Today – exactly one year before the 2020 presidential election – Capital & Main is launching a 12-month series on economic inequality in America. “United States of Inequality: 2020 and the Great Divide” will examine how tens of millions of Americans increasingly struggle to make ends meet, and how this reality will affect one of the most consequential elections in America’s history. 

Conceived by Capital & Main and produced in partnership with the Guardian US, Fast Company and The American Prospect, “United States of Inequality” will feature at least one story or multimedia feature every week for 52 weeks through the November 2020 election. 

Here’s what former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who narrated this video on the series, has said about the project: “It’s so important for fact-based news outlets to shine a light on the defining issue of our time. ‘United States of Inequality’ is a timely reporting project.” 

The series content will fall into the following five thematic areas:

1. The State of Inequality in America: Reporting, analysis, infographics and videos about economic inequality in the U.S. leading up to the 2020 election.
    
2. The Primary and Economic Inequality: Analysis of the voting records of leading presidential candidates on issues related to economic inequality, including wages, labor law, taxes and corporate power.
   
   
3. Economic Inequality in Battleground States: On-the-ground reporting on how economic inequality is experienced by different ages, income groups and ethnicities, with an emphasis on key voting blocs in primary and general election battleground states.
   
   
4. Economic Inequality in Trump’s America: Analysis and reporting on how the Trump administration’s policies are exacerbating economic inequality.
   
   
5. What the Presidential Candidates Are Not Talking About: Coverage of economic policy proposals that have not been raised by presidential candidates but arguably should be part of the national conversation.
   
   
   

We hope you will follow “United States of Inequality” in the weeks and months to come as the nation grapples with an issue that will shape the 2020 election in profound ways — and that ranks as the other inconvenient truth of our era.