Politics

April 7, 2023 - This week the Republican-controlled Tennessee House voted to expel two young, Black Democrats who from the chamber's floor had joined a vocal protest calling for stricter gun laws following a deadly mass shooting at a Nashville school. We share the powerful Easter-themed statement Rep. Justin Pearson delivered to the chamber before his expulsion.

March 30, 2023 - The nonprofit Electronic Registration Information Center was formed and is led by a bipartisan group of state election officials to help member states maintain accurate voter rolls. Seven states have quit ERIC in the past year as the far right has spread disinformation about it, but Republican election officials in a number of Southern states have reaffirmed their commitment to the group.

March 30, 2023 - A coalition of advocacy groups recently released a report offering ideas on ways to protect and promote democracy in the state. Some of these proposals have since been incorporated into legislation that’s been introduced at the General Assembly.

February 24, 2023 - The Census Bureau has released its first round of corrections for the 2020 population count, and communities in Southern states will benefit thanks to prisoners being added to their populations. Reform advocates say this "prison gerrymandering" distorts democracy and paints a misleading picture of community populations for planning purposes. A growing number of states, including several in the South, are taking action to end it.

February 16, 2023 - In a collaborative report highlighting bipartisan policy proposals for North Carolina to combat current threats to democracy, leading state and national voting rights advocates call for legislative action to ensure that elections are free, fair, accessible, and secure.

February 10, 2023 - While public support for labor unions in the U.S. is at its highest level in a half-century, the portion of Southern workers in unions did not grow last year, even though unions added new members. But strikes and other workplace protests in the region jumped by over 20%, showing growing labor activism.

February 10, 2023 - A growing number of states have adopted policies promoted by the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council punishing financial companies that halt investments in oil, gas, and coal. But they also punish taxpayers by reducing competition among municipal bond underwriters, thus raising interest rates.