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Union

A book by jordan blashek and Christopher Haugh

Two friends⁠, ⁠a Democrat and a Republican⁠, set out across America to better understand each other and the country they love.

In the year before Donald Trump was elected president, Jordan Blashek, a Republican Marine, and Chris Haugh, a Democrat from Berkeley, formed an unlikely friendship. Over the months, Jordan and Chris’s friendship blossomed not in spite of but because of their political differences. So they decided to hit the road in search of reasons to strengthen their bond in an era of strife and partisanship.

Union is a three-year adventure story that takes readers to forty-four states and along nearly twenty thousand miles of road to discover where the American experiment stands today. Jordan and Chris go from a Trump rally in Phoenix and the tear-gas-soaked streets outside; to the decks of a lobster trawler off the coast of Portland, Maine; to jazz clubs near the French Quarter of New Orleans; to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where former addicts painstakingly put their lives back together; to a state prison near Detroit, where inmates grapple with their imminent return to society.

A road narrative, a civics lesson, and an unforgettable window into one powerful friendship, Union will give readers an answer to one of the most pressing questions of our time: How far apart are we, really?

Mar 11 – 17, 2016

Gettysburg
Washington DC
New Haven

May 19 – 26, 2016

New Haven
NYC
Chicago
Badlands
Wall Drug
Mt. Rushmore
Yellowstone
Bozeman
Boise
Crater Lake
Berkeley

Aug 21 – 27, 2017

Berkeley
Los Angeles
San Diego
Tijuana
Yuma
Phoenix
Page
Zion
Mono Lake
Reno

Dec 16 – 24, 2017

Las Vegas
Winslow
Albuquerque
Amarillo
Shreveport
Hammond
New Orleans

Aug 3 – Sep 8, 2018

Glendale
Tijuana
Mexicali
Tucson
Naco
Juarez
Santa Fe
Denver
Tulsa
Memphis
Nashville
Lorain
Detroit
Niagara Falls
Peru
Portland
Rockport
NYC

Apr 16 – May 3, 2019

NYC
Greenwich
Washington DC
Charleston
Augusta
Atlanta
Montgomery
Mobile
New Orleans
Tulsa
Rulo
Omaha
Rock Springs
Idaho Falls
Clark County
Elko
Berkeley
Christopher Haugh

Christopher Haugh is a writer from Kensington, California. After graduating with highest honors from the University of California, Berkeley, Chris attended Oxford University and started speechwriting as an intern in the Obama White House. He went on to join the US Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff where he served as a speechwriter to the Secretary. In 2018, Chris graduated from Yale Law School where he was a Yale Journalism Scholar. Chris is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York.

Jordan Blashek

Jordan Blashek is a businessman, military veteran, and writer from Los Angeles, California. After college, Jordan spent five years in the US Marine Corps as an infantry officer, serving two combat tours overseas. He holds degrees from Yale Law School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Princeton University. Jordan is based in New York, where he invests in entrepreneurial efforts to grow the American middle class as part of Schmidt Futures, a new philanthropic venture created by Eric and Wendy Schmidt.

When you really just talk person-to-person, and you strip away whatever flag or label that you’re flying for whatever reason, you can sit down with somebody.

John-Michael Early, New Orleans

God and country... the two things I care most about, other than my wife and kids.

Pete, truck driver

Money is not happiness. Happiness is being with your family. Now that I’m here, I feel so alone. I’m missing out on the care of my mom, and time with her. She always took care of me and fought for me when I was younger. Now it’s my turn to fight for her.

Nelson, from El Salvador, living in Tijuana

Wounds can be inherited. You might not feel slavery or loss directly, but it’s there. It’s in your bones. Children feel their parents’ wounds, and parents feel their own parents’. Stories are just one way of exorcising that pain.

Satori in Detroit, Michigan

I never gave up. I kept telling myself, I’m not dying in here. I’m not gonna die here. God has a plan for me. I’m gonna get out. And each year I kept saying, ‘This is my year— this is my year.’ And in 2017 it was my year.

Charlene, returning citizen, Detroit, Michigan

There’s got to be a lot of ‘want to’ in you. Drive, you know? You have to come to a point where you’re not okay in your misery.

Gabriel, inmate at Parnell Correctional Facility in Michigan

We could walk out of the door if we wanted to, but we have the option to change our lives, and I know that I want that in my life. I just want to be better. I want my mother to see somebody better than what I was. It’s all I have out there.

recovering addict in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Reconciliation starts when you’re uncomfortable.

Jamaal, Tulsa, Oklahoma

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