. i was loved how this picture set of capture that. >> i think we should have just run the flowers as an ad. [applause] -- [laughter] contrast, i just like this picture because of how crappy it looks. [laughter] damon: how little effort was put into it.

on, it was really a slipshod campaign, really poorly run, really disorganized, very difficult to cover because people -- a lot of the people running the campaign did not really know what they were doing. i sort of felt like this kind of capture that. -- captured that. hangardid tons of these rallies. he really liked to show off the plane. i think it was a powerful image for him. believe it or not, he played the theme music to air force one on loop as the plane was approaching for like 20 minutes. but basically, he would fly in, hop off his plane, give a speech, hop back on the plane, and take off. times, he would not even stopped to shake people's hands. i love this idea of swooping in, doing her thing, and leaving,

and leaving everybody else to pick up -- your thing, and leaving, and leaving everybody else to pick up the garbage. >> we talked about covering mccain, romney, are you on that plane or are you just here? damon: for a good bit of time, there was no press plane with trump either. you have to pick and choose your battles and try to get through as many events as possible. this is in iowa. iowa is a pretty big state. i remember he covered it like a guy that had a plane. he would go from one end of the state to the other. i think i drove 2000 miles in the course of three or four days. you have to pick and choose and you have to work each event as best you could and get the most out of each event because you knew that was the only time you were going to see him that day. so, this is at the same event.

i don't know if you remember, but i was all over your back. i was like, carolyn, so sorry. [laughter] damon: she had the best spot. carolyn: there are usually two square feet that are the place that everybody wants to be and we all kind of share this. damon: that was not my position the whole week. you had shot that position over and over with all the different candidates, but i only shot that position on the night he gave that speech. , iasically worked this photo think i shot over 1000 images of this exact theme to read over and over again, trying to get the technical stuff right because you need to shoot a certain shutter speed to get rid of the way it cycles through. but my idea, i had seen this before, the screen in the back has a very slight delay from what is being shown. there is a millisecond delay. if you can shoot it just right,

you can capture a moment where the expression on the screen is different than the expression in real life. the i thought about was fact that the new york times for the very first time had said the president lied. they use that word for the first time. that was kind of a big deal. how do you take a photograph that says this person is capable of lying or has lied? how do you show duplicity in a photograph? this is one of those ways that we have to use every means at our disposal to try to tell a story. he made his pitch to rural, working class, white america. i think this is oklahoma. i don't have my notes. a lot of times, i would try to photograph him without showing

the person himself. and then this is another time that i was sort of thinking of his ability to tell untruths, to be duplicitous. you have these two different shadows that are somewhat hollow and thin. [laughter] damon: i feel like i tried my very best to get beyond the restrictions of the campaign imposed on us. were very, very restrictive. the most restrictive campaign i've ever covered. they kept your angle of view really narrow. you had to work hard to find a way to tell a story. >> at the times, were you coordinating with a reporter to get a sense of the story they are doing? are you working with the photo editor and what they need? how does that process work? damon: no, we are out covering day today. i know what the stories are and i'm following the news.

i'm also thinking of the big picture and the long arc of the story and trying to find ways to make a complete body of work over the course of 16 months that i covered his campaign. i think this was during his first big foreign policy speech. like i was saying before, trying to use different tools at your disposal to make interesting photographs that tell a story. speech, he was really ramping up the anti-muslim rhetoric. >> this is through the eye piece of a camera person's shooting the live feed and there were very few events where it works out this way because it was a really small venue, so the ,amera is really close to him

so his image is quite large in the viewfinder and he is out of focus in the background himself. so, this is like the beauty of covering a campaign. the repetition, you can try these things over and over again. you can get it to work out. in sort of contrast with the obama rally crowds, it is interesting to look out and see a sea of faces with very little diversity. i think this is in florida. part of what we do is capturing a sense of place and the people that show up to these events. i do know, i sort of liked the light too. the beautiful balance between the existing light and the setting sun. so, this is this young man named

.aden in colorado junction toward the end of the campaign, more andyself taking more photographs of children at these rallies. four-year-olda son at the time myself and i was really confused and pretty conflicted about what these children were being exposed to at these rallies and the kind of vitriol and hate they were expressing at a very young age and being encouraged to. there is a photograph a frame or two afterward, the father on the right is very proud of his son and he gives them a kiss on the head and he is chanting, "lock her up, lock her up!" we had a few minutes in the buffer with that. i remember the press agency inking me out as i was taking -- yanking me out as i was taking

this picture. i think it is one of the more poignant photos from the campaign. everybody always sees the armpit. i don't see the armpit. this is in sacramento. i see this guy that is dressed in the flag and he is in front of the flag and this very bright message of this populist message, this nationalistic message is blinding him to all else and that is how i read this photo. this is in iowa before the caucuses. somebody people photographed this guy's house. i guess he was a trump supporter. he was kind of ambiguous about why he was doing this. he put this massive billboard in the yard of his house.

i went one evening to make a photograph and stayed through the evening as the sun set. and i love this sort of whiff of pink clouds kind of emanating from his four head. [laughter] ehead. for [laughter] damon:d just trying -- and just trying to tell the story. a majority of white women ended up voting for trump despite the hollywood access tape. i just love this woman and her defiance. how she is standing up and she is dressed in her sunday finest and she is not going to take any crap from anybody. >> and it feels like if you took that, if you can across her on the street today, you could take that same picture.

[laughter] damon: this is in sacramento. i'm surprised they let him into the rally. [laughter] damon: he is not protesting. down below, he has another sign , ihis chest and on his back think he is making fun of hillary or something. but i sort of felt like, the joke is on you because you are wearing the dunce cap. [laughter] damon: donald trump, at some point, uttered words i thought i would never hear any candidate they. he said, "i love uneducated voters." i think he's sort of preyed on that. >> the hair. damon: we talk about access. in contrast with the obama photo where you get to see him disembarking from the plane,

getting on the plane and all of the pomp that goes along with that, sometimes all we would get with a little glimpse of him for a middle second decimal is second -- millisecond. also speaking about the opacity of his campaign, the refusal to release his tech records -- tax records, flying in a private jet. all of those things rolled into one in this picture. [laughter] yes, he is standing in front of an american flag. but thisarely see it, is one of those things that i'm telling myself, the campaign is so restrictive and they give you this little pen and the want you to stand on the riser and shoot him in front of the american flag, this giant american flag. i sort of feel like if you are going to pen me in that much,

you are going to force me to be creative. i got on the riser and waded in near the crowd. people put their hands up and cell phones up. one was in -- person put their phone up so it looked a little dark. it is just his hair and his finger. a certain emptiness to his message. there was not a lot of policy in his speeches. preying on people' thoseions and getting few things that define him. his way of speaking. lesson learned for campaign staff is never put photojournalists in a pen. you are going to get really creative and we are not going to get rewarded in any way. [laughter] i always sort of thought marble statueera

with this photo. i don't know what happened to his left arm. he does have a hand. i don't know where it is. [laughter] damon: but i could see this as a statue in washington dc during the military parade. [laughter] damon: i think this is the closing days toward the end of the campaign. looking for ways to show the tone of the campaign and show the ways to candidate without showing the candidate. this is from election night, about 3:00 in the morning after one of the most brutal knights of my journalistic career. just long and difficult. at the end, broken glass.

people were really inebriated. a woman had stepped on glass and cut her foot. she bled all over these make america great again signs. to me this is the only photo i was really proud of that night. that i felt really told the story. i have spent 16 months covering the campaign and had a good taste of the mood of the country and whatoment, electing donald trump might mean for this country going forward. i felt this was the photo that told the story. [applause] >> thanks, damon. >> thank you, everybody, for coming. &ais brings us to the q portion of the evening. we only have time for a couple

questions. if you could please raise your hand. if your question is selected, we will come to you. these speak into the microphone as we are recording this. i will head to the center. >> thank you, all. brilliant, brilliant photographs all the way. does anybody ever use film, or is everything digital? >> especially with a wire service workflow, it is how we do it. it is so fast, it is all digital. we are transmitting from the back of the camera, we take the picture before the end of the event. the pictures are already out in circulation. that dictates that. occasionally your heart will jump back to film and you will do some project. digital is what we do.

campaigns, ite has to be digital because there are no deadlines anymore. there is a 24 hour news cycle. it has gotten faster and faster. used to be you had to get your stuff in by 6:00 to make print deadlines, but now you have to get the man constantly because stories go up right away. hand, i am coming. given your long days, you are filling up cards with many, many images. so, whoews them, and if reviews them? how do you manage all that extra stuff in your day? >> we manage those images. just said, we will be escorted and arrive at a

campaign event. they will bound us out of the bus. it is usually behind an arena or a church. they bound us out and we run in. we might have a second to throw down our computer at a table. then the reporters are coming in with books and getting set up as fast as they possibly can. laptop, most of us keep our laptops with us. then the candidate comes out and we will make pictures -- depending what happens, the first four or five minutes. and you'll see our heads drop to the ground. then we pull out our laptops and ande immediately filing writing captions as frantically as possible. a lot of us carry portable wi-fi hotspots. a lot of us will carry two or three of those because you do not know where you are, which company has the best signal.

sometimes it is at&t, sometimes it is verizon. you will try to transmit for five pictures as fast as possible, and a variety of pictures. could be arrival handshake. to theu throw it back laptop in your shooting again. then the event is over and may be the candidate works the rep line, maybe they will not. then you're back on the bus and the clock is really taking. you have the distance from the bus until you are 3500 feet in the airplane, because that is where the wi-fi drops off, the cell phone signal. then you jump on the bus and jump and go as fast as you can. you are editing. your editing thousands of pictures sometime. toi have gotten older i try be more discriminating and not shoot thousands of pictures anymore. maybe hundreds. then youoing like mad,

bound on the bus and the airplane and you are filing pictures. the planetch it as climbs into the air, but you watch your cell phone signal go boop boop. and you are holding your phone against the window, trying to get that last wi-fi signal. chip: it goes in reverse, also. as you are descending to the next event you watch the cell phone go up come up. -- up, up. every second on those mad dash days. part of the daily routine is writing out your captions because you know will you be in five cities that you pre-write your captions. with editing it saves a few seconds and those seconds really make a big difference. >> this will be our final question of the evening. i will get one from the back. can any of you think of a

moments when you are surprised by the respect or caring that a candidate may have shown a voter, or conversely, disrespect or contempt slip out? that is a good question. every candidate is different. carolyn: yes. you strive, at least a lot of time, how they interact with people. people come to them with their emotions on their sleeve. if they feel they are being heard by someone of such , theyance to our country will cry. they will get a hug. people would see john mccain and

weep, just at the sight of him. people told hillary clinton their life story. people would hold onto donald trump and not let go. there are those moments of connection and energy that you see all the time. especially people waiting since 4:00 in the morning for a 7:00 p.m. event. they are exhausted and everyone's emotions are high. some of these events it can be 100 degrees in the high school gym and no one has had water and everyone is losing their mind. a lot can happen. >> it is interesting to contrast of --ates to -- i think observing obama campaign, i felt he was the same person in real life when the camera was not on him as he was when he was greeting people and the camera was watching and.

i felt he really enjoyed interacting with people and getting to meet them and shake their hands. one of the first candidates i covered was john edwards. i could contrast that feeling. he was really having to work hard to interact with people, and he really did not like it. it was uncomfortable for him and he did not having -- like having to shake people's hands and look them and i. -- in the eye. it is interesting to see what makes them tick. you can join me one final time in thanking our panel for coming out today. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. tuesday morning we look at the role of women in campaign 2018 with an ncr editor.

and donna brazile on how the democratic party is trying to appeal to female voters in 2018. and a republican strategist joined us to talk about the republican party's efforts to attract female voters. he sure to watch c-span's washington journal tuesday morning. join the discussion. here is a look at our live coverage tuesday. on c-span, vermont senator bernie sanders talks about the progressive agenda and the state of american politics. newsis followed by cbs contributor moderating a discussion on u.s. global leadership. also as your primary source for campaign 2018, we will have live mitt romney and jenny wilson. on c-span2, can start talks about the power and limits of special counsel investigations. after that, the senate returns

that 3:00 p.m. eastern to consider a water projects bill. then at 8:00, we're live from massachusetts for the first debate between republican governor charlie baker and democrat j gonzalez. and on c-span3, foreign-policy experts discuss the future of u.s.-russia relations. that is at 7:00 p.m. eastern. the c-span buses traveling across the country on our 50 capitals tour. we recently stopped in indianapolis, indiana. looking forward to the november midterm elections, we are asking folks which party should control congress and why. >> the party i want to take over congress is the democratic party. not just because i support the values of the democratic party, but because i think the republican party has completely abdicated its responsibility to serve as a check and balance on the executive branch. theddition to legislation,

responsibility in congress to be able to serve as that check and balance. we have not seen that. we have seen a presidency [indiscernible] >> if congress changes in november, i will be impacted in several days. for one, i am a congress student just getting out of school and i will be entering the workforce. and things such as tax breaks that getcial matters decided across congress will directly affect me and my future success. also, i am an african american woman. representation that is there for me and those fighting for my rights and civil rights is very important. i believe this will be impacted if there is a change in congress. year, ifections this by some strange chance, the congress should change over to another party, we would have some impact here.

indiana, wely in are pretty independent folks. as with our infrastructure programs, we have moved ahead with whatever congress does. in ake sure we operate responsible and business-like way. we passed a major infrastructure bill last year between the federal -- bill. if the federal government helps us, that is great. if not, we will march. shouldink the democrats control congress because i believe our country needs to swing more left or progressive. i am interested in issues relating to women. women's ability to choose and also women's rights in the workplace. thank you. >> voices from the states, part of c-span's 50 capitals tour. next, h