From TV ads to critiquing political strategy, Kevin Walling is one of the most well-rounded surrogates for the political left. Now he, along with co-hosts Mark Halperin and Larry O’Connor, is inviting you to call in and have your pressing political questions answered live on their show The Morning Meeting.
“It’s kind of a news-setting program. It’s based around, as Mark describes it, kind of the editorial meetings that go on [in the industry] where you gather all the EPs, producers, anchors, news directors, and talk about the news of the day,” Walling affirmed.
Live streaming on 2Way, YouTube, X, and more, the threesome invite the public to ask questions, give comments, and interact with the hosts. “It’s really kind of why it’s called 2Way to begin with, where you have this interaction with members of the public that are engaged, that have honest questions and honest comments,” the political analyst enthused.
“The uniqueness of that was super appealing to me, as opposed to just a regular news program where you’re just talking at viewers,” Walling added. “I think where media is headed, too, in terms of the future.”
Life Behind the Camera
Clocking over 500 hours of live TV before starting on this new venture, Walling was making TV well before he appeared on your screen.
“I had always worked in political consulting and media consulting, so I make TV ads, digital ads for folks running for office, for ballot campaigns, for other issue-based campaigns,” Walling reminisced.
One of his most notable political efforts was leading the effort to pass marriage equality in Maryland. Walling was later elected as Montgomery County chairman in the Old Line state.
A few short years later, he made his first on-camera appearance on Fox News. “[I was] talking about President Trump’s new cabinet, and it’s progressed since then, spending a lot of my time on Fox News and talking to more conservative audiences,” Walling, who was a Biden-Harris campaign surrogate, boasted.
A Better Way to Connect with the Audience
On The Morning Meeting, he is always ready and able to have bipartisan conversations. It’s an important American value Walling truly believes in. “There’s so much frustration, anger that we’re seeing play out in our politics, and [our show on 2Way] is a great avenue for a bipartisan conversation, because Mark, obviously, middle-of-the-road journalist [and] well-sourced, Larry O’Connor on the right, and I’m on the left.”
For Walling, it is more than just a bipartisan conversation with the audience. It sheds light on why the voting numbers are often different than the polls. “Based on just how far off these polls have been recently, [most polls had a] 13-point average spread for [Abdul] El-Sayed [the now Democratic nominee for Michigan], and it’s a less-than-a-point race right now in terms of what we’re seeing this morning. So I do think there is an interest there in going deeper beyond the polls, but actually what people are saying and thinking.”
What better way to figure out why the polls are wrong than just going to the source, aka the American voters. “It’s actually them, you know, with their face on air, saying where they’re from and asking questions of us or making comments of us, and having this back and forth,” Walling effused. He sees the show as fulfilling a “hunger for authentic conversation, and that’s what’s fueling so much of the 2Way community.”
Authenticity Over the Script
Walling is used to the interaction and believes his years of work behind the camera helped shape who he has become in front of it. “I’ve worked for candidates that don’t really know who they are, right? And they’re poll-tested, and they said, ‘OK, we’re going to be X, Y, Z, because that’s where the people are.'”
The audience won’t get that with Walling. “The secret sauce [to making a good political candidate … or on-air presence] is really making sure that who they are comes across on the screen.”
He went on to say, “I think that experience has helped shape me in terms of how I present myself and carry myself and poke fun at myself and make jokes and really engage people so they can really see kind of who I am.”
He applauded his co-hosts for doing the same: “[Mark, Larry, and I] bring our authentic selves, our passions, our interests, our weird one-offs of references, pop culture references, whatever it is, in a way that you don’t often get in a scripted news program.”
The Key to Success
The key to Walling’s success is always being involved. “I first got involved in politics was literally as a kid intern for my congressman back in New Jersey where I grew up, a guy named Rush Holt, as a 16-, 17-year-old, was an intern in his district office and then worked on Capitol Hill for a number of years.”
Even before he could vote, Walling was volunteering for campaigns, getting out there and saying yes to everything. “That’s part of it, too. I think younger generations don’t want to do some of the unglamorous things that you do [coming up in media or in politics].” But he noted, “Just say yes to everything when you’re young, and you’re hungry, and you’re engaged, things will line up for you on the political and/or the media front.”
Walling believes young people also have an opportunity he didn’t have just 10 years ago. “I think what we’re seeing is this advent of younger and younger people engaging online, building a social media presence, doing this kind of commentary, getting in front of people where there is no longer those kinds of high barriers of entry for media that used to be.”
Saying yes and showing your willingness to do well isn’t just talk. “You have so many young people, even in their teens, early 20s, that have launched their own video shows that do interviews with newsmakers, that get the views, get the engagement, and I think that’s pretty extraordinary and a lot of that is what fuels the 2Way community.”
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.