The Fourth Branch: How States Quietly Run America

Why does one seat in the North Carolina State Senate matter more than almost anything happening in Washington?Daniel Squadron joins the Hometown Holler to make the case that state legislatures—not Congress, not the White House—are where American politics is actually decided. A former New York State Senator who took on a 30-year incumbent and won, Daniel went on to co-found The States Project, the only national organization hyper-focused on state legislative power, which helped break North Carolina's GOP supermajority in 2024. His new book, The Fourth Branch: How State Government Can Save Our Union, argues that marriage equality, the fight over the 2020 election, minimum wage, healthcare, and even January 6th were really state stories all along.We talk about the ALEC-written bill behind Trayvon Martin's death, the Michigan legislative leaders who held the line against Trump before January 6th ever happened, why "states' rights" got hijacked as conservative code, and what it actually means to answer the question "who am I and why am I here" in politics. Plus: Knicks talk, Duke's mayonnaise, and the McRib as a case study in political philosophy.https://www.patreon.com/c/thehometownholler/membership