The Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning think tank whose current and past employees have staffed Democratic administrations, is releasing a new report Thursday outlining its wishlist of voting rights, campaign finance, and democracy proposals.
The report, which comes amid controversy over the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, offers a blueprint for some of Democrats’ signature issues that CAP will push for next year and could pitch as policy templates for a potential Harris administration and Democratic Congress.
The group calls for voting rights legislation, public financing of campaigns, electing presidents by popular vote, new disclosures for political spending, restrictions on gerrymandering of congressional districts, and expanded early voting options nationwide.
The report also calls on the Senate to roll back its filibuster rules and urges term limits and a code of ethics for Supreme Court justices.
CAP plans to push for its elections and ethics policy platform no matter the election results, said Michael Sozan, who wrote the report shared first with Bloomberg Government.
Sozan called the report CAP’s “northstar vision for a modernized democracy that represents all Americans. We’ve put the solutions together that we hope is a compelling roadmap to building a modern democracy that is not controlled by wealthy special interests.”
He said he put the CAP policy report together to make a compelling case for democracy at a time when an increasing number of Americans say they are apathetic or disenchanted with the political system.
Dan Backer, a Republican election lawyer at Chalmers, Adams, Backer & Kaufman who opposes Democrats’ efforts on these issues, said such proposals are “fodder” for the Democrats’ base and highlight the contrast between the two parties.
But these aren’t likely to sway voters one way or the other, he said, given that the dominant issues tend to be around the economy.
Senate and House Democrats have called for many of these policy proposals, but all would likely face tough hurdles even in an all-Democratic Washington, based on past fights.
Democrats’ presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, reiterated her support this week for rolling back the Senate’s filibuster rules for abortion rights legislation, and she has previously said she supported a carve out for voting rights legislation.
Harris’s support for ending the filibuster on abortion was immediately panned by Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), a former Democrat turned independent who has broken with his former party on the need for the filibuster and other issues. Manchin said he would not endorse Harris because of her stand on the filibuster for abortion legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) have said voting rights, ethics, and campaign finance legislation would be among priority bills should their party control Congress next year.
Democrats in recent days have stepped up their attacks on Project 2025, which calls for an increase to campaign contribution limits. Project 2025 offers suggestions across all policy areas for a second Trump administration, while the CAP proposal is limited mostly to democracy and elections matters. The CAP report is 21 pages, not including footnotes, while Project 2020 spans more than 900 pages.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Stetson University who focuses on campaign finance and other matters, said Democrats should take up a series of legislative items, including public financing for federal campaigns and voting rights.
‘Swing for the Fences’
“If the House flips and the Senate stays in Democratic control, especially if the White House remains in Democratic hands, then they should swing for the fences to pass as broad a democracy enhancing piece of legislation as possible,” she said. “The bill should also provide uniform early voting days as well as clear requirements for post-election audits.”
Schumer during a press conference last week featured a poster that said Project 2025 would open the “floodgates to Big Money and foreign interference in our democracy.”
Jeffries, too, has led recent press conferences with talk about Project 2025, saying that Donald Trump and Republicans are trying to “undermine freedom and suppress the vote.”
Ellen Keenan, senior communications manager at the Heritage Foundation, said the political left was working to “demonize and lie” about Project 2025. “And despite their talking points, Project 2025 protects democracy by taking power out of Washington and putting it back into the hands of the American people,” Keenan said in an email.
Former Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), now a lobbyist at the US Chamber of Commerce, helped lead opposition while in Congress to Democrats’ past efforts to overhaul voting, campaign, and ethics laws. He’s now doing a fellowship at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service examining whether Americans have faith in their election system.
He said the passage, or stopping, of such proposals hinges on the outcome of the November elections and who’s in control. He said there is a clear “difference between the vision” of Republicans and Democrats on those issues.
Democratic Ties
CAP, though technically nonpartisan, has connections to the Democratic Party.
John Podesta, a White House chief of staff during the Clinton administration who has been a climate adviser in the Biden administration, founded the group. Others have rotated between the group and government service, including Neera Tanden, a former CAP president, who is domestic policy adviser to President Joe Biden.
Sozan said he planned to share the group’s recommendations with federal and state lawmakers.
“These will be conversations over days and months and years,” he said. “It’s not necessarily about who wins the election. Win or lose, this is CAP’s big vision for democracy.”
Maeve Sheehey in Washington and Zach C. Cohen in Washington also contributed to this story.
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