To apply to be a 2021 Democracy Summer Fellow with Himes for Congress, please submit an application here. The application deadline is Friday, May 7, and the program will take place from June 21 to July 31.
Democracy Summer 2021 will be primarily virtual, and high school and college students around the country are encouraged to apply.
Himes for Congress will be an official 2021 Democracy Summer partner! Developed by Maryland Congressman (and law professor) Jamie Raskin, Democracy Summer is an educational program dedicated to training the next generation of political activists, organizers, and leaders. In 2021, for the first time ever, Democracy Summer is expanding nationally in partnership with the DCCC and Democratic campaigns across America.
Selected Fellows will participate in a virtual curriculum designed by Rep. Raskin focused on the history of social and political change in America, while simultaneously training as organizers and volunteer activists.
Through this curriculum, Fellows will learn from great activist heroes, young and old political leaders, Democratic policy experts and top political and community organizers across the country. Democracy Summer Fellows in CT-04 will also work directly with Himes for Congress. Through this organizing work, Fellows will receive an intensive practical training in the key skills of Democratic campaigning: electoral strategy, field organizing, door-to-door canvassing, phone-banking, text banking, fundraising, policy development and campaign messaging, social media and digital strategy, rally and online organizing, event planning, scheduling, and campaign management.
The theme of 2021 Democracy Summer will be “The Fight to Vote: Nonviolent Movements, Violent Reactions and the Continuing Struggle for Strong Democracy in America.”
In prior years, the Program has also featured conversations on topics such as the climate crisis, gun violence prevention and the power of the NRA, the assault on reproductive freedom, wealth inequality and tax policy, immigration and refugee policy, the Electoral College and the National Popular Vote campaign, redistricting and gerrymandering, the domestic budget and the military budget, U.S. foreign policy and Congressional power to declare war, education policy, civil rights and civil liberties, and the continuing spread of voter suppression tactics in GOP-controlled state legislatures. Democracy Summer speakers have included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Civil Rights leaders Bob Moses and Rev. William J. Barber II, Prof. Laurence Tribe, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Rep. John Lewis, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
