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Today, the @latimes capped off our Hometown series, a two-year project examining the America that the candidates see when they look out their front doors. I've loved this project, so indulge me in a short thread
Today's story features a hometown that's very close to home: Los Angeles. L.A. feels "like a blank space on the map of Kamala Harris' life," @tyrone_beason, writes, but he discovers that her posh Brentwood neighborhood isn't immune to tumult of 2020 https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-10-25/vice-presidential-contender-kamala-harris-calls-brentwood-in-la-home?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=slack
This project gave us the chance to explore places that aren't usually standard stops on the campaign trial. Like, did you know that Columbus, Ind. is one of the nation's great architectural cities? I had no idea until I read this @RaineyTime piece https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-10-24/mike-pence-indiana-hometown
We had reporters go to some of the nation's glitziest enclaves, like this @haileybranson look at the "dripping with money" community of Palm Beach, home of Trump's Mar-a-Lago https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-10-18/trump-mar-a-lago-palm-beach-2020-election
And we went to some of the places that have seen better days, like South Bend, Ind., where I found a city actively trying to reinvent itself https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-02-16/presidential-candidate-pete-buttigieg-south-bend-indiana-hometown
We found how in some places, the candidates were deeply woven into the fabric of their communities, like Bernie Sanders and Burlington, Vermont, perfectly captured by @joemozingo https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-01-26/presidential-candidate-bernie-sanders-burlington-vermont-hometown
We found how those hometowns could shine through into the campaigns themselves, like this @markzbarabak dispatch from Cambridge, MA -- the "I have a plan for that" city matching the "I have a plan for that" candidacy of Elizabeth Warren https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-02-07/elizabeth-warren-hometown-cambridge
And in Wilmington, I learned about the "Delaware Way" and how it explains all you need to know about Joe Biden https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-02-23/presidential-candidate-joe-biden-wilmington-delaware-hometown
Sidenote on that Wilmington/Biden piece: That story ran when his candidacy looked awfully wobbly. The postscript would be that I think the Delaware Way, in part, secured him the nomination, because his relationship with Sanders staved off a scorched-earth intraparty battle
Anyway, this thread is not actually short at all, but I'm very proud of this project and the excellent reporters, editors, photographers, videographers, and designers that made it happen. Want to support this kind of journalism? Subscribe! https://www.latimes.com/subscriptions/subscribe.html
