Mark your calendars: The Statehouse Futures Summit is July 28th!

A policy and strategy summit for statehouse leaders working to deepen democracy

Mark your calendars: The Statehouse Futures Summit is July 28th!

We are excited to announce that Wednesday, July 28th from 4PM - 7PM ET, the Democracy Policy Network, in partnership with the Run for Something Action Fund, are hosting Statehouse Futures, a virtual policy and strategy summit for a state leaders working to deepen democracy in statehouses across America. Anyone interested in the future of state policy and advocacy is welcome to register at StatehouseFutures.org.

The summit will consist of six policy panels…:

  • Drug War Abolition: How states can learn from efforts in Oregon to wind down the War on Drugs and transition to a decriminalization, harm reduction, drug treatment, and addiction recovery approach
  • Green Buildings: How states can learn from efforts in Washington state to decarbonize their building stock by implementing energy performance standards for commercial buildings
  • Social Housing: How states can learn from efforts in Maryland and California to tackle housing crises head-on with effective models for the public provision of housing
  • Worker Ownership: How states can learn from efforts in Illinois and Colorado to support the development, cultivation, and expansion of worker ownership models, including worker cooperatives and employee stock-ownership
  • Public Banks: How states can learn from efforts in North Dakota, California, and New York to promote public banks and payment platforms that can democratize capital, build resiliency, and better leverage state funds for public purposes
  • Democracy Vouchers: How states can learn from Seattle to establish a "democracy voucher" campaign finance system to fight corruption and increase participation in the electoral process.

…And four strategy panels:

  • Progressive Caucuses and Coops: Learn how state leaders are coming together — as candidates through political cooperatives & electeds through progressive caucuses — to push a shared agenda
  • How to Communicate Progressive Policies (hosted by Data for Progress): Learn from polling & experience how to best message on common policies and topics. We know what we want but we have to know how to sell it
  • How to Run a Successful, Progressive Campaign in a Conservative District (hosted by the Run for Something Action Fund):
    Learn from the experts at Run For Something Action Fund on how to run and win on an unapologetically progressive vision
  • Building Economic Liberation, Yes, in a Generation (hosted by Liberation in a Generation): What does it mean to dismantle systems of oppression and build a liberation economy? This conversation will explore state and federal policies for advancing racial economic justice.

Joining each panel will be policy wonks, movement advocates, and state legislators working to advance these policies and strategies across the country, including leaders from Demos, Data for Progress, Liberation in a Generation, Climate Cabinet, various state progressive caucuses, and more! We hope you can join us:

Register to attend Statehouse Futures


Other DPN News and Notes:

  • Coming soon: DPN’s first book… Democracy Vouchers by Tom Latkowski, with a foreword by Lawrence Lessig. The book is an expansion on Tom’s policy kit on Seattle’s transformative campaign finance system. Stay tuned for more info.
  • Mark Histed has a new post on our substack about Citizen News Vouchers — an innovative new policy for saving local news. Read here.
  • For a monthly dose of innovative democratic policy in your podcast feed, check out DPN’s flagship podcast: This is What Democracy Looks Like. Recent episodes have been on community wealth-building, state single-payer, and worker cooperatives.

Listen to TIWDLL

  • If you want to help DPN continue its work raising up ideas for deepening democracy, please consider becoming a patron at our Patreon page. Every donation helps!

Donate to the Democracy Policy Network

That’s all for now. Hope everyone is having a great summer so far — and hope to see you on the 28th!