RepresentUs Education Fund

We promote reforms that will give voters more choices in elections, make the voting process more fair and accessible, modernize election administration, and educate the public about the integrity of the election process to restore public trust in our elections.

We seek to change the way political campaigns are funded so that the voices of all Americans can be heard and not just the voices of those of the wealthy, professional lobbyists and corporations.

We are determined to make our government more transparent, accountable and ethical on all levels. We work with partners to advocate for policies and regulations that that will reduce corruption in the policy making process by limiting the power of lobbyists and big donors.

The right to vote is under attack in America. More than 350 policy changes that would make it more difficult for people to vote have been introduced on the state-level. RUEF is working with our state partners to educate the public and policy makers about the impact these proposals would have on civic participation, particularly among low income and minority voters.

Political polarization is increasing in America. We are more divided than ever. A major cause of this division is gerrymandering, the process in which a political party draws the boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts to guarantee that a candidate from their party will win that seat. We don’t believe that elected officials should pick their voters, we believe voters should pick their representatives. 

There has been a disturbing trend toward authoritarianism in the U.S. in recent years.  Some of our political leaders have ignored the norms and values that have served as guardrails against corruption for centuries, coerced government officials to subvert the rule of law, and threatened the most important ritual in American democratic life, the expression of the will of the people in a free and fair election. RUEF is working to develop and enact new policies that will prohibit elected officials, particularly the president and others in the executive branch, from abusing their powers.

We believe that democracy reform policy proposals should be based on rigorous, independent, academic research. We also believe that citizen activists should be given the information and resources they need to persuasively communicate about often complex policies. The RUEF bridges the gap between research, policy development and grassroots advocacy about democracy reform. We develop evidence-based policy solutions and communicate about those solutions with concise but thorough resources such as issue briefs, fact sheets and advocacy guides in a wide range of print and digital formats.

The RUEF builds, sustains and enhances the policy advocacy capacity of the democracy reform movement on the state and local level. Our Campaign Accelerator is a national model for seeding and supporting new and early-stage democracy reform campaigns. To date, the Accelerator has delivered high-quality, locally branded political, policy, legal, design, communications, digital, and grassroots support, and has helped secure 124 victories.

We aim to recruit millions of conservatives, independents, and progressives into the movement for democracy reform through our Campaign Connector program. We educate and mobilize Americans and connect them to active campaigns across the nation. The Connector produces creative and innovative public-education content to complement the Accelerator campaigns. Our annual conference, the American Democracy Summit is the largest gathering of democracy reform advocates in the country.

With the support of a diverse and growing network of celebrity supporters on our Cultural Council and an influential and actively involved Board of Directors (both listed here) we have built an unparalleled digital outreach campaign on the web and through social media. No organization in the country is better positioned to use the powerful tools of digital organizing to build the movement to save our democracy.

Our Policy, Political and Movement teams provide guidance to dozens of partners and thousands of citizen activists to help them design and implement strategic, targeted and successful public education and advocacy campaigns in their states and communities.

With the support of donors, the RUEF undertakes special projects. These have included “Count Every Hero” a nonpartisan initiative to ensure that active-duty service members can exercise their right to vote; and “Vote Safe” which brought together election officials and former elected officials from across the political spectrum to set the record straight on safe, secure mail-in voting, and fight for accessible in-person voting options for 2020 and beyond.