With help from Brakkton Booker, Jesse Naranjo and Teresa Wiltz

Hi there Recast family.

We’ve been in your inbox all week teasing our new Power List. It’s finally live!

Meet the 40 people who had a measurable impact over politics, culture and identity in 2022 — and who show no signs of slowing down.

Two years ago, POLITICO launched The Recast to unpack how race and identity shape politics, policy and influence. It’s a mandate that becomes more pressing with every year that passes: Washington grows increasingly polarized, longtime policy inequities persist — while new leaders are entering the mix.

We’ve been unpacking all of that in this twice-weekly newsletter and in our deep-dive reporting. But the Power List is our way of putting faces to the last year’s milestone moments.

We’ve identified lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, whose 2022 wins helped their party secure footholds in key battlegrounds.

We’ve identified advocates driving major court cases — or shaping the public reaction to them.

We’ve identified luminaries who used their clout to call out politicians, from environmental disasters to injustices.

The Power List spans party affiliations, racial identities — and ideologies. Some might ask how we can include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the same list as Vice President Kamala Harris. Our answer? Whether you love them or hate them, their impact on American politics cannot be denied.

Rest assured, these nominations were not made lightly. It was a rigorous process that began in October and continued through the February of the New Year.

A collection of roughly a dozen staffers from across the POLITICO newsroom had to nominate at least five people, present to the group why their picks should make the list, and defend their choices.

The general guidelines we considered:

• Did the nominee have actionable influence? Did their statement, work or action lead to a measurable change?
• Did that change happen between 2022 and 2023?
• Was the nominee a disrupter of some status quo on culture, politics and race?
• Is the nominee politically outspoken?
• And broadly: Do we have a good balance of people? Do they represent the biggest political issues of 2022?

We — The Recast committee — spent weeks debating before we came up with the final 40. And we also have to thank you, our Recast family, for helping choose some of the nominees through our public callout.

Scroll through the Power List at your leisure. Share it on your socials or in your group chats.

And, as always, let us know whom or what we’re missing. We’ll be on the lookout for people to include next year. And don’t forget to RSVP to our live event on Wednesday, April 5.

All the best,
The Recast Team