At 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8, two political heavyweights stepped into the Rogers Memorial Chapel with one goal in mind: to create a space for open political dialogue.  

The Tulane Civic Engagement Coalition organized a discussion between Doug Heye and Hyma Moore, principal of Cornerstone Government Affairs. Heye is the founder of Douglas Media and the former director of communications for the Republican National Committee. He is now a commentator with over 200 TV appearances.  

Moore is the former chief of staff to Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison. Moore has also held leadership roles at Greater New Orleans Inc. 

Barclay Zislin and Jules Hanisee moderated the event, and they asked questions ranging from how media affects elections to how the 2024 election is defying conventional political knowledge. 

“I think this event is really good, heading into the election, to have a productive dialogue on important issues,” Hanisee said.  

On the topic of media, the discussion came to podcasts.  

“Podcasts existed four years ago but not at the same scale. It’s always changing and evolving,” Heye said.  

Moore worked for the Clinton campaign in 2016. “The podcast idea was not a part of the strategy at the time,” he said. “You would do a podcast here and there. Now, however, Kamala Harris is blitzing that media.” 

Moore and Heye compared the 2024 election to previous cycles.  

“This feels a lot like 2016,” Moore said. “There’s internation chaos, domestic strife, questions about the economy. There are polarizing candidates on both sides.” 

Heye explained how the COVID-19 pandemic changed politics. “The campaigns of 2020 campaigned in ways they never had. Every two to four years, campaigns are different as they are growing and adapting. This [the 2020 campaigns] wasn’t growing and adapting. There was no playbook. You couldn’t have a rally of 50 people, much less 500 or 5,000. So I think 2016 is a much better model for this election.”