The State-Level Battle for Democracy

Report from the Front Lines: From Missouri to Massachusetts

What a week!

I was honored to meet with—in person and virtually—so many patriotic Americans who are fighting to protect democracy.

I’ll share some of what I saw and learned along the way.

I hope it inspires you as it did me.

Massachusetts

On the day I arrived in Boston, several grassroots groups I’ve worked with over the past year (Indivisible Mass Coalition and Act On Mass) conducted their “Lobby Day” at the statehouse to push their priorities for Massachusetts —including same-day voter registration.

I wrote about this at length HERE, but the lesson is: we need to advocate for democracy and pro-voter reforms in all states. And we should ensure that “blue states” all live up to their potential of being “Laboratories of Democracy.”

That evening, I spoke to a group called “Belmont for Democracy.” Although many members are Democrats by party affiliation, the group’s leaders explained to me that the reason they named themselves “Belmont for Democracy” is because they want to attract more than just members of one party to their cause of advancing democracy. And they operate the same way.

We had a great conversation, and they also used the meeting to lay out their plan for advancing democracy for the year.

At the end of the meeting, I talked to several guests about the best-in-class model of the States Project, where “Giving Circles” of activists from one part of the country (largely the blue states) adopt and raise support for statehouse candidates in a state where we an either gain or retain power in a statehouse (examples: Arizona, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania). After our discussion, those I spoke to are now aiming to do just that for this year, and are already getting organized.

To learn more about the States Project, send me an email at davidpepper4ohio@gmail.com

Connecticut

Traveling New England in January

I wrote here about my Wednesday visit to Yale (both law school and college), and the discussions I had with the students there about the powerful roles they—and campuses—can play to lift democracy.

In addition to everything else we discussed, I’m hoping they too will “adopt” a statehouse to win in 2024.

I also caught up with my good friend Asha Rangappa—a lawyer, former FBI special agent, and one of the leading voices on democracy and security in the nation. I learn from her on a near daily basis. Her newsletter—The Freedom Academy—is a must-follow.

Wisconsin

Wednesday evening, I caught up with activists from Waukesha County, Wisconsin.

As I summarized a few weeks back, no state had a better year from a democracy standpoint than Wisconsin—where they flipped the Supreme Court majority in April, which then struck down one of the nation’s worst gerrymandered district maps late last year.

Waukesha County, on the outskirts of Milwaukee, played an important role in his victory. Traditionally red, it turned blue in that April Supreme Court election.

Despite the gerrymandered legislature doing all it can to maintain its illegal gerrymander, the group expressed confidence that the Court will hold firm and impose a new, unrigged map in time for this year’s elections.

New York

Both on a call (Monday) and in person (Thursday) I caught up with activists who are already (the group Monday) and considering (Thursday) adopting a statehouse to help in 2024.

In the near-term, they are also doing all they can to ensure that we replace George Santos in the House with Democrat Tom Suozzi.  That election is coming up! More broadly, the path to retaking the House majority runs through New York in 2024.

Along those lines, I’ll be speaking on a zoom call tomorrow (4 p.m.) about the overall effort to help Suozzi. You can join us, hear from Tom Suozzi, and find out more about that race here.

Missouri

And on a call with Blue Missouri Thursday night, I experience some deja vu.

On the positive side, they are now moving forward—unified—on a signature-gathering effort to place a referendum on the ballot to protect reproductive freedom and rid the state of the abortion ban in place there.

But as in Ohio in 2023, the gerrymandered Missouri legislature is exploring ways to rig the rules of their referendum process to eliminate majority rule and the core principle of “one person, one vote.” The Missouri legislature may even try to have a special election in August to pass those changes in time to stymie the reproductive freedom amendment.

Sound familiar?

The good news is that we now have strong precedents for how to defeat this anti-democracy nonsense. So I was on the call to share some of what we learned in Ohio last year in 1) protecting our direct democracy process from attack and 2) protecting reproductive freedom.

I assured the group that, as the nation did for Ohio, we will rally with them on these issues! If Ohio can do it, Missouri can as well.

For now, if you want to help in the signature-gathering effort, go HERE.

And to stay up to speed on all happenings in the Show Me State, follow my friend Jess Piper (the Executive Director of Blue Missouri, who hosted the call) here on her Substack page.

See why I’m energized after the end of the week?

And did you notice something about all that I just wrote?

Until this very sentence, I never mentioned the words “Donald Trump.” Although I did see his plane from my window as I left LaGuardia yesterday afternoon (it turns out he had a far worse visit than I did. Good—accountability matters!).

Bottom line: Missouri, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut.

You are on the front lines of democracy.

And rather than demoralizing doom scrolling and poll watching, there is so much work to be done together at the grassroots level—positive, energizing work—that will protect democracy (in-state and beyond), but also keeps your mind and heart in the uplifting place they need to be to be productive and maintain energy.

My Week’s Reading: “Strongman”

Amid all these flights and train rides and visits, I also finished reading the book “Strongman,” written by another friend, Ruth Ben-Ghiat. A true expert on how authoritarians come to power and operate. Subscribe to her newsletter here. (Ruth was the first person I talked to about starting my own newsletter).

I’d quote excerpts from the book, but the truth is, you should just buy it and read the whole thing. The parallels and patterns from past autocrats and what we are seeing today are real and scary. We all need to be aware of them. You will be after reading this book.

But the closing chapter sets the perfect tone of how we overcome the threat:

“Opening the heart to others and viewing them with compassion has time and again led to effective electoral pushback against strongman rule. The Chilean opposition’s “joy is on the way” 1988 campaign…drove Pinochet out of office….

History shows the importance of keeping hope and faith in humanity and of supporting those who struggle for freedom in our own time.”

I read those closing lines from “Strongman” ten minutes before landing back in Cincinnati.

It was the perfect summary of all I experienced this week.

Keep going!