Midterms panel: Here’s why you should care about your vote

The midterms are in three weeks. Join USC Annenberg Professor Christina Bellantoni as she moderates a discussion with a panel of experts on why you should care and how every vote counts.

• Marc Ambinder
• Melanie Mason
• Shaniqua McClendon

Christina Bellantoni: Over her 20 years in journalism, Bellantoni worked as a reporter and editor, behind the camera as a producer and in front of it as an analyst on national television. She has covered local, state and federal government, along with four presidential campaigns and the White House. Bellantoni is now the director of the Annenberg Media Center and a professor of professional practice.

Marc Ambinder is an adjunct professor at USC Annenberg and TheWeek.com’s editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.

Melanie Mason covers state government and politics in Sacramento. She first began working for the Los Angeles Times in 2011 in Washington, D.C., where she covered money and politics during the 2012 presidential campaign. She is originally from Los Angeles and is a graduate of Georgetown University and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Shaniqua McClendon is the political director for Crooked Media, home to the popular podcast Pod Save America. At Crooked Media, Shaniqua is leading the creation and implementation of their midterm voter engagement program, Vote Save America, and engaging the company in elevating Democratic candidates across the country. She is also a recent graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where earned her Master in Public Policy and was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Service. During that time she also worked at Facebook on their Politics and Government Outreach Team. Prior to graduate school, Shaniqua served in various capacities on Capitol Hill, starting off as a Staff Assistant for Senator Kay Hagan and going on to serve as Legislative Director for Congresswoman Alma S. Adams. Hailing from the State of North Carolina, Shaniqua earned a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communications and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC Chapel Hill, she developed a deep interest in using policy to create economic parity and eliminate disparities for disadvantaged communities. This eventually led her to the nation’s capital where she interned at the White House under the Obama Administration. Throughout her career, Shaniqua has advised on an array of policy issues but has now shifted her career to focus on political and civic engagement to ensure that the best people become lawmakers who are equipped to improve our country.

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