Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories
​U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, sitting behind a desk, appearing for a hearing.

Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick Faces Expulsion Over Pocketing Overpayment

Rolling Back Health Equity Training Requirements in Medical Schools Harms Us All

Rolling Back Health Equity Training Requirements in Medical Schools Harms Us All

Prediction Markets Are Gambling, Despite What They Tell The Government

Prediction Markets Are Gambling, Despite What They Tell The Government

President Trump and U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth standing next to each other at a news conference.

Hegseth, Trump, and the Desecration of the American Military

Naloxone displayed on a table.

Why Is Harm Reduction on the Chopping Block?

FEC begins new chapter with Trainor at the helm

Federal Election Commissioner Chairman Trey Trainor

Three years after being nominated to the FEC, Republican Trey Trainor was finally confirmed by the Senate last month.

Caroline Brehman/Getty Images
Sara Swann
By Sara SwannJun 18, 2020
Sara Swann

As a staff writer, Sara covers a variety of democracy reform issues, including voting rights, money in politics, gerrymandering and civic education. Prior to joining The Fulcrum in May 2019, Sara reported on local government on Maryland's Eastern Shore for the USA Today network. She is a native West Virginian and a graduate of Syracuse University.

See More Writings by author

The Federal Election Commission is back in business with a restored quorum and Republican Trey Trainor at the helm. Now all it needs is unanimity among its partisan commissioners.

Trainor was named chairman during the agency's public meeting on Thursday — its first since August 2019. Each commissioner is only intended to serve as chairman once during their six-year term, and since the other three members have already done so multiple times, the role went to Trainor.

His addition to the agency has not been without criticism. Since Trainor was first nominated to the FEC by President Trump in 2017, Democrats and good-government groupshave been opposed to his confirmation due to his deregulatory approach to campaign finance laws.

"I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse to be the new guy and then be responsible," Trainor said after he was named chairman Thursday.

Over the 262-day period without a quorum, cases piled up on the FEC's docket. At the end of March, the agency reported it had 333 cases pending. Of those, 160 are awaiting a vote from the commission and 90 are approaching the five-year statute of limitations.

But good-government groups have raised concerns about the FEC's ability to get through this huge backlog of cases due to the likelihood of partisan deadlocks. With only four commissioners, unanimous agreement will be required to do anything of consequence. And the addition of Trainor once again creates a partisan split, as he will likely side with fellow conservative Caroline Hunter.

Before joining the FEC, Trainor worked as an attorney in Texas. He also worked for Trump's 2016 campaign and the Texas Republican Party. When serving as the lawyer for a conservative lobbying group, he fought the Texas Ethics Commission over donor disclosure requirements.

Trainor's nomination to the FEC was in limbo for three years until the Senate finally confirmed him on May 19. While his nomination was pending, Commissioner Matthew Petersen resigned, leaving the FEC one member short of a quorum and unable to carry out its watchdog duties.


Latest news

Gerrymandering: The Maps Shaping Power Ahead of the 2026 Midterms
Governance & Legislation

Gerrymandering: The Maps Shaping Power Ahead of the 2026 Midterms

Judge's Gavel Hammer as a Symbol of Law and Order with Processor CPU AI Chip.
Media & Technology

xAI Pushes Free Speech Theory Into New AI Lawsuits

Democracy Requires Losing. Americans Are Forgetting That.
Democracy

Democracy Requires Losing. Americans Are Forgetting That.

Read More

Official ballots with a chain and lock over them, and the USA flag behind them.

The impact of election fraud claims and voting laws on democracy in the United States. Daniel O. Jamison examines voter suppression concerns, mail-in ballot policies, and the broader political struggle over election integrity.

Getty Images, JJ Gouin

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

For nearly ten years, claims that our elections are riddled with fraud have threatened the foundation of our democratic republic.

It is alleged that Democrats have flooded the country with illegal immigrants who then illegally vote for Democrats. Purportedly to protect the country from this, Republicans seek legislation that would, among other provisions, restrict vote-by-mail, require potentially expensive and onerous proof of citizenship to register to vote, and require potentially expensive photo identification to vote.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Fahey Q&A with Elizabeth Rasmussen

An in-depth interview with Elizabeth Rasmussen of Better Boundaries on Utah’s redistricting battle, Proposition 4, and the fight to protect ballot initiatives, fair maps, and democratic accountability.

The Fahey Q&A with Elizabeth Rasmussen

Since organizing the Voters Not Politicians 2018 ballot initiative that put citizens in charge of drawing Michigan's legislative maps, Fahey has been the founding executive director of The People, which is forming statewide networks to promote government accountability. She regularly interviews colleagues in the world of democracy reform for The Fulcrum.

Elizabeth Rasmussen is the Executive Director for Better Boundaries, a Utah-based organization fighting for fair maps, defending the citizen initiative process, preserving checks and balances, and building a better future. Currently making headlines in the state, Better Boundaries is working to protect Proposition 4, and with it, the rights of Utah voters.

Keep ReadingShow less
A sign that reads, "Voter Registration," hanging from the cieling, pointing to an office with the words, "Voter registration," above its doorway.

The voter registration office at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas on Sept. 11, 2024. Voting rights groups are challenging the state's use of a federal database to check the citizenship status of people on the state's voter roll.

Gabriel Cárdenas for Votebeat

Voting Rights Groups Challenge Texas’ Removal of Potential Noncitizens From the Voter Roll

What happened?

Voting rights groups are suing the Texas Secretary of State’s Office and some county election officials to prevent the removal of voters from the state’s voter roll based on use of a federal database to verify citizenship. They also claim the state failed to crosscheck its own records for proof of citizenship it already possessed before seeking to remove voters.

Keep ReadingShow less
People at voting booths, casing their votes in front of a mural depicting the American flag, a bald eagle flying, and children holding hands in the foreground.

Virginia voters cast their ballots at Robius Elementary School November 4, 2025 in Midlothian, Virginia.

Getty Images, Win McNamee

Fixing Broken Systems: America’s Path Beyond Polarization

"A bad system will beat a good person every time" is a famous quote by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the American statistician most often credited with the Japanese economic miracle after WWII. Even talented, hardworking people cannot overcome a flawed, dysfunctional, or unfair system, making system improvement more crucial than solely blaming individuals for failures.

Fixing “bad systems” is viewed by political scientists and reform organizations as the primary path to reducing America’s political dysfunction. Current systemic structures often create "misaligned incentives" that reward extreme partisanship and obstruction rather than governance. The most prominent electoral system reforms proposed by experts include:

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026