Editor’s note: At the time of the panel, Sewell Chan was editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune; however, he has since left to serve as executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. The new editor-in-chief is Matthew Watkins as of Monday.
Texas Tribune Editor-In-Chief Sewell Chan moderated a panel on former President Donald Trump’s MAGA political movement at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival Saturday. Chan led the panel alongside Isaac Arnsdorf, national political reporter for The Washington Post, and Stephanie McCrummen, staff writer for The Atlantic.
Both reporters have dedicated their journalistic careers to covering the dynamic of American politics and delved into specific case studies of what the MAGA movement is becoming and what the future holds for it.
McCrummen discussed the investigative reporting she did at the grass-roots level to learn more about the demographic that followed former President Trump.
“There were huge parts of the country where people were not engaged in politics,” McCrummen said.
She shared her reporting on Angela Rubino, a Georgia woman known as “Burnitdown.”
McCrummen described Rubino as finding it “her patriotic duty” to scrummage through a dumpster outside the county election office in Rome, Georgia to find shreds of paper to piece together how the 2020 elections were stolen.
“She didn’t trust the reality,” McCrummen said.
Although Rubino did not have a huge insight into politics, her actions created immense local political power.
Arnsdorf shared the case of Salleigh Grubbs, another political outsider who became a spectacle for the movement.
Grubbs was an empty-nester and keyboard warrior, Arnsdorf said.
When the election results proved Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Grubbs was convinced Democrats had stolen it, Arnsdorf said.
Grubbs, along with one of her accomplices, shared inaccurate photos and videos online of routine disposal of non-relevant materials by a shredding company in Georgia in hopes of convincing the public that there was voter fraud happening in their backyards.
“We see her evolution from being an outsider and how people were inspired by her,” Arnsdorf said.
Arnsdorf added that cases like Grubbs’ give people a sense of purpose, community and love.
Similarly to Rubino, Grubbs had also shifted local Republican Party politics.
Ultimately, Arnsdorf shared how the MAGA movement has completely overpowered moderate Republicans, a group that gets overlooked.
“(MAGA) (is) such a growing movement,” McCrumen said. “No one is going anywhere.”
