Hard Truths: September 2025

Hard Truths is a monthly newsletter about national, state, and local issues, with (sometimes sassy, other times serious) personal updates from the author – Heather Schmidt, M.PA. Heather is the owner of Heather Schmidt Consulting Services, Executive Director of VC Voter Edge, and a busy Mom to three.

I hope this newsletter does not come across to you all as “man bashing,” though it may. It isn’t intended to be that, and if you make it to the end you will understand the point. With that said…

National Nonsense

I have spent most of the last several weeks tuning out national politics, mostly because it has gotten so loud and very click-bait-y. What do I mean by “click-bait-y?” Well, as attention spans grow shorter, news is now about sensational titles and hooks within the first 5 seconds to ensure the reader or viewer stays dialed in. The result of this has been a lot of misreporting and misinformation.

Emphasizing this point, a few weeks ago I finished a Policy Brief on the topic of influencers in news and politics media. There has been a significant rise on social media of reporting done by so-called independent influencers, and the problem with them is that to earn their living, they must also be influencing people and… influencing them to what exactly? Depends on the influencers. Sometimes it is an ad inserted here and there without the viewer realizing it, but most of the time these folks are paid by management companies who get their funds from partisan organizations and corporations that want a specific narrative to be spun. Influencers also get paid for clicks and views, which is one major reason why their posts will be more about sensationalism and less about what they’re actually posting (like… not everything is BREAKING NEWS, is it?).

Shortly after I posted my Policy Brief, The Wire published an article about a dark money management firm paying specific influencers to report in such a way that the Democratic Party wanted the messaging to be heard. And what remains from that particular scandal is the concerning fact that none of those influencers, nor the management company, have released their NDAs and shared their contracts so the public could really understand the nature of the arrangement, especially who was funding it. Even if you agree with that particular party or the specific narrative those news and politics influencers were weaving at the time, I think it goes without saying that we all should expect more integrity and transparency from our news media.

Or does that even exist anymore?

Scroll through or download my full Policy Brief here:

From the Greatest State in the Nation

Today is California’s 175th birthday, and I could not love this state even more if I tried. I simply love it so much already my heart is full.

While I certainly recognize we have a lot of problems to sort out in the coming months and years, we really do have it all here. Mountains, skiing, beaches, hiking, museums, art and culture, big cities, and small rural areas… it is impossible to not find what you want here.

What I find increasingly concerning, though, is the relative absence of our governor. It seems that he has effectively abandoned his post, preferring to spend his time attacking Donald Trump and using taxpayer funds to wage wars on national issues. With that said, we are now looking down the barrel of a special election this November that is going to cost us over $200M, in a time of economic uncertainty, and as our state has another year facing billions of dollars in deficit spending. That deficit has not, however, stopped the state from spending even more money waging legal battles against Trump on national issues, many of which are completely irrelevant to California.

The governor and the Democratic Party are banking on historically low voter turnout in this off year special election this fall. The issue is a proposition that will temporarily pause the independent commission that draws our Congressional districts, and instead allow maps created by… well, we’re all unsure who. Voters in California have already voted TWICE to have the independent commission draw our maps, but Newsom and CAL LEG decided this was essential to fight off similar gerrymandering going on in Texas. They also argued that other Red states would be gerrymandering in advance of the 2026 elections, which meant California should lead the way and entice other Blue states to do the same. The problem with that belief though is that other Blue states either will not, or rather are unwilling to suspend their state constitutions in the way Newsom is, which most analysts now say will result in a NET LOSS FOR DEMOCRATS OF UP TO 6 SEATS COME 2026.

As is, more than 60% of Californians have polled that they would vote NO on this boondoggle proposition, so the proponents of it are – again – banking on low turnout. Because if only the most rabid activists vote, they’ll be able to slide it through on sheer apathy, alone.

But what do I know?

Just Local Stuff

This is where the test comes on if you make it to the bit about man bashing, because first I want to share this Twitter thread on the local stuff that has been occupying my time lately…

A Bit on Me

Many of you know that for several years after COVID hit, I cohosted a political podcast. What you may not have known is that during that time, I often found myself in situations with very toxic men.

The world of podcasting is predominantly male, with podcasters on both sides of the political aisle being largely made up of white men under 35. On several occasions, we would have guests on that were men who were not engaged in conversation, rather simply waiting for their turn to talk. Moreover, very problematic things were said in reference to women often. And while almost every man I came across on that podcast during those years said they were interested in collaborating, the truth was that they were interested in gaining more followers and listeners for their own projects, and that was about it. Whereas collaboration typically involves mutual support for each other’s projects, with some of these men it was simply a vehicle to spread their narcissistic opinions even further.

One particular podcast that we interacted with many times, and who has become a member of the “podcast network” my co-host founded, is called Revolutionary Rhetoric. Two guys in the Pacific Northwest basically get together and make episodes talking about political theory, current news, and a host of other things.

Our first interaction with them was just one of the members of their podcast. During that conversation, we were talking about women and women’s rights since Roe was overturned, and this man said – verbatim: “I don’t mind giving women some of those rights back.”

Excuse me? He had no idea what was problematic about that statement, and while my cohost said he did he nevertheless continued to collaborate with them and added them to that network of his.

The second time we interacted with them, both of the hosts were there. Well… for about 10 minutes. All of a sudden, the man who had told me – a woman – that he didn’t mind giving us some of our rights back got an “urgent phone call.” He came rushing back in, said his girlfriend had gotten her period (we were actively recording and he knew that), said she was in a lot of pain, and he needed to rush to be by her side. He then ran out of the room.

I never in my life have seen anything like that before…

Flash forward to this week, I happened to be scrolling my Tik Tok and saw a video posted by them about RFK Jr. taking away mRNA COVID vaccines and technology. First and foremost, that has simply not happened. While funding has been taken away, and numerous questionable decisions across the entirety of HHS have taken place, people can still get the mRNA vaccines.

And, as I said in my comment: there is another vaccine for COVID available that is NOT mRNA and readily available, and even more effective than the mRNA ones.

This guy responds to me and… well… here is the exchange:

I went back online a few hours later and was surprised they had not responded… only to see my comment had been DELETED. From there, I lost it.

Probably just got hormonal and emotional like a typical woman, amiright?

Here is the thing: if you cannot take a little bit of push back over the things you say, you should not be putting yourself out there in a podcast format – or any format for that matter. But the thing about it is that I’ve been in the room with these people when they do get push back from people and they take it constructively. They take it really well, in fact. The difference, at least that I have observed?

I’m a woman.

It is true when people say that the world of political podcasting is full of these alpha males with something to prove. It is untrue to say that it is only on podcasts on the political right. It is on both sides, in fact it is worse on the left side because those people claim to be for our rights as women, when in fact many of them are podcasting just to objectify us, find an audience, and – at least some of them – to look for a hook up.

It is pervasive, toxic, and does a real disservice to the public because – while the minority – they are influencing a whole generation of young men to think this is really how we approach women.

Demean us. Degrade us. Silence us. Delete us.

I am certain I’ve mentioned it before, but on this issue I strongly recommend the film Adolescence on Netflix. It approaches this very topic: what these so-called male role models are emulating for little boys, and the disastrous consequences of that influence.

Until next time…