A recent Gallup poll reveals that 40% of Americans identify as independent voters. Still, politics center on Republicans and Democrats, the country’s two major parties. With the presidential election just months away, what do unaffiliated voters want? What will it take to have their voices heard? A planned public forum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro aims to tackle those questions and look at the history of African-Americans as political outsiders – or independents. Host Frank Stasio talks with three of the event’s participants: Omar Ali, associate professor of African-American Studies and History at UNC-Greensboro; Donna Moser, co-founder of North Carolina Independents; and Brittany Rodman, a young, registered independent voter.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.