He served as Digital Content Director for Senator Amy Klobuchar’s 2020 Presidential Campaign, and prior to that served as Digital Director for Representative Dean Phillips’ first Congressional run.

Aswar’s expertise is in digital strategy, graphic design and video production — he’s looking forward to be an asset to the over 150 members of the DFAD coalition.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) working group was formed by the Campaign Committee to analyze the coalition’s diversity in both membership and leadership, and to make recommendations for improvement where needed. It is critical that our coalition includes the voices of all Americans, especially those in Black and Brown communities who are often the most negatively impacted by our broken political system. These perspectives are needed in order for the Declaration to achieve its mission of passing truly transformative democracy reform. This subcommittee will work to ensure that all coalition partners feel comfortable participating and taking leadership roles within the coalition, and that our strategies and messaging are reflective of the diversity of our membership. 

Chair

• Ria Thompson-Washington, National Democracy Manager – CPD: rthompsonwashington@populardemocracy.org  
• Isaiah Wilson, Senior Legislative Manager – SEIU: isaiah.wilson@seiu.org 

The Grassroots working group manages the coalition’s grassroots mobilization and strategies for advancing democracy reform. The team utilizes a variety of tactics, including netroots, phone calls, petition delivery, and in state events. Its goal is to demonstrate the overwhelming grassroots support for sweeping democracy reform, and to channel that energy into efforts to influence key decision makers to prioritize passing HR1 in the new Congress.

The Grassroots working group works closely with the Hill team to influence federal targets. Tactics include holding in-district (virtual) meetings, national days of action, rallies to demonstrate the broad support for democracy reform (virtual) or social distance compliant mobilizations, and putting the focus on democracy reform in key races to make it clear that this issue brings people to the polls. 

This group meets every Wednesday from 12-1pm est.

Co-Chairs

• Rio Tazewell, Senior Campaigns Manager – PFAW: rtazewell@pfaw.org 
• Aquene Freechild, Co-Director Democracy is for People Campaign – Public Citizen: Afreechild@citizen.org 
• Christine Wood, Field Coordinator – DFAD/Public Citizen: cwood@citizen.org
• Reginald Thedford, Deputy Political Director  – Stand Up America: reggie@standupamerica.com 

The Hill/Legislative team develops and implements outreach strategies to members of Congress, with the aim of educating them about the critical importance of bold reforms to strengthen our democracy, often through meetings and briefings. This working group’s objectives include building support among lawmakers for key pieces of federal legislation, including the For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and statehood for Washington, D.C. The team meets on a monthly basis, or more as needed.

Co-Chairs

• Aaron Scherb, Director of Legislative Affairs Program – Common Cause: AScherb@commoncause.org 
• Mike Sozan, Senior Fellow – Center for American Progress: Michael Sozan msozan@americanprogress.org 
• Kadeem Cooper, Policy Counsel for the Public Policy Project, Lawyer’s Committee :kcooper@lawyerscommittee.org

The policy team developed our comprehensive list of democracy solutions based on the coalition’s Democracy Demands. Many of these policies were ultimately included in the For the People Act (HR1/S1). The Policy working group focused on expanding the knowledge of coalition members, allies, and the general public on HR1/S1 by developing coalition explainers, one-pagers, reports, and other resources needed to advance transformative democracy reform. The working group drafted a set of recommended executive orders on democracy reform and shared those with the Biden administration to encourage them to implement those measures as we simultaneously push Congress to pass sweeping democracy reforms. The team meets as needed.

Co-Chairs

• Jen Ahearn, Policy Director – CREW: jahearn@citizensforethics.org 
• Aaron Scherb, Director of Legislative Affairs Program – Common Cause: AScherb@commoncause.org

The Communications Working Group provides messaging guidance and materials to the coalition, aids coalition partners in their communications efforts, and works at both the national and state levels to advance our priorities. Its main objective is to elevate democracy reform issues and educate the public about the policy proposals in the For the People Act, John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and other legislation supported by the coalition.

The working group also conducts rapid response efforts around the news of the day that is relevant to advancing a pro-democracy narrative, employs story-telling tactics to amplify how Americans have been negatively impacted by deliberate barriers to participating, influences news stories and editorial boards, and helps coalition partners to place high-profile thought pieces.

The comms team meets every week on Thursday from 2-3pm EST.

Chair
Spencer Olson, Associate Director for Democracy – ReThink Media: spencer@rethinkmedia.org

During the 2020 election, this group was focused on creating a ‘democracy arms race’ amongst presidential candidates and ensuring that democracy reform was the number one priority of the next administration. Activities included sending letters to the DNC urging a democracy focused debate, pressuring moderators to #AskAboutDemocracy during the debates, and holding meetings with all of the candidates to push them to prioritize democracy reform.

The Working Group is now regularly engaging with the Biden administration to encourage them to implement strong executive branch democracy policy, as well as engaging them around ongoing vocal communications in support of The For the People Act (S1/HR1).

This group meets monthly an as needed basis and conducts mainly C4 work.

Co-Chairs

• Adam Smith, Strategic Partnerships Director – ECU: adamsmith@endcitizensunited.org 
• Lisa Gilbert, Executive Vice President – Public Citizen: lgilbert@citizen.org

This group will work in 2021 to firm up support for the small donor, public matching funds system contained in H.R. 1 and S. 1 with targeted members of the House and Senate who have supported these bills in this Congress, as well as new members of CongressThe group also develops background materials to use in educating the public and opinion makers, and targeted Members and candidates on the critical importance of the small donor-based financing system to combating big money in American politics.

Co-Chairs

• Fred Wertheimer, President, D21: fwertheimer@democracy21.org
• Matt Keller, Vice President, D21: mkeller@democracy21.org
• Celina Stewart, Senior Director of Advocacy and Litigation, LWV: cstewart@lwv.org 

• Automatic Voter Registration and Online Voter Registration: Enacts an automatic voter registration system for each state through the state’s motor vehicle agency and ensures voters in all states have access to online voter registration.
• Election Day Holiday: Makes Election Day a public holiday.
• Uniform Early Voting: Ensures voters have access to at least 15 consecutive days of early voting for federal elections, including two weekends, while accommodating small election jurisdictions and vote-by-mail jurisdictions.
• Same Day Voter Registration: Ensures every state offers same day registration at a limited number of locations for the 2022 elections and at all polling locations by 2024, allowing election officials, especially in rural areas, time to implement the new requirements.
• Federal Minimum Standards on Vote by Mail and Drop Boxes: Ensures all voters can request a mail-in ballot, improves the delivery of election mail, and puts in place minimum standards to ensure drop boxes are available and accessible to all voters.
• Strengthens Voter List Maintenance Standards: Requires that the removal of voters from the rolls is done on the basis of reliable and objective evidence and prohibits the use of returned mail sent by third parties to remove voters.
• Counting of Provisional Ballots: Requires provisional ballots to count for all eligible races within a county, regardless of the precinct they were cast in.
• Standards for Voter Identification: Promotes voter confidence and access by requiring a uniform national standard for states that requires identification for in-person voting, and allowing voters to present a broad set of identification cards and documents in hard copy and digital form.
• Voting Rights Restoration for Returning Citizens: Restores the right to vote in federal elections for people who have served their time for felony convictions after they are released from prison.
• Expanded Voting Access Protections for the Disabled, Native Americans, Military, Overseas Voters, and Underserved Communities: Includes targeted protections to promote accessible voting to communities facing unique challenges.

• Bans Partisan Gerrymandering: Prevents states from adopting congressional maps that unduly favor a political party. Maps will be measured against concrete numerical thresholds for each state, created by political scientists using quantitative metrics of partisan fairness. Courts will also be able to look broadly at the maps and mapmakers’ intent to determine whether they are unduly favoring a political party.
• Strengthens Protections for Communities of Color: By bolstering Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, requiring districts be drawn to represent communities of interest, including communities that share racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Requires States to Adopt Transparent and Fair Processes for Maps: Allows states to enact redistricting plans using their legislature, a commission, or any other entity — provided they hold public hearings, accept public input, adhere to transparency requirements, and explain how final plans adhere to the Voting Rights Act and the ban on partisan gerrymandering.
• Takes Effect Immediately and Applies to All 2022 Maps: Prevents any unfair maps ahead of the 2022 elections, and courts may not allow an illegal map to be used simply because an election is imminent. Any resident may sue their state in federal court for violating the redistricting provisions, and if the court finds the law has been violated, it may either draw a new map or require the state to redraw its map.

• Combatting Secret Money and Election Interference (DISCLOSE Act and Honest Ads Act): Requires super PACs, 501(c)(4) groups, and other organizations spending money in elections to disclose donors and shuts down the use of transfers between organizations to cloak the identity of contributors. Ensures that political ads sold online have the same transparency and disclosure requirements as ads sold on TV, radio, and satellite.
• State Election Assistance & Innovation Fund: Establishes a self-sustaining fund to finance critical investments in state-led innovations for our democracy and election infrastructure. The fund is financed through an additional assessment paid on federal fines, penalties, and settlements for certain tax crimes and corporate malfeasance. States would be allotted an annual distribution for eligible democracy and election-related investments. States could select to access their full distribution or a partial distribution, or roll over their distribution for future use.
• Nonpartisan Oversight of Federal Election Law: Improves the ability of the Federal Election Commission to carry out oversight and enforcement responsibilities.
• Stopping Illicit Super PAC Coordination: Creates “coordinated spender” category to ensure single-candidate super PACs do not operate as arms of campaigns.

• Preventing State Election Subversion: Establishes federal protections to insulate nonpartisan state and local officials who administer federal elections from undue partisan interference or control.
• Protection of Election Records, Election Infrastructure, and Ballot Tabulation: Strengthens protections for federal election records and election infrastructure in order to protect the integrity and security of ballots and voting systems.
• Voter-Verified Paper Ballots, Reliable Audits, and Voting System Upgrades: Requires states to use voting systems that use paper ballots that can be verified by voters and to implement reliable post-election audits. Also provides grants for states to purchase new and more secure voting systems and make cybersecurity improvements.
• Non-Partisan Election Official Recruitment and Training: Tasks the Election Assistance Commission with developing model training programs to recruit a new generation of election workers and provides dedicated grants for training and recruitment.
• Comprehensive Voting System Security Protections: Puts in place election vendor cybersecurity standards, including standards for manufacturing and assembling voting machines, among other key security measures.
• Establishing Duty to Report Foreign Election Interference: Creates a reporting requirement for federal campaigns to disclose certain foreign contacts.