Krystal Ball
Krystal Ball is the sharp-tongued progressive political commentator who built a cult following by skewering both corporate Democrats and the mainstream media establishment.
Krystal Ball burst onto the national stage as a Democratic congressional candidate in Virginia in 2010, but she became a genuine media force as a co-host on MSNBC’s The Cycle from 2012 to 2015. Her willingness to criticize her own party’s donor-class instincts made her stand out in a sea of predictable cable-news takes.
After leaving MSNBC, Ball co-founded Rising, the morning politics show on The Hill’s digital platform, where she partnered with conservative commentator Saagar Enjeti. The left-right format was a deliberate rebuke of tribal cable news, and it found a massive YouTube audience hungry for heterodox takes on politics and media.
Ball and Enjeti departed Rising in 2021 to launch their own independent podcast and streaming show, Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, distributed via Substack and their own platform. The move was a bet on creator-driven media independence, and by most accounts, it paid off, building a loyal subscriber base.
She is also a published author and has been a visible voice in progressive-populist politics, advocating for economic policies like Medicare for All and a $15 minimum wage well before those became mainstream Democratic talking points. Her brand is built on being the person who says the quiet part loud, regardless of which party is uncomfortable hearing it.
People search for Krystal Ball because she occupies a rare lane: a left-leaning commentator who is as critical of Democratic Party leadership as she is of Republicans, giving her crossover appeal with disaffected voters on both sides of the aisle.