Tina Dupuy was born into a cult and attended Alcoholics Anonymous for 24 years before realizing she was never an alcoholic in the first place. Now, she's working on the Hill.
As a young adult, Dupuy toured the country as a standup comedian. She eventually became an investigative journalist, writing for outlets such as Mother Jones and The Atlantic and serving as editor-in-chief of TheContributor.com. In April 2016, she took her first job in politics, working as communications director to Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) as he is retiring from the House and running for Senate.
Dupuy met Grayson about five years ago at Netroots Nation, a conference for liberal bloggers. Earlier this year, she received a call asking if she would take over for Ken Scudder, who had served as Grayson's communications director since May 2015.
Dupuy admits she is a bit different from most congressional staffers. "I didn't go through the traditional channels, which I think is good," she told LegiStorm.
Dupuy has always been critical of D.C.'s seeming homogeny. Hill staffers "have the same backgrounds, they went to the same schools, they wear the same loafers, and they start to sort of have confirmation bias," she explained. "This is a very big country with a very diverse populace and lots of different opinions. There's not that intellectual diversity in the halls of Congress. We do need people who come from different places."
The self-described "native New Yorker born in exile" returns to her home in Manhattan when Congress is in recess. In the meantime, Dupuy is making the most of her time in the nation's capital.
"I'm having a great time while I'm here. I'm learning a ton about my government that I don't think I would have been able to learn otherwise. And I feel like I have a lot to contribute - not only to my member but to Congress," she said.
What's Dupuy's favorite part of her new job?
"I've written speeches for my boss, and my words have ended up the Congressional Record, which is pretty cool," she said. Dupuy, who used to read the Congressional Record when she was an intern for Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), characterizes the experience as "profoundly humbling."
Dupuy says she's asked "five times a day" if she intends to return to journalism when Grayson leaves office in December. For right now, the award-winning writer is undecided.
Also up in the air is Cultish, the investigative podcast that Dupuy hosted until moving to D.C. a couple months ago. Dupuy, who was born into The Children of God cult, says she has gotten "a lot of requests" to bring back the serial, which focuses on the lives of former cult members.
Through Cultish, Dupuy says she was able to give a voice to and bring together people who had been living in isolation.
"People with PTSD who have been profoundly manipulated and how to unpack that and still maintain a normal life is kind of a gut-wrenching process that not a lot of people understand," she noted. "I was able to give voice to people who had been living in the shadows."
For now, the podcast is officially "on hiatus."
