Politics & Democracy

796 posts

Georgia and Wisconsin voter roll purges raise 2020 concerns

Recent news of voter roll purges in Georgia and Wisconsin highlights the high stakes for democracy. While election officials insist they are just undergoing routine efforts to keep the voter rolls clean, these purges illustrate the ways modern voter suppression wraps itself in seemingly innocuous administrative provisions implemented without concern

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6 Min
By: Anoa Changa

How the judicial selection process can prop up bias in the criminal justice system

Earlier this year in Harris County, Texas, 17 Black women were elected to the judiciary, bringing the total number of Black judges in the county to 25, or 33%. In the wake of the national media attention that followed, one of the candidates shared how her grassroots outreach campaign sparked

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4 Min
By: Kisha Brown

Political campaigns must reshape voter outreach data to include people of color

The 2018 midterm elections made clear that women of color can run and win against “traditional” white male candidates who aren’t representative of the communities they aim to serve. To win, women of color candidates had to take a different approach. They knew it wasn’t enough to rely

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5 Min
By: Ammara Ansari

Supreme Court’s latest abortion move shows need for state level advocacy and legislative champions

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal challenging a 2017 Kentucky law that requires medical providers to perform a narrated “transvaginal ultrasound” on all patients seeking abortion care, and which makes no provision for either patients or providers to opt out. The ACLU filed

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3 Min
By: Anoa Changa

Formerly incarcerated Norris Henderson a ‘beacon’ for criminal justice reform in Louisiana

The day after Louisiana’s November election, Norris Henderson went back to the prison where he spent 27 years of his life. He visits frequently—it’s where he goes to stay connected with the people he fights for from the outside. The Republican gubernatorial candidate, Eddie Rispone, spent months

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4 Min
By: Alexandra Arriaga

Kamala is out. What’s next for other candidates of color?

News that Sen. Kamala Harris suspended her campaign for president sent shock waves through what was once hailed as the most diverse presidential primary in history. Although recent reports suggested her campaign was facing internal challenges, Harris was one of only six candidates who had qualified for the this month’

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4 Min
By: Anoa Changa

Is an approval voting system the key to a reflective democracy?

In an effort to create more reflective democracy, advocates around the country are pushing for cities to adopt a new election system: approval voting. An approval voting system allows people to vote for several candidates for an elected position, assuming they like more than one. The candidate with the highest

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3 Min
By: Carolyn Copeland

‘She the People’ strategy centers women of color in 2020 electoral plan

While She the People founder Aimee Allison waited for candidates to step on stage in Atlanta for the fifth debate in the Democratic presidential primary, she welcomed listeners on a strategy call to discuss mobilizing women of color to lead Democrats to victory in 2020. The featured guest on the

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3 Min
By: Alexandra Arriaga

To win future elections, Democrats need to focus on engaging and mobilizing women of color

On November 5, Virginia Democrats captured control of both chambers of the state’s General  Assembly for the first time since 1993. This victory didn’t happen overnight. As New Virginia Majority co- executive director Tram Nguyen wrote in the New York Times the morning after the election, getting to

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5 Min
By: Aimee Allison

The Democratic Primary calendar disempowers the party’s real base: Black women

Black women are the most loyal demographic in the Democratic Party—not white women, not Black men, and certainly not white men. Black women. This isn’t conjecture. These are the facts: 70% of eligible Black women voters turned out at the polls in 2008 and 2012. That number is

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4 Min
By: Dawn Onley

Here are the easiest and hardest states to vote right now

In a democracy that values widespread participation in the political system, the voting process should be easy and accessible to every eligible citizen. But in the United States, not every state lives up to that ideal. With this year’s Election Day just around the corner, some states have taken

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6 Min
By: Carolyn Copeland

Activists outraged after interim appointment undermines open race for SF District Attorney

With no incumbent on the ballot for the first time in more than a century, San Francisco voters were living through an open race to elect their district attorney. That changed last week when incumbent District Attorney George Gascon announced his premature resignation. Shortly after, Mayor London Breed announced her

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3 Min
By: Alexandra Arriaga

Showing 12 of 796 total posts

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