On May 3rd, MAP President and CEO Layla Zaidane participated in a virtual panel discussion at the third National Citizen Leadership Conference (NCLC). The five-day long summit, hosted by American Promise, convened some of the nation’s leading organizations and individuals working to reform our democracy by improving citizen representation and eliminating the harmful influence of big money in politics.
The session, entitled “America 2026: The Reforms That Will Renew America & Secure Government of the People for the 21st Century” brought together several leading voices for electoral reform and political bridge-building in a discussion about empowering voters, diminishing destructive partisanship, and renewing civic engagement. The conversation was moderated by American Promise’s founder and CEO Jeff Clements. In addition to Layla, the panelists included:
Cheryl Crawford, Executive Director of voting rights organization MassVOTE
Scott Kendall, attorney and author of Alaskans For Better Elections’ Ballot Measure 2
Debilyn Molineaux, President and CEO of Bridge Alliance, a national association of nonpartisan reform organizations
Jeff began the conversation with an assessment of our current politics and the historical moments that have produced meaningful reforms to American democracy. He emphasized the importance of constitutional amendments, such as American Promise’s proposed 28th Amendment, which would empower Congress and states to limit campaign spending.
Cheryl described MassVOTE’s work to improve ballot access and citizen representation in Massachusetts. She outlined dual movements toward vote by mail and ranked choice voting (RCV) that are sweeping the nation and improving the relationship between citizens and their governments. Vote by mail has expanded significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, with eight states and D.C. now automatically sending all voters their ballots in the mail. Similarly, RCV has gained support nationwide, with two states, 17 major cities, and many localities implementing the practice. This voting system, Cheryl explained, decreases hyper-partisanship, enables third parties to truly compete in elections, and allows citizens to vote based on their actual preferences.
Scott continued the conversation about electoral reform, providing an in-depth explanation of his experience authoring and campaigning for Alaska Ballot Measure 2. Approved by voters in 2020, this measure replaces partisan primaries with open top-four primaries, implements RCV for general elections, and requires campaign donors to disclose their funding sources. He emphasized the importance of changing our political incentive structures if we are to meaningfully reform our systems of representation. Structural changes like those in Ballot Measure 2, he argued, incentivize politicians to build cross-partisan coalitions and engage in constructive discourse, while allowing voters to more meaningfully engage in the political process.
Debilyn took up the subjects of citizen representation, political culture, and policymaking from the bird’s eye perspective of Bridge Alliance. Her organization, she explained, views our politics as a system of interlocking players in government and civil society, each of which is vital for a healthy democracy.
The Millennial Action Project stands at the intersection of several of these elements of our democratic system, working to build a collaborative, cross-partisan political narrative and help young lawmakers develop innovative policy solutions. Layla explained how MAP’s Future Caucuses provides the youngest generations of legislators with a forum to build bipartisan trust and practice the policymaking cooperation we need to solve the problems facing future generations. As an example, she described how the Mississippi Future Caucus was able to remove Confederate iconography from their state flag. When the caucus first formed, many legislators were unwilling to address the issue for fear of electoral losses. However, after several years of working together and practicing collaboration on other issues, Future Caucus lawmakers from both parties threw their unanimous support behind the reform.
Layla summed up the value of collaborative policymaking: “Compromise isn’t about watering down to create something everyone hates, it’s about taking the best aspects of different solutions to build something that no one group would have come up with. There’s a lot of good ideas from both sides of the aisle. If we are going to create something that is really bold and innovative, we need to be talking to as many people as possible.”