Tara Setmayer is a former CNN political commentator, contributor to ABC
News and former GOP Communications Director on Capitol Hill.

Since its inception, Setmayer served as a Senior Advisor for The Lincoln Project and hosted the live show The Breakdown alongside co-founder Rick Wilson since 2020.

Setmayer currently serves as a University of Virginia, Center for Politics, Resident Scholar. In collaboration with the Center for Politics, she narrated the Emmy nominated 3-part documentary, Dismantling Democracy which aired nationally on PBS stations and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Prior to joining UVA, she was named a Harvard Institute of Politics Resident Fellow in 2020.

Today, she regularly appears as an on-air commentator on MSNBC and various other news outlets in the US and abroad.

Setmayer has also been a frequent guest host on ABC’s The View and has several appearances on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. She’s a regular guest host for one of Sirius XM’s top-rated political shows, The Michael Smerconish Program on the P.O.T.U.S channel. Tara has written for CNN.com, Bloomberg, The Daily Beast, Cosmopolitan, and NBC.com.

After spending 27 years in political communications with the Republican Party, Setmayer publicly left the GOP in November 2020 after Donald Trump refused to concede the election to Joe Biden.

Michelle Kinney served as the Creative Director of The Lincoln Project from 2021-2024. Kinney played an integral role with the organization since its inception in 2020, earning her multiple prestigious industry awards for her contributions to The Lincoln Project’s ad content success. During her time as Creative Director, Michelle facilitated collaborations with industry notables like Peter Coyote, Mark Hamill, and Leslie Jones to name a few. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University, Kinney has a diverse background in creative direction, photography, entertainment and politics.

As a photojournalist Michelle’s been on assignment for outlets like Vice, Mic, Out and NowThis. Many of her photographs have been featured in The Washington Post, TimeOut NY, Washingtonian Magazine, Playbill, and Broadway World. Michelle’s political journey began in 2016 with New York Young Democrats, Manhattan Young Democrats, later served as Vice President of the West Side Democrats, and was publicly elected to the New York County Democratic Committee for two terms.

Prior to her work at The Lincoln Project, Kinney had a career in the entertainment industry for over 15 years, as both a performing artist and producer. Inspired by her Suffragist great-grandmother Mae’s courage and determination driving newly legalized women to the polls for the 1920 presidential election in upstate New York. Michelle honors her legacy through her work and commitment to The
Seneca Project mission.