“Purple State:” The Politics Of Love, a Debut Novel by Dana Perino

Can two people from opposite sides of the aisle end up walking down the aisle?

The answer will surprise you in the new debut novel by Fox News anchor and best-selling non fiction author Dana Perino.

The former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, the first woman to hold that position in a Republican administration, created a rom-com around a 25-year-old blue-no-matter-who, Dorothy “Dot” Clark, who, along with her friends Harper and Mary, moves to Wisconsin for a year to help the Dems elect the next president.

It doesn’t take long before the three New-York-or-nowhere professionals take to small town life and the local men who make them forget all about the finance and tech bros they left behind in Manhattan—even if the swing state guys swing right-wing.

As the election draws closer, so does their 12-month stint in the Midwest. Decisions need to be made. Do the women stay in Cedar Falls, return to NYC, or continue life’s adventures somewhere new and different?

The author sat down with Straus Media to discuss the NYC dating scene, why IRL Dems and Republicans just can’t get along, and whether romance can remedy that.

“Purple State” has all the makings of a Hallmark rom-com.

I like that. It’s number one in “clean and wholesome romance,” which I didn’t even know was a category. I think that fits. It’s a good description.

So, why the foray into fiction?

I’ve read fiction my entire life. [Writing] it was a goal that was out there, but something a little bit unattainable, in my mind. I never thought I could do it until I got a nice little push from an author named Andrew Graff. He asked me about the book I had in mind. My initial thought was way too grand, more of a national effort by the Democrats to try to affect all the different purple states. And that was just too big. He said it could all come down to this one gerrymandered district in Wisconsin. When he told me that, I thought, oh my gosh, maybe [writing the book] is possible.

Why is it relevant?

I really do think a lot of it takes the lessons that I’ve been trying to teach young women through my books like “Everything Will Be Okay” and “I Wish Someone Had Told Me...” It’s like hiding the vegetables amongst the macaroni and cheese. Because all of the lessons from those two books, like being willing to deviate from your plan, and trust that everything is going to be okay, and being willing to take a risk, I found a way to tell all of those things in [“Purple State.”]

The book suggests that people across the political divide have more in common than they think. Is this book your way of trying to mend fences between the left and the right?

That was part of the goal: to address what I think is an over exaggeration about how polarized we are as a country. Once you get off of devices and laptops, and you meet your fellow Americans where they are, you find that we’re actually quite a lot alike, that we share a lot of the same values, and that we are neighborly towards one another.

I was a little alarmed about the statistics after the last election that said 60 percent of young people say they did not want to date anyone who might vote differently than how they vote. That’s a terrible way to live your life.

You’re a Republican, yet your female protagonist is a Democrat. Do you want to talk about that choice?

Sure. I wanted to write about young women leaving New York for Wisconsin, and, of course, most of the young women here are liberal leaning. It made sense for me to think about young women from here, going to work in a purple state, and then meeting some Republican guys and saying, wow, these guys aren’t so bad after all.

Between your book and Hallmark movies, the successful Wall Street guys really get a rap as bad boyfriends, and it’s the flannel shirt guys who are the good guys. Did you talk to young women about what dating’s like?

I mentor a lot of the young women, my friends’ daughters, and of course, my assistant, Kate, and, yeah, this is what dating’s like. I feel like I nailed that part. Some of the terrible dates that you read about in the book are ones that my assistant went on.

You think about the people who live in a big city, but it’s lonely. They think they’d never want to live in a small town, because it’s too slow. But then they’re forced to. Maybe work takes them there, and they realize, oh, wait, this is a great way to live, and actually, he’s handsome, and he’s got great values, and maybe they start to see themselves in a different place that might not have been a part of their plan. And that’s what I think happens to these girls [in “Purple State.”]

What do you hope readers take away from the book, especially about love and politics?

That politics is interesting, and it’s a great hobby, but it does not have to become your life. If you wear it lightly, you will enjoy your time here on Earth much more. About love? I truly believe because this happened to me: Choosing to be loved is not a career-limiting decision.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel “The Last Single Woman In New York City.”