ICT, FNX to bring live 2022 midterm election coverage

Phoenix, AZ | Two major Indigenous media outlets, ICT and FNX - First Nations Experience, are partnering to bring a three-hour live newscast from an Indigenous perspective of the 2022 midterm elections on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. The newscast will feature interviews with Indigenous candidates running for public office, updates from ICT correspondents, lively conversation with political pundits and watch parties. The newscast will be broadcast from San Bernardino, California. Coverage will start at 7 p.m. PST and conclude at 10 p.m. PST on election night. This special newscast will be co-anchored by Aliyah Chavez, anchor and managing editor of the ICT Newscast, and Mark Trahant, ICT editor-at-large. It is executive produced by Jennifer Canfield. The organizations have partnered together to bring live election coverage since 2018.

The 2022 midterms are set to have wide repercussions for Indigenous nations and people. On a federal level, all six voting Indigenous members of the U.S. Congress are running to be reelected, running for a new seat or finishing their term. There are a few other Indigenous candidates who could be elected to the U.S. Congress for the first time. The 2022 midterm elections also include the possibility of having the first Native candidate serve in the U.S. Senate since 2005. On a state level, ICT is tracking more than 100 candidates running for elected office. Those candidates are running in states from coast-to-coast including North Carolina and California to Hawai’i.

This election night show will include correspondents reporting live from watch parties and campaign headquarters. The correspondents will be based across 11 states and Washington, DC. States include:

Alaska

Arizona

California

Hawai’i

Kansas

Minnesota

Montana

New Mexico

North Carolina

North Dakota

Oklahoma

“This is the third time that ICT, working with FNX, has built a national television network just for election night. This is important work because our correspondents are covering candidates across the country,” said Mark Trahant, ICT’s editor-at-large and one of the anchors for the broadcast. “These are races that other media ignore. But we know that these candidates have great stories and significant ideas and are worth following. We will be there.”

“We were excited to host the live broadcast from the FNX studio back in 2018, knowing it was the first of its kind broadcast,” said Frank Blanquet, Producer/Director of Television, FNX-TV. “Never before had there been a television news team embedded across Indian Country bringing live updates about issues and candidates pertinent to our communities and we were able to bring that to public television stations across the nation on FNX.”

Blanquet says this partnership was important to engage with ICT again stating that, “We partnered with ICT and did it again in 2020 from Phoenix, and now there is an all-new level of excitement to broadcast Live from FNX on November 8. We have an experienced news team with ICT, we have an experienced live broadcast team at FNX and I think it's an exciting endeavor to continue and build off of, and what better entities to bring this to Live TV and Live Streams across the country than ICT and FNX.”

EVENT DATES & TIMES

What: Live midterm coverage covering Indigenous candidates and issues

When: November 8, 2022

Time: 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. PST

Where to watch: On the ICT and FNX Facebook or YouTube channels and at ictnews.org

For the latest information on this event, electoral analysis, and post-election reporting, please visit: ictnews.org and https://fnx.org/