Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories

Podcast: Reclaiming rural power

Podcast: Reclaiming rural power

Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward are the co-authors of Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why our Future Depends on It. This episode's discussion focuses on the importance of winning rural races in America.

When Chloe ran for office in rural Maine, she knocked on over 20,000 doors and discovered that constituents feel a lack of representation in their daily lives. Democrats really stopped showing up and investing in strong organizing infrastructure in rural places, but it's possible to turn things around. There's a huge opportunity to organize in small towns and places that have been overlooked–and not at the expense of urban efforts. A key ingredient is to focus on what we have in common and connecting on those values levels.


Listen.


Read More

White marble exterior of the United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building, is the home of the United States Congress and the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government

This week's congressional agenda includes anti-fraud legislation, ICE funding, FISA Section 702 renewal debates, and major committee hearings.

Richard Sharrocks / Getty Images

Fraud, Funding, and FISA

Fraud

This week in the House is Fraud Week based on the large number of bills likely to receive a vote that in some way are intended to decrease or eliminate many different kinds of fraud. Example bills up for a vote include:

Funding

One bill will likely become law this week if it passes the House:

Keep ReadingShow less
Anti-gerrymandering sign

Florida's new congressional map, the Supreme Court's Callais decision, and challenges to voting rights protections raise urgent questions about redistricting, representation, and democratic accountability.

Bill Clark/Getty Images

Florida’s New Map and the Shrinking Window for Accountability

When the Lines Began Moving Faster Than the Law

On May 4, Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s new congressional map into law. The Legislature had passed it five days earlier, 83 to 28 in the House and 21 to 17 in the Senate. The map redraws four districts in ways that election analysts project would shift them from competitive or Democratic-leaning to safe Republican, potentially expanding a delegation Republicans already control 20 to 8.

The same day the Legislature voted, the Supreme Court decided Louisiana v. Callais. The Court ruled 6 to 3 that Louisiana’s majority-minority district could not survive Equal Protection scrutiny under the standards applied by the majority. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the ruling “renders Section 2 all but a dead letter” in redistricting.

Keep ReadingShow less
How America Redraws Belonging
woman with US American flag on her shoulders
Photo by Josh Johnson on Unsplash

How America Redraws Belonging

America has always redrawn the boundaries of belonging.

What counts as "us" has never been fixed. The lines have shifted over time, sometimes slowly and sometimes painfully, but they have always shifted.

Keep ReadingShow less
Illustration of Sojourner Truth after a Photograph

Portrait of Sojourner Truth (ca. 1797-1883), leader of the Underground Railroad.

Bettmann / Getty Images

Sojourner’s Truth

As the United States prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of its founding later this summer, there will be extensive celebration and reflection about our democracy and the values it embodies. But the 250th is not the only anniversary that should capture our attention. Indeed, our nation’s story is an evolution of moments built over time.

One of these building blocks occurred 175 years ago, in 1851, during the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. There, on May 29th, Sojourner Truth delivered a legendary speech that called on attendees to reject the racial and gender biases used to limit her place in society and to defy a status quo that devalued her as a Black woman and treated her as invisible and expendable. Her speech is worthy of reflection today because it reveals an important story about how different people experience our democracy — and that story should inform how we build a more inclusive vision for our future.

Keep ReadingShow less