Hi there, this is Sandra from Chico, California. Two years ago my fiance and I had to postpone our wedding because we were in the middle of a pandemic.

But today is our wedding day. This podcast was recorded at 12-12 PM Eastern time on Tuesday, February 22, oh my god it's a 2-2-2-2-0-2-2. It's a very historic day.

Things may have changed by the time you listen to this, but today on Tuesday, 2-2-2-2-2-2, I'm getting married!

Congratulations! What an unforgettable wedding day. You're never going to be like, wait, do we get married on the 21st or the 2nd?

Yeah exactly, but you're going to know. I love it, enjoy the day. Hey there, it's the Inpeer Politics podcast. I'm a Smokhalle, I cover the White House.

I'm Susan Davis, I cover Congress.

And today on the show we have got a special guest, Catherine Shen from Connecticut Public Radio is joining us. Hey there. Hello everyone, nice to be here.

Catherine, thank you for coming on. We really appreciate it. So you are joining us because we are now entering the third year of our pandemic life. And for parents in particular, they have been exhausted.

Full disclosure, as a parent of two little's, I too have been very exhausted.

But both of you all have done some really good reporting about what that means politically, how a lot of parents are angry about how COVID policies have affected their kids.

And in this year's midterms, Republicans think they can win over this angry parent demographic. So you have actually been talking to some of those parents. So why don't you start by telling us what you've been hearing?

Sure, I mean, I started out on this because I've seen a lot of conflict rising up between parents and their local school boards. I think we've seen this playing out all over the country for varying different reasons.

And I really wanted to reach out and talk to some of these parents to get a sense of how this would be playing out in the midterms.

And I talked to, you know, some parents all over the country, but I started out in Connecticut where where Catherine is now.

And part of when I started this reporting where I was like, oh, wow, I see this big red flashing sign is I found these moms, one of them is a former Democrat who has already switched parties to Republicans over this.

And that was like, over this issue, she's yet, yes, over the issue of how COVID policies in their local area have been affecting their children.

There was this sort of former Democrat, disillusioned Democrat, independent voter, who I think increasingly is just really angry.

There's a lot to it, but I would say specifically we're seeing it play out a lot with mask mandates.

People pushing back on their local schools on their mask mandates and that party switch, which I talked to her name is, I mean, a folgary, born and raised a Democrat, voted straight to Democrat her entire life.

She's made the decision to become a Republican and she even acknowledged me that it's actually been a huge part of blowback in her personal life.

It's been really sad and very isolating, but I have stuck to my guns because I just I feel very strongly in my heart that I know that this is not right.

When she said that she knows that this is not right, is she talking about mask mandates with her local school district.

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