Part One
Democracy must have at least two robust parties that both agree on certain core values—in particular, the importance of democratic institutions and accepting election outcomes. From 2021 to early 2025, Stephen Richer served as the County Recorder, administering elections, in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix. After strongly defending the integrity of the 2020 election, he lost the 2024 Republican primary election for his office but continued to serve voters admirably in running the 2024 election in the nation’s second-largest voting jurisdiction. Richer is currently a senior practice fellow in American democracy at the Ash Center of Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Part Two:
American democracy requires both major political parties to embrace the core idea of democracy. And young people are the key to sustaining a democracy movement that can endure. Scott Warren has spent his career working on both issues—creating a culture of youth engagement and fostering a democracy movement for all sides of the political spectrum. Scott co-founded the organization “Generation Citizen,” which empowers young people by improving local civics education across the country. He also launched Democracy Moves, an international network of youth activists pushing for democratic change. Now he is a visiting fellow at Johns Hopkins University, where he is focused on building a pro-democracy conservative movement in the United States.
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