Amid ongoing threats, democracy reform forges ahead in 2021

As we approach RepresentUs’ 10-year anniversary in 2022, I want to celebrate all the work we’ve done and the continued momentum of our anti-corruption movement while also recognizing the severe threats to democracy ahead.

I co-founded RepresentUs — the nation’s largest grassroots anti-corruption organization — in 2012 to fill a glaring gap in the democracy advocacy space. Too many nonprofit groups were directing their efforts solely toward the 25 percent or so of the country who identified as liberal, despite the fact that majorities of Americans of all political stripes support necessary reforms

We came to the conclusion that in order to beat back the corruption that had become normalized in our politics, especially after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that allowed billionaires to buy elections, we had to create an unstoppable cross-partisan coalition of Americans that would force our elected officials to prioritize the issue.

The bulk of RepresentUs’ work focuses on advocating for a wide range of good-government reforms at the local and state levels: ranked-choice voting, open primaries, campaign finance and more. In total, through our Campaign Accelerator program and with the help of countless on-the-ground partners, we’ve pushed through 129 laws and resolutions in cities and states across the country.