Elizabeth Sharrow, 2020 PEP Fellow, was among women in downtown Northampton reacting to the election of California Sen. Kamala Harris as the nation’s first female, first Black person, and first Asian American elected vice president. Sharrow said, “I think there is good reason to believe that the election of Sen. Kamala Harris to the vice presidency is likely to have long-term impacts on how girls — and girls of color, in particular — orient themselves to politics.” Read more at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. 

Paul Collins, 2015 PEP Fellow, is the author of two opinion columns about Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and was recently quoted about the ROE act. The first article focuses on Coney Barrett’s evasiveness and reluctance to answer questions during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, while the other examines how conservative groups will advance their agendas before a Supreme Court if and when Coney Barrett is seated. Collins is also quoted in a news article about renewed interest among local activists in passing the ROE Act, state legislation that would reduce restrictions on abortion in the commonwealth and, for the first time, introduce an affirmative right to abortion into state law. Read more at the Conversation, the New York Daily News, and the Daily Hampshire Gazette. 

Paul Collins, 2015 PEP Fellow, discusses the approach Judge Amy Coney Barrett took during the questioning phase of her confirmation hearings by avoiding critical court issues. “Though past nominees have also avoided answering some of the senators’ questions, Barrett took this to a whole new level,” said Collins. “Having studied how forthcoming nominees have been since public confirmation hearings at which nominees testified began in 1939, I think Barrett will rank as among the least responsive nominees in American history.” Read more at Boston Globe.