In 2022 RepresentUs refocused its efforts on its core strategy.

The first thing to know about RepresentUs’ strategy is that our political and governing dysfunctions are caused by structural problems in our political system that incentivize poor behavior by politicians.

First, did you know that in 2022, 8.5% of voters elected 83% of Congress? That is because political parties use low turnout closed primaries to determine the candidates on the ballot and gerrymandering to ensure that whoever wins the primary wins the general election. Second, candidates spend nearly all of their time raising money. People with money have too much influence and regular people have almost no influence.

The second thing to know is that we can change the structural problems by passing laws at the state level. When the laws are passed in enough states, national reform follows. This is the model of change that passed women’s suffrage and marriage equality, to name two examples. RepresentUs’ strategy builds political power by passing laws city by city, building momentum to pass laws state by state, driving national change.

The third thing to know about RepresentUs’ strategy is that there are three laws we need to pass in every state. These three laws will change the structure enough that the government will start working for the people again. The three laws are:

• Final Five Voting: Open primaries with the top five primary winners competing in the general election using ranked choice voting. You may have heard of this as it is the system RepresentUs helped pass in Alaska and was used this year for the first time. It has already started reducing hyper-partisanship by allowing AK Senator Lisa Murkowski to act independently of party leaders during the impeachment hearings.
• Independent Redistricting Commissions: By removing the politicians from the redistricting process, political gerrymanders can be eliminated. See Michigan as the most recent win and its effect in the 2022 midterms.
• Anti-Corruption Laws: Transparency so voters know who is behind dark money, close the revolving door between public service and lobbying, and public financing of elections.

2022 Key Victories

I know you all know about our dozen policy victories this year. More than any of us thought possible. Here’s a quick reminder of what we accomplished

• We won our Final Five (open primaries + RCV) campaign in Nevada. It needs to win again in 2024 to become law.
• Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Evanston, IL, and Fort Collins, CO said YES to Ranked Choice Voting.
• We passed a tough anti-dark money law in Arizona. Oakland, CA became the second city In America to adopt the democracy dollars program we won in Seattle in 2015.
• We stopped an attack on the ballot initiative process in Arkansas— protecting a key avenue for passing laws.

And that was all on election day! Before that we won 5 legislative victories in 2022: Vote by mail in Rhode Island; Ranked Choice Voting in Hawaii’s special elections; Defended the initiative process in North Dakota; Ranked Choice Voting in Burlington, VT; and protecting the initiative process in Missouri.

The Authoritarian Threat

Has America set the bar too low? Is the level of relief and celebration for ‘successful’ elections appropriate? These are questions that are keeping me up at night.

On one hand, I’m thrilled to see democracy becoming a top issue for voters. I’m of course thrilled at our many successes this year, and relieved that we avoided a worst case scenario.

But 144 election deniers won their offices and the former president is suggesting we abolish the constitution. But we, as reformers and leaders, need to hold a bigger, better version for our country that really pushes the country forward.

On top of that, the corruption at the root of our system continues to prevent real progress on existential issues and decimate our essential freedoms.

We need to get back on offense to rebuild democracy, not just protect it from ever-escalating threats.

Joshua Graham Lynn
CEO and Co-Founder