Protecting Democracy: Daria Dawson
August 1st, 2024
”Democracy, protecting democracy, expanding on democracy is not just one election.”
Daria Dawson is the Executive Director of America Votes, which coordinates more than 400 partners to engage and mobilize voters for elections up and down the ballot across the country. We discuss why 2024 is - yet again - the most important election of our lifetimes.
The biggest threat to American democracy is fascism and thus the most important issue in this election is preserving our democracy. Of course, democracy and protecting democracy is a process and never just one election. The top priority for America Votes this year is electing leaders who are committed to protecting the foundations of our democratic system, so that our voices can continue to be heard and counted. Every vote matters. Elections have been won or lost on the margins, so it’s imperative that everyone turns out to vote.
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guest: Daria Dawson
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
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Daria Dawson Transcript
Mila Atmos: [00:00:00] Thanks to Shopify for supporting Future Hindsight. Shopify is a platform designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs like us the resources once reserved for big business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/hopeful. All lowercase.
Mila Atmos: [00:00:23] Welcome to Future Hindsight, a podcast that takes big ideas about civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for you and me. I'm Mila Atmos.
It's 2024 and the future of America is in your hands. Democracy is not a spectator sport, so we're here to bring you an independent perspective about the election this year and empower you to change the status quo.
We know that this year is yet again the most important election of our lifetime. And honestly, for what seemed like the longest time, many of us were in a deep funk of voter apathy. After all, it seemed improbable that after 2020, we would have a repeat between Trump and Biden. But the tides have turned. The candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket has injected a veritable tsunami of energy and enthusiasm.
Our guest today is Daria Dawson. She's the executive director of America Votes, which coordinates more than 400 partners to engage and mobilize voters for elections up and down the ballot across the country. And fortuitously for us, Daria also served as the director of strategic engagement for the 2020 presidential campaign of then-Senator Kamala Harris. So, obviously, we'll be discussing how the change of candidates is affecting the ground game.
Welcome, Daria. Thank you for joining us.
Daria Dawson: [00:02:06] Mila, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Mila Atmos: [00:02:12] We spoke to Sarah Schreiber, your predecessor in 2023, in the wake of the victory of Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz in Wisconsin. We
learned a lot about the work of America Votes. But just to set the stage here, remind us what is the origin story of America votes and how has it evolved into the work that you do today?
Daria Dawson: [00:02:34] Thank you so much for leading with that. I came into the role officially in January of this year. I was previously the political director, and Sarah Schreiber actually hired me back in 2019. So here we are. We are at a very exciting moment at America Votes. We are actually celebrating 20 years as an institution, and we were founded in 2004 to essentially bring together the groups that were going to be focusing on the 2004 election. As you could recall, was the re-election of George W Bush. And how can the groups on the progressive side just be more intentional about coordination and combining resources and not duplicating efforts and not talking to the same voters. Let's do this in a smart way. So that was pretty much why America Votes was founded. And of course, it was founded, you know, thinking about the battleground states at the time, as you can imagine, like Ohio and Wisconsin and Michigan and states that are still battleground states. Iowa was one of them. States that are still battleground states today. But over time, the founders of America Votes were those institutions that you're probably familiar with. The choice groups like Planned Parenthood, the labor institutions like AFSCME and SEIU, to again bring together the groups to really be on the same page and be smart about how we spend resources and how we connect with voters. But before America Votes, there was no table, so to speak, where everyone would come together and talk about their plans and think strategically about how to work together and again, not duplicate those resources. So that is the foundation of America Votes, being at a table, being collective, sharing your plans, and essentially and also most importantly, sharing the data, because that is how we are able to track and see who's doing what. Everyone is like, sharing their plans and then sharing the data back, so we can look at it in real time and see who's doing what and making sure like we don't run into each other. Over the years, we have grown to now 13 core states, and those states are Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado. And what we mean by core states is that we have staff in those states year round that are thinking about elections and the electoral cycle all the time. These staffs are campaign professionals and really thinking about what is needed to win every election, not just the top of the ticket, but all the way down when when needed. County commissioners sometimes. And how do we think about the long term planning to when
this cycle and the next cycle? And right now, ironically, you have some of our team even thinking about spring of 2025 because guess what, there's another Supreme Court election in Wisconsin in 2025. So we have staff in those states that are really thinking about the electoral calendar from year to year, and not every four years, because, as you said, like this is the most important election of our time. But so was the last election and so was the next election. Right. Because democracy and protecting democracy is a process. It is never one election and everything's good and gravy. Right? That's how we move forward, by continuing to move the ball and really also trying to prevent the regression that happens when non pro-democracy candidates or elected officials are in office. So the core states we have staff that are there year round thinking through those plans and strategies of how do we win? Who is it that we talk to and how do we talk to them, and how often do we talk to them, and how do we work with our partners to make sure that the right messengers are talking to the right set of voters? Because what's also unique about our coalition, aka table, is that it's organizations that aren't elected officials. Our movement has as an advantage of organizations who are able to message to voters and build those brands within the communities that people actually trust. You know, the groups that are focused on Black civic engagement or Latino or AAPI civic engagement, those that are focused on choice, on the climate, those that build the relationships with youth voters, those that are building those relationships on college campuses. They have the ability to talk to those voters in a way that candidates can't. So that's an advantage of, like working with the coalition and groups wanting to be in the coalition and utilizing America Votes to basically help them set the strategy of the who, what, when and how.
Mila Atmos: [00:07:11] Thanks for giving us this overview. I mentioned in the intro that this is the most important election in our lifetime, and I think Americans across the spectrum agree that this is true. So what are the threats that American democracy is facing today?
Daria Dawson: [00:07:27] The biggest threat is fascism. It is unfortunate that we are living in a time where there are those in this country who do not want people's voices to be heard by way of creating laws to restrict voting rights, or putting people into office who won't certify the elections. That the result of the people. That is the most scariest thing that is happening right now, that is the biggest threat to democracy. There are those that believe that this country should be a minority rule. Think about apartheid in
South Africa and that, you know, there should be one way for people to live in this country. And that's not what our founding fathers wanted. And it's our job to understand that democracy, again, is a process, and those that are a threat to it by way of restricting voting by way of overturning elections, by way of calling for an insurrection when your preferred candidate does not win. The people decide. And I think anyone that is against the people having a voice and who their elected officials are, we could also add gerrymandering to that, where people should decide who their elected official is and not the other way around, where an elected official carves out their district. I think anyone that is of that mindset is a threat to democracy and a threat to the principles of this country.
Mila Atmos: [00:09:02] Mhm. So what's at stake is our very democracy itself.
Daria Dawson: [00:09:07] And it's something that you keep hearing about it. Right. Democracy is at stake. Democracy is at stake. But I think what we have to be clear about, what actually does democracy mean? Democracy means having a choice. Democracy means having a choice on what you do with your body. Democracy is having a choice on who you decide to love. Democracy is a choice on what books you want to read, whether or not you want to breathe clean air, whether or not you can drink clean water. All of those things are choices, and democracy is having a choice in those decisions. And what matters is people who make the decisions on everything that I just said are elected into office. So that is why we have to really think about elections in a way that is not just every four years with the presidential. And yes, that is absolutely and extremely important. And we could talk about that. But it's also important to vote in those elections where the people who are very closest to you, county commissioners, mayors, supervisors of water, energy, you know, they have just as much power over you and how you live, even more so than the president of the United States.
Mila Atmos: [00:10:18] Oh, yeah, 100%. We talk about that here all the time on the podcast about the power of state and local government and how the laws that they pass really are the laws that affect your everyday life. I mean, just talking about abortion, for example, that's state by state, right? As we all know now, in a way that I think was maybe missed before the Dobbs decision. But let's dig a little bit deeper into your work. I know that you work in a coalition with all these partners, and you have an annual convening called the State Summit. And in fact, you just held the 15th annual state
summit this past March. Tell us about who attended and what are your key takeaways from that summit?
Daria Dawson: [00:10:58] I am so glad you mentioned this year's summit. It was our 15th and it was our highest attended summit. We had over 2,000 registrants. I will also let you know that my team decided to also use this year's summit as my official coming out party, so to speak, as the new Executive Director. So it was a lot to celebrate, for one, and I should just go ahead and name it: America Votes, having its first person of color to lead the organization. So that absolutely was something to celebrate. Because we are a progressive movement. It is about having representation in leadership and lead in a coalition as it comes to those that we want to bring to the table. Right. And I think what it's also when it comes about our coalition. Our coalition, in order to win elections, in order to sustain democracy, has to include and does include and shall include women, people of color, and youth voters. So there was an intentionality of the agenda this year to highlight those coalitions, to win, the winning coalition and to talk about how we engage the coalition. I think we had representatives from about 47 states. We always have a goal to have everyone from all 50 states and in the District of Columbia, of course. So we're almost there. And we even had folks coming from Alaska, which is really exciting. And it's just two and a half days of really just learning from each other and, you know, getting ideas and coming together as a family. We had a lot of great conversations. We opened up, of course, with my panel as to what's at stake this cycle, and democracy was the forefront of that. We had guest speakers such as New York Attorney General Tish James, Congressman Maxwell Frost, the first member of Congress representing generation Z, Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO. We honored the Minnesota trifecta at the Cecile Richards Progressive Awards reception, which is an annual event we do every year at the summit. We talked about all kinds of things that matter to our community: gun control, engagement of people of color, and breaking those into conversations about constituencies. How do we continue to build upon the engagements of black men? How do we talk to Latino voters? How do we talk to college students? What are the best practices of the tactics that we have? What are the new tactics? How do we include things like relational and how do we ensure that policy wins are being messaged to voters? How do we protect the LGBTQ community in this time of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ, anti-everything. You know, anti- education. So very good and great conversations. And I had so many people who were attending just come up to me and just say thank you. I really felt seen that the summit,
you guys really brought the energy. I'm ready to work. I'm ready to go back into my state and get through the next, you know, seven months. Because it was in March, as you mentioned, when folks were coming to me and saying that and saying that to members of my team. It feels like the summit provided the space that we want, which is an opportunity to come together, to get energized, get fueled up, learn techniques and practices, and also make relationships. Connect with people who are doing the same work because it's exhausting, you know? You mentioned earlier about like, here we are having a replay of 2020, 4 years later. And we're all tired. You know, a lot of us have been like heads down focused on this since 2016, right? Because, oh, the world might be a different place, but how do we sustain ourselves in that? And we have to rely on each other. For those of us who do this work, no one understands the work that you do except someone who actually does the work that you do. So it's also a good opportunity to just meet other people in the movement. You know, for an example, you know, Georgia and Arizona have so many things in common when it comes to being battleground states, right? So it's always good to just bring folks together from different states who can learn from each other and learning about program.
Mila Atmos: [00:14:59] Yeah, that sounds terrific. Well, first of all, congratulations for being celebrated there and being the new executive director officially at the summit. It sounds like you did a lot of brainstorming and networking and moral support.
Mila Atmos: [00:15:16] We're taking a short break, and when we return, we'll be discussing the path to victory for Kamala Harris. Daria was very kind to have a part two of this interview, given the change of candidates. Thank you so much, Daria!
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And now let's return to my conversation with Daria Dawson.
Mila Atmos: [00:17:53] Speaking of this election, the most important election of our lifetimes. Clearly, failure is not an option. What's your strategy for a democratic victory up and down the ballot and especially given the change of candidates at the top of the ticket, what's the path to victory this year that's different from other years?
Daria Dawson: [00:18:13] You know, I actually think the path to victory for this year is to continue the playbook that we've been doing since 2018. We have been winning since 2018, and actually we've been winning since 2017. So we know how to do this because guess what? We have done this. So that strategy includes engaging young voters and people of color. And in particularly looking at what we call the blue surge voters. And even more specifically, America Votes and our coalition, we have been planning this playbook for the November 2024 election. We have been planning this since June of 2023. And every election since Trump has took office, voters have turned out in record numbers to reject his extremist MAGA agenda. And our job is to make sure that voters know what is at stake and have the information they need to make sure that their voices are heard. And if we do that, we will win up and down the ticket. Nominating Vice President Harris puts us in the best position to do this by energizing the coalition of voters that we need to mobilize to win. That coalition is people of color, young people, and women. Since becoming the presumptive nominee, she has already shown how she is well positioned to mobilize the coalition. Not only are we well positioned to win a critical key states, but we also have the opportunity to expand the map and win critical down ballot races in states like Georgia and North Carolina. The
America Votes Coalition's focus from now until Election Day, is doing the work on knocking on doors, making phone calls, and making sure that our coalition is talking to voters in order to win. And we are not wasting any time. Our coalition has already knocked on 5 million doors this year. That was prior to the change at the top of the ticket, and in July alone, we planned to deploy over $40 million to partner groups in those key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada to increase their field programs, register voters, and engage and mobilize voters. And again, I feel very confident that that map can be expanded to other key battleground states. This is just the beginning. We have over 100 days, or the next 100 days, I believe. Like we're at 101, maybe 100. We plan to knock 33 million doors in those battleground states. And direct voter engagement is the tried and true formula that has worked to win election after election. And with the vice president now at the top of the ticket, we are in the best position to do this work again.
Mila Atmos: [00:20:49] You talked about this earlier about putting together the coalition of voters, starting with the surge voters in 2018. And despite the huge amount of enthusiasm for Vice President Harris and the lightning fast unity behind her candidacy in the first few days after President Biden dropped out, there is still a lot of hand-wringing on the left. But as you pointed out, we've been winning since 2018. So tell us about that. Tell us a little bit about what was really successful at that time that can be repeated in this cycle.
Daria Dawson: [00:21:23] Well, let me first start off by saying you can't roll up your sleeves and get to work if you are too busy wringing your hands. So let's stop that right here, right now. The truth of the matter is, Trump's MAGA agenda is incredibly unpopular because it is so extreme, and most Americans reject his vision for America. Now, we talked earlier about the blue surge. And the blue surge is the 46 million voters who did not vote in 2016 but have since cast a ballot, particularly in 2018 and 2020. And most of those voters are the part of the winning coalition young people, women and voters of color. This increased excitement and the increased engagement that happened in 2018 and 2020 among those groups drove Democrats to victory in 2020, and also with the midterms in 2022. And again, not just like the top of the ticket, but the entire ballot. I am proud to say that the America Votes Coalition played a role in engaging and turning out those voters through knocking on doors, doing direct voter contact, like I've mentioned, making phone calls and educating voters on all of the
possibilities to vote and the safest possibilities to vote and how to cast a ballot. Our Spread out the vote strategy focuses on educating those voters and educating them on early voting and vote by mail, and all of the things that you need to do in order to do vote by mail. Do you need someone else to sign your application? And when you need to get the application in, where the drop boxes are, etc.. And this year we are going to be leaning into those same voter engagement strategies. We know that work because we've been winning with our largest ever mobilization campaign, and we are very excited as to what the change at the top of the ticket does to incite those voters that we have to connect with.
Mila Atmos: [00:23:12] There are always so many issues that voters care about and might propel them to come out and vote, whether that's abortion, the economy, climate change, education, health care. What are the issues that you are centering in this election cycle? What are you hearing from your partners and for you, what is top of mind?
Daria Dawson: [00:23:33] So our focus this year is to make sure that voters feel the stakes of this election and have the information they need to know about the voting processes in the states in order to make their voices heard. The Biden-Harris administration has achieved historic successes, including bringing our nation out of a devastating pandemic, driving economic growth that benefits everyone and not just corporations or the 1% making the greatest investments in infrastructure and clean energy and safeguarding the foundations of our democracy. But on the flip side, we know what will happen if MAGA extremists are elected in November. They will roll back reproductive freedom. They've already started that with the justices they've appointed to the courts. They will cut taxes for the rich. They will reduce access to childcare and to paid leave. They will ban books and education. And they, of course, will implement new barriers to voting. They do not want people to vote. When people vote, they lose. They're going to try every opportunity, every type of legislation to restrict voting rights in this country. Part of the special sauce of working with our partners is to get to know the people who they're talking to. These are the community groups. These are the groups on the ground. They know what is going to resonate with the voters. They're engaging, and that is what makes our outreach successful. We are not just using an election to talk to voters. These groups are on the ground year round and building that trust within the communities. Our partners are the trusted messengers of the communities, and that
is why the work of our coalition has been so successful. They are able to know whether those voters top issues are reproductive freedom, whether it is climate and environment, whether it is stopping gun violence, whatever the issue of the voter is, our partners are in the best position to connect with them, and they are the ones that have the credibility. For me personally, the most important issue is preserving our democracy. There is a very clear distinction of which side wants to expand and protect, and which side wants to roll back. You heard very recently -- this is really scary -- the Republican nominee, the former president, is essentially saying that if you come out and vote for me this time around, you won't ever have to vote again. What in the world does that mean, to not have to vote again in four years? You won't have to vote. Are we saying that if he wins this election, he's going to stay in the position forever? That is not how America works. That was not the vision of our founding fathers. This should terrify people. My top priority this year is electing leaders who we know are committed to protecting the foundations of our democratic system so that we can continue to have our voices counted and our voices heard in the future.
Mila Atmos: [00:26:23] Mhm. Once you think about the issues, it becomes obvious who you should be voting for.
Daria Dawson: [00:26:28] Mhm.
Mila Atmos: [00:26:29] Speaking of free and fair elections, part of your work is on voting rights. You advocate for pro voter policies, for example, expanding access to vote by mail. But we've learned over the years on the podcast that really the majority of people that are not voting, they're not voting because maybe they just don't really care that much, or they can't quite connect the dots as to why it matters why they should be voting. And so I feel like it has less to do with access to voting and more to do with a lack of interest. If the biggest barrier to turnout is not that our right to vote is infringed. How do you think about this?
Daria Dawson: [00:27:05] When we think about voter apathy, there is voters who choose not to engage because they're just uninformed. We call them low information voters, where if we just talk to them and engage them and remind them that their vote does matter. You know, a lot of folks say, "oh, my vote doesn't count. They're not going to listen anyway." These elections have been won or lost on the margins, so everyone
should understand how much their one little vote can make a difference. We should never decide that we're not going to engage voters because, oh, they, you know, have only voted once. And that was back in like 2012. But they still keep their registration active. Then have a conversation with that person, ask them why they feel that their vote doesn't matter. You'll be surprised of how much you can learn from someone by just having a conversation with them, and just being real about the entire process. Voting is only one step in the process in order to keep a free and fair democracy, we have to educate them in all of the phases of being a great citizen. Because let me tell you this, some elected officials, they only care about the people who they know are going to vote. And this is why they are about passing voter restrictive laws. Because if you don't vote, if they are able to suppress the vote, they don't have to listen to you. They don't have to take your opinion into consideration because they know you're not going to vote anyway.
Mila Atmos: [00:28:35] Mhm.
Daria Dawson: [00:28:36] Let's change the narrative on that.Mila Atmos: [00:28:38] Yeah let's change that. I totally agree. Well to complicate matters for people who are low information voters is of course that our media ecosystem is littered with misinformation and disinformation. And of course now we are also facing the dangers of deep fakes through AI. How is this reality shaping your strategy for voter turnout and for voter education?
Daria Dawson: [00:29:00] I'll be honest. I think it's a voter suppression tactic, and this is why I think it is better to go directly to the voters and break through all the noise that you see on social media and that you see on television and that you see sometimes in the news. This is why direct voter contact is the best way to engage with a voter. And again, not necessarily from a candidate, but also from brands in the community that they trust. That is what's so great about the America Votes Coalition. We work with organizations that are closest to the voter. We work with organizations that have a brand in the community that people can understand and that they can relate to and that they are familiar with and that they trust. They may not necessarily trust their elected official that has a D or an R behind their name, but they trust Miss Mary, who is a volunteer. So that's who I'm going to talk to about this information. That is how you could break
through all the noise of misinformation, disinformation, Fox News and all those other entities. Go directly to the voters. Have that conversation. Send that mail piece. Send that text. Make that phone call. Knock on that door. Talk to them directly.
Mila Atmos: [00:30:02] Yeah, talk to them directly. I totally agree. Good advice. You personally have deep experience in organizing, including as director of strategic engagement for Vice President Kamala Harris's 2020 presidential campaign. So you know this candidate really well. How is your experience from that time informing the work of America votes today?
Daria Dawson: [00:30:27] Let me just start off by saying there are so many people who are excited about this change at the top of the ticket. President Biden has done a very great job over the past 50 years of being a public servant, but by him stepping aside and putting the country ahead of himself just speaks volumes. And to step aside to endorse his vice president, the woman that he chose over three years ago to be his right hand person, right hand woman to take us across the finish line over these next hundred days. I can't express how exciting that is as a black woman, to see that the fact that this country has an opportunity to elect its first woman as president of the United States, and that woman also happens to look like me. That woman also happens to have be a graduate of an HBCU, just like I am a graduate of HBCU. Representation absolutely matters, and I think it's more of a reason why the coalition of voters is excited about that. There is no better candidate suited to take on the fight to the former president in this election than Vice President Harris. Her record of accomplishments as vice president is just the latest chapter in her distinguished career that builds upon her work as a district attorney, as an attorney general for this country's largest state in the nation, to be a United States Senator from that same state. In addition, her work as a former prosecutor is the ultimate contrast to the former president, who is in fact a convicted felon. Our focus at America Votes is making sure that voters see this contrast at the top of the ticket and feel and know and embody what is at stake. If MAGA extremist gets back into office, it cannot happen, and we need to use this energy at the top of the ticket to vote against MAGA extremists across the entire ballot state legislative races, county commissioner races, you know, school board races, Congress, United States Senate, House of Representatives. This energy has to go across the entire ticket up and down the ticket across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Our record in every election since 2016 proves that we know how to do this. We have the energy, we have the momentum, and we will win this.
Mila Atmos: [00:33:06] We talked about at length now about the stakes, democracy, our freedom to vote and the freedom to have our votes counted. What are two things an everyday citizen can do to protect democracy? To stand up for democracy beyond voting?
Daria Dawson: [00:33:24] The thing that a person can do to protect and expand democracy beyond voting is to learn about all the pieces of the process and stay engaged. Do not let voting be the only way that you civically engage in this process. Know who your elected officials are. You know, a lot of folks have no idea who their elected official is outside of the president of the United States. Find out who your member of Congress is. Find out who's your Senator in the United States Senate. Find out who your state representative is. Find out who your state senator is. Find out who is your ANC president or who's your ward representative. Who is your city council? Who is your school board member? Find out who those people are and engage with them. The thing that I feel like what I mentioned earlier is, like those elected officials who are closest to you have the biggest impact on your life. We are seeing so many things happening right now against education, against learning history, and that's happening on the school board level. Do the education on who it is, who are the people that are closest to you and engage with them, hold them accountable, have those conversations show up to city council meetings. Show up to school board meetings. Be engaged in a process, and then watch how people where they fall on the issues and then hold them accountable. And if you know accountability does not work, then make your voice heard at the ballot box. That's one way. Learning the process. Learning those closest to you. You see the other side blatantly say things like, we're going to watch what people do at the polls, you know, and we're seeing an attack on those officials and volunteers that administer elections. You know, if you're interested and you're that type of nerd that really believes in this process, sign up to be a poll worker, organize your community. Work with your family on a voting plan. My family, we have a voting plan. We always talk to each other about when are you going to vote? Early voting starts this day. Have you requested your vote by mail? Be your family captain and not only vote, but organize your entire family on what that looks like. There are so many things that you can do as
an everyday citizen to expand upon just your own individual vote. You won't believe how much fun you're probably have doing it.
Mila Atmos: [00:35:39] Oh, thank you for all this good advice. So as we are rounding out our conversation here today, looking into the future, what makes you hopeful?
Daria Dawson: [00:35:48] You know, what makes me hopeful is that people want to be engaged in the process. We just have to give them the right tools and opportunities to feel that their voices are welcomed in this process. As I mentioned, democracy, protecting democracy, expanding on democracy is not just one election. And what makes me hopeful is that people aren't just being quiet about it, being silent about it. They want to be heard. They want to be engaged in this process. And I think that's a good thing.
Mila Atmos: [00:36:20] Mhm. Hear, hear. I totally agree with you. Well Daria, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It was really a pleasure to have you on the show.
Daria Dawson: [00:36:28] Thank you so much, Mila. This was such a fun conversation.
Mila Atmos: [00:36:32] Daria Dawson is the executive director of America Votes, which coordinates more than 400 partners to engage and mobilize voters for elections up and down the ballot across the country.
Next week on Future Hindsight, we're joined by Barbara McQuade. She's a legal analyst for NBC news and MSNBC, co-host of the podcast #SistersinLaw, and a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. Her first book, Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America, is out now.
Barbara McQuade: [00:37:08] Democracy depends on truth. It depends on an informed electorate. Liz Cheney, who lost her House seat because of her role in the January 6th committee investigating the January 6th attack, talked about how we cannot abandon truth and remain a free country. So truth is so critically important, but it's in a number of ways, most directly in attacking our free elections.
Mila Atmos: [00:37:32] That's next time on Future Hindsight.
And before I go, first of all, thanks so much for listening. If you like this episode, you'll love what we have in store. Be sure to hit that follow button on Apple Podcasts or the subscribe button on your favorite podcast app, so you'll catch all of our upcoming episodes. Thank you.
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This episode was produced by Zack Travis and me. Until next time, stay engaged. The Democracy Group: [00:38:26] This podcast is part of the democracy Group.