• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • 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

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Our shared humanity and collective responsibility

Jenn Hoos Rothberg

The conservative mind at 70

Michael Lucchese

Fulcrum Rewind: How to get along at Thanksgiving

Debilyn Molineaux
David L. Nevins

How reforming felony murder laws can reduce juvenile justice harms

Margaret Mikulski

What if neither party can govern?

John Opdycke

The case for the 4th, from a part-time American

Flora Roy
latest News

Are state governments ready for today’s unique challenges?

Kevin Frazier
01 December

2024 caucus-primary and general elections controlled by extremists

Steve Corbin
01 December

A crisis creates clarity for donors

Jack Miller
01 December

Generative AI and its rapid incorporation into advertising

Madelyn Sanfilippo
01 December

Don’t soundproof your heart

Tim Shriver
30 November

A new case for electoral reform

Reinhold Ernst
30 November
Videos
Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Our Staff
Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Our Staff
Video: The power of young voices

Video: The power of young voices

Our Staff
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Dr. F Willis Johnson in rich conversation with Steve Lawler

Lennon Wesley III
29 November

Podcast: Dr. F. Willis Johnson in a rich conversation with Patrick McNeal

Our Staff
14 November

Podcast: Better choices, better elections

Our Staff
23 October

Podcast: Are state legislators really accountable to their voters?

Our Staff
06 October
Recommended
Are state governments ready for today’s unique challenges?

Are state governments ready for today’s unique challenges?

State
2024 caucus-primary and general elections controlled by extremists

2024 caucus-primary and general elections controlled by extremists

Elections
A crisis creates clarity for donors

A crisis creates clarity for donors

Big Picture
Generative AI and its rapid incorporation into advertising

Generative AI and its rapid incorporation into advertising

Technology
Don’t soundproof your heart

Don’t soundproof your heart

Big Picture
Our shared humanity and collective responsibility

Our shared humanity and collective responsibility

Big Picture