Unrigging the Rules for the Rising American Electorate
Presented in partnership with the Bay Area Book Festival, David Daley and Steve Phillips how changing voter engagement shapes US politics in conversation with Rebecca Nagle. Watch the event online.
Who holds America’s future in their hands? Who has the potential to dramatically reshape our political landscape, just by exercising the right to vote? The past few years have seen an exciting infusion of political engagement from a diverse electorate as young people, people of color, and single women are mobilizing and making their voices heard. For every victory and milestone, however, there is an equally coordinated—if insidious—attempt to disenfranchise these citizens from turning out to vote. From polling station closures to gerrymandering, from voter ID laws to the purging of voter rolls, suppressive tactics are deliberate, methodical, and ubiquitous.
We’ll learn how to unrig the rules to ensure these rising new voices—and their votes—are counted, with insights from bestselling authorities on voting rights: Steve Phillips, founder of Democracy in Color and author of Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority, and David Daley, author of Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy and the 2016 bestseller Ratf***ed: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count, which has become an urgent reference point for the upcoming post-census round of redistricting. Moderated by indigenous activist and journalist Rebecca Nagle, whose groundbreaking podcast, This Land, won the prestigious American Mosaic Journalism Prize.
David Daley
David Daley is the author of Ratf**ked. His new book, Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy, was praised by Kirkus as "an uplifting story of how grassroots political movements around the nation are forcing significant changes in how our government operates." His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Slate, The Washington Post, and New York Magazine. The former editor of Salon, he is a senior fellow at FairVote and lives in Massachusetts.
Steve Phillips
Steve Phillips is a co-founder of PowerPAC.org, a social justice organization that conducted the largest independent voter mobilization efforts backing Barack Obama, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris. In 2014, he co-authored the first-ever audit of Democratic Party spending. He has appeared on multiple national radio and television networks, and is the author of the New York Times and Washington Post bestseller Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority. He lives in San Francisco.
Rebecca Nagle
Rebecca Nagle is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and a two spirit (queer) woman. Nagle is a community organizer and writer currently living in Tahlequah, OK and studying the Cherokee language. Nagle was recently named one of the National Center American Indian Enterprise Development’s 2016 Native American 40 Under 40 for her work to address violence against Native Women. As the co-founder and co-Director of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture and The Monument Quilt, Nagle organized national art and advocacy projects to create a culture of support for survivors. Nagle was also a co-creator behind the 2017 viral #GoRedhawks culture jam. Her original writing has appeared in Bitch Media, The Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, ThinkProgress, Indian Country Today and more. Nagle’s organizing and advocacy work has received national press including coverage from NBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, NPR and more.