Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

600 miles, 50 days, 2 feet: A journey to fix America’s democracy

600 miles, 50 days, 2 feet: A journey to fix America’s democracy

Renaldo Pearson began his 600-mile trek in Atlanta on Aug. 6, the 54th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

RepresentUs

Renaldo Pearson is on a long-distance walk — at least that's what he tells the friendly folks in the southeast who stop to offer him a ride.

As much as his bruised feet and sunburned skin would appreciate the relief, he politely declines each offer. The ground rules for this mission to fix America's broken democracy are simple: Keep walking and invite others to join the journey.

Two weeks ago, on the 54th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Pearson laced up his waterproof Adidas Terrex sneakers and set out from Atlanta. On Monday, he crossed the border into North Carolina and his 50-day journey will end, more than 600 miles later, in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24 — National Voter Registration Day.

Upon arrival, Pearson pledges to remain on the steps of the Capitol until all the presidential candidates promise to make democracy reform a priority or the Senate passes HR 1 (or another bill that includes reforms to expand voting rights, make elections safe and competitive and end political corruption).


Pearson has financial backing for this campaign. He was inspired to take action after seeing this Washington Post headline so he connected with RepresentUs. The reform group hired him to be director of external affairs in June, and they set about planning the Democracy 911 campaign.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter


There is a RepresentUs team following Pearson to make sure he takes breaks and remains hydrated. And they help arrange lodging, whether at the home of a supporter or a hotel along the way.

Others are welcome to join Pearson on the road for as long as they'd like. (The route is posted in week-long chunks on the Democracy 911 website.) He hopes most people will join him toward the end for his nonviolent demonstration at the Capitol.

The Democratic-led House passed HR 1 in March, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been adamantly against the legislation, barring any consideration of it in his chamber. And while some presidential candidates have called for government reform, the debates lacked serious promises from the Democratic hopefuls, Renaldo said.

"Folks might look at this [walk] and say, 'That is crazy' — and they're right," Pearson said with a laugh. "But fortunately, this is what falls in the realm of what legendary civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery would call 'good crazy.'"

"Bad crazy," according to Pearson, are the elected officials who caused the political system to become so deficient. He said this walk to Washington is his way of calling for help.

"I just happen to be crazy enough to believe that enough Americans will answer this 9-1-1 call to fix American democracy before it is too late," he said.

As one of the lead Democracy Spring organizers three years ago, Pearson is not a newcomer to the fight for reform. In 2016, hundreds of people peacefully protested on the Capitol's steps to get big money out of politics and end voter suppression. Next month, he's hoping for a similar outcome.

Pearson's not the first to walk a long distance in the name of democracy reform, though. On New Year's Day 1999, the late Doris "Granny D" Haddock at age 88 began her 3,200-mile trek from California to D.C., calling for campaign finance reform. Haddock celebrated two birthdays during her journey, became a media darling and eventually ran for Senate in 2004.

Addressing America's existential threats of gun violence and climate change — in addition to many other important issues — "rests upon the assumption that we have a functional democracy that is devoid of enough corruption to heed the public interest and solve these issues before they literally kill us," Pearson said.

"I am not the least bit sanguine about having to do this," he said. "It does not bring me satisfying joy to be drawn to this point, but this is where we are."

As he walks with aching feet in the late summer heat, deterring unfriendly dogs with pepper spray, Pearson holds one thing in mind to push himself forward: his family who fought for justice in the civil rights movement.

"They endured so much more and had so much less. This is definitely tough, but it pales in comparison to what they faced," Pearson said. "As Coretta Scott King said, 'Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.' It's our time now."

Read More

"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
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
One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

A roll of "voted" stickers.

Pexels, Element5 Digital

One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

The analysis and parsing of learned lessons from the 2024 elections will continue for a long time. What did the campaigns do right and wrong? What policies will emerge from the new arrangements of power? What do the parties need to do for the future?

An equally important question is what lessons are there for our democratic structures and processes. One positive lesson is that voting itself was almost universally smooth and effective; we should applaud the election officials who made that happen. But, many elements of the 2024 elections are deeply challenging, from the increasingly outsized role of billionaires in the process to the onslaught of misinformation and disinformation.

Keep ReadingShow less
MERGER: The Organization that Brought Ranked Choice Voting and Ended SuperPACs in Maine Joins California’s Nonpartisan Primary Pioneers

A check mark and hands.

Photo by Allison Saeng on Unsplash. Unsplash+ License obtained by the author.

MERGER: The Organization that Brought Ranked Choice Voting and Ended SuperPACs in Maine Joins California’s Nonpartisan Primary Pioneers

Originally published by Independent Voter News.

Today, I am proud to share an exciting milestone in my journey as an advocate for democracy and electoral reform.

Keep ReadingShow less