Meet Debbie Cox Bultan from An Honorable Profession

With a growing network of podcasts and organizations that create educational content about democracy, civic engagement and civil discourse, we caught up with one of our hosts Debbie Cox Bultan about An Honorable Profession's backstory and how it elevates the voices of leaders working to strengthen democracy.

Q: Tell me about yourself and An Honorable Profession.‍

‍Debbie: I am the chief executive officer of a group called the NewDEAL Leaders. We are a national network of state and local elected officials around the country who are chosen because they are particularly innovative, thoughtful and results-oriented. We help them govern where they live and help the people in their communities but also work with them as they're rising up the ranks of public service. My background is in democratic national, democratic politics and I've been doing this for about 30 years. By far, my favorite thing to do is work with elected officials around the country who are working to solve problems every day.

Our podcast An Honorable Profession is a nod to Robert F. Kennedy's mention that politics and government is an honorable profession. We’ve been doing this for five years and 200 episodes. It started with my co-host Ryan Coonerty’s idea who is a former mayor of Santa Cruz, former supervisor of Santa Cruz County and a NewDEAL leader. He had been coming to our conferences and our convenings for quite some time when he got inspiration and hope from all the people he was hearing from around the country and thought that it was different than what he was hearing on the news, in the media about all the things that were going wrong and how politicians were in it for themselves. He had this idea that we should launch a podcast to talk to those elected officials about what made them get into public service in the first place, what kinds of issues they were working on the ground, how they were solving problems and bringing people together to restore people's faith in government and politics and bring some sanity to this insane world, as Ryan likes to say.

‍Q: What brought you to the podcasting sphere? Was political podcasting something you’ve always wanted to explore?‍

‍Debbie: Part of what NewDEAL is always trying to do is to elevate the voices of our amazing leaders. We've done that in a variety of ways over the years but a podcast seemed like a great format to try to introduce NewDEAL Leaders, other thought leaders in the moderate political democratic space and introduce those folks to a broader audience. I love the fact that we can dive in with people about why they ran for office in the first place, what motivated them, what matters to them, what they're working on the ground, what it's like in their communities and even get a taste of what it's like to be an elected official. Maybe people don't really understand what a day in the life looks like with somebody who's serving as a mayor or lieutenant governor or whatever it is.

In terms of restoring faith in government, we're super excited to join The Democracy Group because to me there's a real link between good governance and democracy. If people feel like they don't have any hope for their elected officials, that all elected officials are crazy or in it for themselves, I think that that's a hindrance to a real problem for democracy. To me, there's a real linkage between sharing the stories of these people who are solving problems on the ground and making sure people understand that elected officials are just like us and that they are, as I like to say, the by the people in the idea of “We the people, for the people, by the people.” I think that that's an important part of restoring our faith and restoring democracy.

‍Q: As we’re gearing up for election season, is there anything that An Honorable Profession is doing differently heading into November? Are there any goals that you and the team set out to achieve for this particularly special year?‍

‍Debbie: We've been doing a lot on our podcast heading into the election starting late last year. We did a whole series around the voter registration month, talking to local and state officials who are in charge of elections about what they're doing to gear up a year out. More recently, we've had a whole messaging series focused on the elections and helping people understand and make sense of all the polling and all of the different things we're hearing about, how the election is going and what people and voters care about, both with strategists and thought leaders but also with elected officials on the ground in swing states. I think that's been a really exciting series to both participate and listen to.

We continue to talk to people about what everyone should be thinking about, worried about and hopeful about heading into the election. The Steve Simon episode is a good example of that. The NewDEAL has also done a lot of work recently around things like AI and elections and what that might look like. So those are topics that we try to also bring up on our podcast as well.

‍Q: Looking back, would you say where the podcast is aligns with what you and the team had in mind when it first started?‍

‍Debbie: It really does! I think at a very high level, elevating leaders’ voices who are exceptional leaders that people should get to know and trying to contribute to a conversation that's more about solving problems and giving people hope, I think we've done a really good job on that front. Of course, having done it for five years now, there have been a lot of changes when it started out. It was a biweekly podcast and we've gone in recent years to weekly so that's just a lot more episodes. We have recently gone to video, which is a huge change for us, and hopefully will allow us to reach more people. And it continues to evolve.

I think that the core of our vision for it, that we would be able to share and introduce an audience to these really exceptional elected officials and to restore some faith in government, has been something we've been pretty true to.

Discover the top episodes selected by our hosts

An Honorable Profession: Secretary of State Steve Simon Wants High Turnout and Low Drama this November

In this week’s episode, NewDEAL CEO Debbie Cox Bultan talks with Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. In 2022, Secretary Simon was named by TIME Magazine as a “Defender of Democracy,” and – as we pass the six-month mark in the lead up to November’s election – he talks about his work to make this election one with high turnout and low drama. Simon reflects on Minnesota’s historically high voter turnout over the years, how young voters are feeling about this election, and some of the exciting legislation he’s collaborated on this legislative session to both expand ballot access and bolster election security. Secretary Simon also talks about Minnesota’s historical accomplishments as early adopters of Election-Day voter registration starting in 1973 and longstanding laws that give eligible voters the option to vote from home. Tune in to learn about Secretary Simon’s early interest in current events and how that led him to public service, and his exciting story of meeting the cast of Hamilton.

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