2024 Election Preview

Tani Cantil-Sakauye is president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, where she holds the Walter and Esther Hewlett Chair in Understanding California’s Future. From 2011 to 2022, she served as the 28th Chief Justice of California and led the judiciary as the chair of the Judicial Council—the constitutional policy and rule making body of the judicial branch—the first person of color and the second woman to do so. Before she was elected statewide as the Chief Justice of California, she served more than 20 years on California appellate and trial courts and was appointed or elevated to higher office by three governors. Earlier in her career she served as a deputy district attorney for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and on the senior staff of Governor Deukmejian, first as deputy legal affairs secretary and later as a deputy legislative secretary. She holds a BA and a JD from the University of California, Davis.

Joe Garofoli is senior political writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, covering national and state politics. He has worked at the Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of “It’s All Political,” the Chronicle’s political podcast. He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and television talking politics. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.

Astead Herndon is a national politics reporter for the New York Times and a political analyst for CNN. He reports and hosts “The Run Up,” a political podcast from the New York Times that debuted ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Previously, he was an integral part of the Times’ political coverage in the 2018 midterm elections and the 2020 presidential elections. In 2020, he was named to the Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” media list. His reporting—on white grievance and former President Donald Trump—was included among the New York Times package that was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prizes. Last year, “The Run Up” was named “one of the best podcasts of 2022” by the Economist. He has a BA in journalism from Marquette University.

Marisa Lagos is a correspondent for KQED’s California politics and government desk and co-hosts a daily show and podcast, “Political Breakdown,” where she sits down with political insiders to dig into policy and politics—and offer a peek into the lives and personalities of those driving politics in California and beyond. At KQED, she also conducts reporting, analysis, and investigations into state, local, and national politics for radio, TV, online, and on stage. In 2022, she co-moderated the only gubernatorial debate in California. In 2020, the Washington Post named her one of the top political journalists in California; she was nominated for a Peabody award and won several other awards for her work investigating the 2017 California wildfires. She has worked at the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, and Los Angeles Times. She is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Melanie Mason is a senior political reporter with Politico California, based in Los Angeles. Before joining Politico last year, she worked for 12 years at the Los Angeles Times. She covered money and politics out of the Times’ Washington bureau and spent nearly six years in Sacramento, where she wrote about state government and politics and produced award-winning coverage of sexual harassment in California politics. She has also covered four presidential races, the 2018 California governor’s race, and numerous congressional campaigns. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Elex Michaelson is an anchor for FOX 11 News in Los Angeles. He also hosts and produces the political talk show “The Issue Is.” He has conducted one-on-one interviews with many key national and California political figures including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom, Jerry Brown, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and more. He has also organized and co-moderated debates for state, national, and local races. He is the winner of eight Emmys, seven Golden Mics, and six L.A. Press Club awards, including TV Journalist of the Year. Before joining Fox News, he was a reporter and anchor in Los Angeles and San Diego. He volunteers with several nonprofits, including the ALS Network, the Drew Child Development Corporation, and the Special Needs Network. He earned degrees in broadcast journalism and political science from the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California.