• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. ranked-choice voting>

Meet the reformer: Khalid Pitts, making a fresh career switch into the fix-the-system world

Our Staff
May 22, 2020
FairVote's Khalid Pitts

Khalid Pitts at the National Press Club is 2018 with his wife, Diane Gross. Their side gig is running a popular wine bar in downtown D.C.

Khalid Pitts

This month Khalid Pitts became executive vice president for policy and programs at FairVote, one of the most visible advocates for more ranked-choice voting, multimember legislative districts and other election system reforms. It's a sharp turn in a diverse two-decade career, most recently with six years at the political consulting firm Democracy Partners. Over the past decade he's also held sometimes overlapping roles during the past decade as the Sierra Club's political director, senior lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union and president of USAction, a coalition of progressive community organizing groups. He remains co-owner of the Cork Wine Bar and Market in Washington, where he's made one run for office — losing a city council race six years ago. His answers have been edited for clarity and length.

What's the tweet-length description of your organization?

FairVote is helping lead the way in opening more access to our democracy, reforming our electoral system and moving us a step closer to our country becoming that more "Perfect Union" we all strive for.


Describe your very first civic engagement.

I worked a mimeograph machine to print campaign flyers for Coleman Young, who was elected the first African-American mayor of Detroit in 1973. Yes, a mimeograph machine. I was very young!

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

What was your biggest professional triumph?

I have a master's degree in public health and serve on the executive board of D.C.'s Health Benefit Exchange, so health care is something extremely important to me. I would have to say the biggest triumph was co-founding and leading HCAN, or Healthcare for America Now, a national coalition that grew in two years to more than 1,000 organizations and played a central role in helping enact the Affordable Care Act a decade ago.

And your most disappointing setback?

I got my start in national politics in 1999 at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and am still working for that goal. The failure by Congress to revive the ban on some assault weapons, which expired 16 years ago, is a travesty. And so is the fact that we still lack a comprehensive national approach to reducing gun violence.

How does your identity influence the way you go about your work?

I am an African-American male and a "girl dad." I have tried to be an active participant in breaking down barriers that unfortunately still surround national policy and political discussions.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

My dad told me many, many years ago that what matters much more than how you say "hello" is how you say "goodbye."

Create a new flavor for Ben & Jerry's.

Michigan Black Cherry. I'm from Detroit and the beauty of the upper part of Michigan's lower peninsula, where many of the state's fabled fruit orchards are, is breathtaking in its natural splendor.

What's your favorite political movie or TV show?

"Do the Right Thing," Spike Lee's classic 1989 film exploring the racial tensions in one Brooklyn neighborhood.

What's the last thing you do on your phone at night?

I have been playing a game called Dragonville with my son, so I check my nesting eggs.

What is your deepest, darkest secret?

I am a closeted — well I guess this means I'm closeted no more — fan of Dungeons and Dragons. So on Saturdays, I play Dungeon Master for my son and his fourth-grader friends.

From Your Site Articles
  • RCV should be a part of the coronavirus elections fix - The Fulcrum ›
  • Ranked-choice voting has momentum and a track record of success ... ›
  • FairVote ›
  • FairVote: millions of votes 'wasted' on also-ran candidates - The ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Meet an at-large D.C. Council candidate: Khalid Pitts - The ... ›
  • Diane Gross & Khalid Pitts | Cork Wine Bar ›
  • Khalid Pitts - Executive VP Policy and Programs FairVote - FairVote ... ›
ranked-choice voting

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow
Contributors

Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Steve Corbin

A dangerous loss of trust

William Natbony

Shifting the narrative on homelessness in America

David L. Nevins

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber
latest News

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Our Staff
17h

Default? Financial crisis? Political theater?

David Butler
17h

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

James-Christian B. Blockwood
31 May

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Mia Minkin
31 May

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Kevin R. Kosar
Elise J. Bean
30 May

Chipping away at election integrity: Virginia joins red state exodus from ERIC

David J. Toscano
30 May
Videos

Video: Why music? Why now?

David L. Nevins

Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirst Friday YOUnify & CPL

Our Staff

Video: What is the toll of racial violence on Black lives?

Our Staff

Video: What's next for migrants seeking asylum after Title 42

Our Staff

Video: An inside look at the campaign to repeal Pennsylvania’s closed primaries

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Our Staff
17h

Podcast: AI revolution: Disaster or great leap forward?

Our Staff
25 May

Podcast: Can we fix America's financial crises?

Our Staff
23 May

Podcast: Gen Z's fight for democracy

Our Staff
22 May
Recommended
Video: Why music? Why now?

Video: Why music? Why now?

Big Picture
Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Technology
Default? Financial crisis? Political theater?

Default? Financial crisis? Political theater?

Budgeting
Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Big Picture
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

State
Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Test Unlisted