Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Democracy reform’s A-listers join the call for voting at a social distance

Jennifer Lawrence
RepresentUs

Voting absentee has officially become the hottest cause for the democracy reform movement during the coronavirus pandemic: The celebrities have weighed in.

The biggest pop culture icon to put her celebrity behind fixing the system, Jennifer Lawrence, started doing so again Wednesday: She launched a social media campaign to promote the virtues of voting-by-mail by sharing a video of herself in her home. At least 10 other celebrities have since joined in the conversation online.


The 29-year-old actress has long been a spokeswoman for one of the most prominent good governance advocacy groups, RepresentUs. It's part of the enormous collection of such organizations pushing for states to ease absentee voting rules for their primaries and the fall election — and to get Congress to help with $2 billion in aid .

"The best thing that we can do to slow the spread of this virus is stay at home, but there's still an election coming up with millions of Americans who have yet to cast their ballot in the 2020 primaries," Lawrence said in her video before directing viewers to RepresentUs' online tool for requesting mail-in ballots.

Jennifer Lawrence: We Need Vote at Home During COVID-19www.youtube.com

For her fans in states that only allow those with specific excuses to vote absentee — generally travel, age or disability — Lawrence urges grassroots lobbying efforts to relax the rules not only during the public health emergency, but indefinitely.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Other celebrities who have started encouraging their large social media followings to vote at home include: reality TV star Khloé Kardashian, pop singer Sia, TV show host Jonathan Scott, anti-bullying activist (and former White House intern) Monica Lewinsky, music producer David Guetta, comedian Sarah Silverman and actors Rita Wilson, Alyssa Milano and Paul Scheer.

The social media posts encourage people to take the #VoteAtHome pledge and tag three friends to keep the trend going. Lawrence called on fellow actress Amy Schumer in her post.

Read More

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

Getty Images, Grace Cary

Stopping the Descent Toward Banana Republic Elections

President Trump’s election-related executive order begins by pointing out practices in Canada, Sweden, Brazil, and elsewhere that outperform the U.S. But it is Trump’s order itself that really demonstrates how far we’ve fallen behind. In none of the countries mentioned, or any other major democracy in the world, would the head of government change election rules by decree, as Trump has tried to do.

Trump is the leader of a political party that will fight for control of Congress in 2026, an election sure to be close, and important to his presidency. The leader of one side in such a competition has no business unilaterally changing its rules—that’s why executive decrees changing elections only happen in tinpot dictatorships, not democracies.

Keep ReadingShow less
"Vote" pin.
Getty Images, William Whitehurst

Most Americans’ Votes Don’t Matter in Deciding Elections

New research from the Unite America Institute confirms a stark reality: Most ballots cast in American elections don’t matter in deciding the outcome. In 2024, just 14% of eligible voters cast a meaningful vote that actually influenced the outcome of a U.S. House race. For state house races, on average across all 50 states, just 13% cast meaningful votes.

“Too many Americans have no real say in their democracy,” said Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano. “Every voter deserves a ballot that not only counts, but that truly matters. We should demand better than ‘elections in name only.’”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hand Placing Ballot in Box With American Flag
Getty Images, monkeybusinessimages

We Can Fix This: Our Politics Really Can Work – These Stories Show How

As American politics polarizes ever further, voters across the political spectrum agree that our current system is not delivering for the American people. Eighty-five percent of Americans feel most elected officials don’t care what people like them think. Eighty-eight percent of them say our political system is broken.

Whether it’s the quality and safety of their kids’ schools, housing affordability and rising homelessness, scarce and pricey healthcare, or any number of other issues that touch Americans’ everyday lives, the lived experience of polarization comes from such problems—and elected officials’ failure to address them.

Keep ReadingShow less
Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump
text
Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump

Donald Trump wasted no time when he returned to the White House. Within hours, he signed over 200 executive orders, rapidly dismantling years of policy and consolidating control with the stroke of a pen. But the frenzy of reversals was only the surface. Beneath it lies a deeper, more troubling transformation: presidential elections have become all-or-nothing battles, where the victor rewrites the rules of government and the loser’s agenda is annihilated.

And it’s not just the orders. Trump’s second term has unleashed sweeping deportations, the purging of federal agencies, and a direct assault on the professional civil service. With the revival of Schedule F, regulatory rollbacks, and the targeting of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, the federal bureaucracy is being rigged to serve partisan ideology. Backing him is a GOP-led Congress, too cowardly—or too complicit—to assert its constitutional authority.

Keep ReadingShow less