As the 2026 election season has begun to heat up with primaries already taking place in several states, GMP decided to interview someone who is currently running for elected office to better understand America’s current political climate. Michelle Embree Ku is a Democrat running in the town of Newtown for the Connecticut House of Representatives. She is currently one of two Democratic challengers taking on a long-time Republican incumbent. Eli Post-Kennedy, a rising senior and government major at Hamilton College, began by asking her about how her race is going.
Q: Based on your experience, what has been the most effective way to communicate with voters in a local race, and what is your campaign platform?
A: On the Democratic side, we have forums and…I don’t know if you call them debates with two Democratic people participating, but some people are calling them debates. Here, the best way to connect with voters is by knocking on doors, because a lot of times, they don’t want to come to you. I hold events and forums in which people can come and ask me questions, but really it is about going to people at their doors, where they feel much more comfortable about offering their opinions on things and telling you exactly what’s on their mind. I am running on the record of having been in office since I moved here 16 years ago. I have a long record of having served in local office and serving on the Board of Education, as a board chair, as a board member for eight years, and also being on the legislative council and a board of selectmen member.
Next, I asked about her perceptions of America’s political climate in a general sense, especially how it has changed since the 2016 election.
Q: What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in America’s political climate over the past ten years?
A: Things have definitely changed in part due to Donald Trump’s entry into politics, but generally, there have also been some interesting changes to how we’ve been doing national politics. I think the biggest change is probably the influence of social media, and that’s going to become even more the case, especially with artificial intelligence.
This led to a discussion of how technological innovations and AI have changed not only politics but America as a whole.
“I mean, yeah, it’s the technology, but it’s also how we treat each other. I think it’s so different than it was ten years ago. It was not as easy to just blast away online at somebody you disagreed with and not care how it made them feel, and that has changed so much, not just in politics, but just every day interactions with people.”
This point stood out to me, because it seems like a sentiment we can all relate to. While the internet has never been an especially friendly place, incidents like President Trump’s recent expletive-laden threats against Iran on Truth Social are certainly a new addition to global geopolitics.
As a follow-up to this conversation about the past ten years, I asked Michelle where she sees our political situation heading in the near future.
Q: Given what we’ve seen with AI, social media, and the different ways people have treated each other in recent years, I’m interested to see where you think that’s going to progress going forward.
A: There’s an ad out that I saw pop up on my feed the other day for this new movie that’s out that looks very dark about where we’re headed with AI, and sort of the destruction of humanity. I’m hoping that’s not where we’re headed, but I do think we have the opportunity to address this with legislation that can put guardrails on things, but I’m not sure how that will work exactly. It’s very complex, otherwise we would have solved this already. I do think that ethically we really need to think about where we’re headed, and I think that’s another important reason why we need to have young people involved in politics so we can have that perspective for the legislation that’s coming forward.
Perhaps here we find some good news. According to available data and political experts, Gen Z has already garnered a reputation for having high levels of political engagement. However, research also indicates that young people are skeptical of the federal government and its ability to address national problems in a meaningful way. Michelle continued with her response:
“It’s important to have people who have just come out of school learning about technology so that we make sure we’re setting up laws and guardrails that are going to keep us safe. I hope that we’re able to do that. I don’t know, with our dysfunctional Congress the way it is right now, at least federally. I think that it’s very difficult to address anything at this point.”
It can certainly be observed that the glaring problems with the current federal government are on people’s minds. Many Americans (including Pope Leo XIV) have been dissatisfied with Donald Trump’s policies and leadership since he returned to office last January. However, when I asked Michelle about how people have responded to the Trump administration, her response offered a more hopeful perspective.
Q: How do you think people are responding to the current Trump administration’s policies? Which issues have stood out at the state level as a result of the federal government’s actions?
A: In Connecticut, I think people are almost oblivious to what’s going on, because there’s a little bit of a statewide protection in terms of what our legislators are doing. For example, when money is cut from federal SNAP programs or from education funding, our state has put in place millions of dollars to be available as emergency funds in order to offset those Trump administration policies. I think that’s both a plus and a minus because it does protect residents of Connecticut, and yet at the same time, it’s very easy to go on living life without feeling like there’s a whole lot that’s affecting me personally.
While the federal government’s actions as of late have frequently been alarming, Michelle recognizes the ability of state policies to significantly counteract the damage. However, concerns about American democracy are still at the forefront of many people’s minds. Recent polling indicates that over 80% of Americans say that democracy is in crisis or facing challenges (albeit for a variety of reasons). I decided to conclude by asking Michelle to weigh in on where American democracy is headed.
A: That’s a heavy question. It certainly isn’t the democracy our founders believed in, or at least I don’t think it’s what they saw. Of course, our founders had some imperfections themselves, and a lot of people were originally excluded. I’m still hopeful that our democracy will hold steady, and we’ll see in November for sure whether elections are adhered to and whether we can withstand some of the really big stresses and assaults on the democracy that I grew up knowing. I mean, it certainly is not the democracy I learned about in grade school and high school. And it’s interesting because I think that my kids and your generation (Gen Z) grew up learning about those ideals, but your experience has been completely different. It’s hard to have been taught those values in school, but then see something happening outside that does not adhere to the values in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I’m hopeful mostly because of our justice system. I think it’s holding true for the most part, and I hope that in November we’ll have a change in our Congress, and that will be one of the three pillars that help hold our democracy in place.
Speaking from personal experience, Michelle’s analysis has largely been accurate. For instance, the massive influx of dark money and donations from Super PACs that was accelerated by the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision has substantively undermined the freedom and fairness of American democracy. Fortunately, the best way to fight back against these shifts is to get involved, and that is exactly what Michelle is doing. In order to restore the integrity of our political and electoral system, people need to get involved on behalf of other people’s best interests rather than their own. As her May primary draws near, I wish Michelle the best in pursuing this goal.
