Policy Brief
By:
Some politicians have enacted measures in recent years to make voting harder and to reduce participation among certain groups. Others have sought to counteract that voter suppression by implementing laws to make voting easier, such as same-day or automatic registration. There is another antidote to the effort to reduce participation: lifting up worker organizations. This is especially important to understand given the ways in which powerful individuals and groups have sought to weaken unions because of their political strength representing American workers.
In this report, the author first explains efforts to weaken unions and the voice of working people; then what the decline of unions and union membership has meant for participation; next, Wang looks at the data showing the positive effects unions have on voter participation; and finally, she suggests how going forward we can reform the laws and how labor is structured such that it not only continues to facilitate voter participation, but even enhances it.
Podcast
On this week’s episode of the Terms of Engagement podcast, co-hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer welcome Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, CEO of RepresentUs, to discuss what accountability could look like in the next two years.
Podcast
On this week of the Terms of Engagement podcast we have a special Post-Election Day Discussion with co-hosts Professor Archon Fung and Stephen Richer.
Liz B. Delia, Ph.D., an Ash Sports, Democracy and Civic Health contributor, explains that as bigger crowds and brighter spotlights are on women’s sports, longtime supporters may find that success also changes their sense of belonging.
Commentary
This overview maps the technology policy themes from the 2026 US midterm elections, drawing on local ballot measures and proposals from newly elected officials.
Q+A
Ahead of Veterans Day, the Ash Center spoke with the leadership team at Vet the Vote about how their nonpartisan coalition empowers veterans and military families to continue serving their country as trusted poll workers.
Commentary
Allen Lab Policy Fellow Hillary Lehr provides a late-October 2026 snapshot of the multiple ways that AI and the midterms are intersecting, including campaign use cases, policy issues, and voters’ use of LLMs.
