Making politics more accessible: An inside look at Capitol Hill from an independent reporter's perspective
Here's the Deal: Politics will always be a little bit wonky. That's why it's important to have reliable resources that make sense of the big legislative storylines.
One of the reasons why I started my Substack page was to connect more readers with informative and trustworthy news sources. This includes highlighting other journalists who are making sense of what’s happening in hearing rooms and behind closed doors on Capitol Hill.
In this first edition of Reporter Notebook spotlights, you’ll meet Michael Jones, the creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
These features will give you an inside look at what it’s like covering a specific beat as a reporter or take you behind the scenes of a major news event.
Here’s the deal on Michael Jones:
Michael Jones is a national political reporter and the ONLY independent Black journalist accredited by a congressional press gallery.
His first major Capitol Hill story was about the results of the 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs, in which Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock defeated Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively. The runoff happened on January 5, 2021 and the results were in by January 6.
“So the day that John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won those seats to flip the Senate blue and give Joe Biden a try a governing trifecta, is the same day of the insurrection. And so that's kind of when I kind of put a stake in the ground and said, you know, these are the kinds of stories that I think warrant coverage,” said Michael Jones, creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
Over the past few years, Michael has covered some of the biggest stories on Capitol Hill as an independent journalist, including:
The rise and unprecedented fall of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy
The transfer of House Democratic leadership from Nancy Pelosi to Hakeem Jeffries
The 2022 class of House progressives—including Congress’s first Gen-Z member
Multiple government funding cliffs and a near-default on the U.S. debt
Here’s why his coverage is different:
Michael primarily covers Democratic power and politics in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republican era. Like many reporters, he has his own storytelling style - one that feels like a smart friend catching you up on the latest news over drinks.
Michael told me even the title of his Substack, Once Upon a Hill, was an intentional decision to make politics more inviting and accessible - no matter your relationship to politics.
“Everyone gets to participate in democracy… So if you're a lobbyist and you need to know what's going on with the appropriations process, there's something in today's Once Upon a Hill for you. If you want to know what's going on with whatever it's happening in the news, no matter where you are, kind of in your with your political knowledge, I wanted to feel like Once Upon a Hill meets you, you know where it's at,” said Michael Jones, creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
You’ll also notice extensive coverage of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in his newsletter. It comes as the CBC is the largest it’s ever been with 62 members from the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
“So it's really important for me to center race and gender and power as part of the national political conversation, as part of the public discourse, and not this story that we put over here, and then we cover everything else through the white gaze, and then come back after and say, ‘Well, how does this affect the quote, Black vote or The Latino vote?’ No, it's important to have these conversations as part of the current news cycle. Every story impacts these communities, and I didn't think that they were getting the coverage that warranted kind of their impact and their power,” said Michael Jones, creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
The CBC also has members who serve at some of the highest levels in Congress, such as Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Additionally, five CBC members serve as chairs on full House committees, and 25 CBC members serve as chairs on House subcommittees.
“How can you can't cover these members without covering the coalitions that they're a part of and the coalitions that help them do their job… Being a member of the Black Caucus makes certain members more effective legislators, because they have those relationships. They have those connections. And so it's just important for me to if I'm going to tell a whole full story, then it needs to be through all of the different lenses of the Democratic Party,” said Michael Jones, creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
Michael also told me that covering the CBC and the other minority congressional caucuses is about covering the voices that aren’t typically in power in politics.
“ It's important to talk about, what does it mean to have diverse people in powerful positions, and is it making a difference or not? In some ways it is, and in some ways you could argue that it's not,” said Michael Jones, creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
Here’s the shift on Capitol Hill:
The makeup of Congress is constantly changing because every two years, all members of the House of Representatives face re-election, and the Senate is partially elected (one-third of the chamber).
Michael has had a front row seat to these transfers of power over the years. But he told me, this year, both parties have had significant shifts.
Let’s start with Democrats.
Michael said Democrats are trying to figure out how to give their grassroots voters what they want after major losses in the 2024 election. He said this approach looks different as Democratic lawmakers navigate President Trump’s second term in office.
“Trump 1.0, he was a newcomer… The resistance was new. Trump was new. This time around, Trump isn't new. He is the leader of the Republican Party. He is not an insurgent. And so I think Democrats have had to figure out, what does the resistance playbook look like, not only under Trump 2.0 but with very little legislative power,” said Michael Jones, creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
On the side of the aisle, Republicans have a supermajority on Capitol Hill because the GOP is in control in the House and Senate, along with the White House.
The Constitution establishes Congress as the “First Branch” of the federal government and assigns this body responsibility for “organizing the executive and judicial branches, raising revenue, declaring war, and making all laws necessary for executing these powers.”
But Michael told me the power dynamics are out of step when it comes to congressional Republicans’ relationship with the President.
“The other two branches of government don't exist without the legislative branch. Yet this Republican Congress continues to cede more and more and more and more power to the executive branch. And that is a fascinating story to me, because everything that Trump is doing is because Republicans in Congress are saying, ‘We allow it, we enable it at any point, on tariffs, on government.’ But you name the issue, Kirstin, you name the issue, Republicans could have a say so on the Hill, that would have a different outcome than a lot of what we're seeing,” said Michael Jones, creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
Here’s the story behind the scoop:
Earlier this year, there were a lot of stories about President Trump’s massive tax bill aka the “big, beautiful bill,” and the effects on communities nationwide with sweeping cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
Michael was the first to report that House Democrats had received official messaging guidance to avoid using the phrase "safety net" in favor or "basic needs" or "economic assistance" to connect with persuadable voters who may resent language that implies dependency.
You may be wondering, why is this a story? Why was this shift in language important?
Well, Michael told me this is the kind of story that pulls the curtain back on what’s happening behind closed doors on Capitol Hill.
“This kind of linguistic shift of, you know, moving away from using terms like safety net and to basic assistant basic needs or economic assistance, is it shows the sensitivity that Democrats have to a lot of the voters that they feel like they lost a lot of those working class voters,” said Michael Jones, creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
In this case, Michael said House Democrats lawmakers were hyper aware about how terms like “safety net” carry different meanings for voters.
“Democrats were talking to me also and saying, ‘We want to talk how people talk.’ And if you talk to the normal person, they're not saying, you know, I need a safety net. They're saying I just need to cover my basic needs. I just want to, every month, be able to cover my basic needs without going broke. And so there's a lot of, of tussling happening within the Democratic Party right now, but how are we not just the message, but how are we saying it, and so a lot of people (are) like we need to be talking like regular people,” said Michael Jones, creator and author of Once Upon a Hill.
Here’s the bonus!
There’s so much to this conversation that couldn’t fit in one post but guess what, you can listen to our full interview on the Here’s the Deal with KG podcast! This episode will go live later today. You’ll hear more about how Michael started Once Upon A Hill, the story behind another major scoop, and his answer to my hardest question, which had nothing to do with politics!