The Case for Depolarizing

Not only does polarization turn people away from politics and parties, it incentivizes the wrong people to run for office and creates permission structures for leaders in power to exercise polarizing behaviors and rhetoric.

 To fight this, we need depolarizers: leaders who bring temperance, pragmatism, authenticity, and passion to our most challenging political battles. Such leaders not only effectively combat political polarization; they create solutions that draw people back to civic responsibilities and into having challenging policy conversations, while returning them to the core American tenets of liberal democracy and representation.

What can elected leaders at every level of government do to effectively depolarize American politics? And what is the electoral reward for being a depolarizer?

The answers may lie with those who champion place-based politics. Despite having an unpopular party affiliation next to their names on the ballot, depolarizers are able to appeal to a broad coalition by proving to voters that they care about the issues that matter most to them.

 

Depolarizing heroes

Effective depolarization at the state legislative level can exist both in governance and in elections, and it can have a genuine impact on the dynamics of the state.

Future Caucus is bridging divides between Democrats and Republicans by creating alliances among young elected leaders committed to finding solutions. With chapters in more than 30 states, Future Caucus’s coalition of the most pragmatic Democrats and Republicans in state legislatures exhibits what can be done when partisan differences are put aside to “transcend polarization and get results for their communities.”

In Pennsylvania, one of the biggest swing states in the country, Rep. Frank Burns was single-handedly responsible for the Democrats’ one-seat majority in the state house, after winning re-election in 2024 in a district that Trump won by double digits.

How did he do it? For starters, Burns’s ads certainly don’t look like the ads of a typical Democrat—because he most certainly is not. According to local media, Burns “rarely gives interviews” and has a moderate governing streak in the state legislature. And while he may dissent from fellow Democrats on cultural issues like guns, he votes with them on economic issues, supporting public-education funding and railroad regulation, and protecting state residents from utility-provider overreach. Most important for Democrats, Burns gives them control of the chamber.

At the state level, governors can also become quintessential depolarizers, championing place-based politics to win over voters of all backgrounds in statewide elections.

Governor Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania has broken with his party on issues like education, but his most powerful depolarization tactic is effective blue-state governance. When a bridge in Philadelphia collapsed in 2023, he famously tasked crews to work around the clock to quickly restore that section of highway I-95, using some of the lessons of the abundance agenda to speed up permitting and construction. Shapiro also gave an impassioned depolarizing speech after Trump was shot at a rally in his state last year, praising the bravery of an ardent Trump supporter who was killed while protecting his family from the assassin’s bullet:

We lost a fellow Pennsylvanian last night: Corey Comperatore. Corey was a girl dad. Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community. And most especially, Corey loved his family.

At the federal level, depolarizers also win. Michigan U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet’s stunning overperformance in the 2024 cycle—winning by 7 points a district Trump had carried by 2 points—was driven by breaking the partisan mold and avoiding left-coded issues in favor of pocketbook issues. She brags about cutting taxes and funding law enforcement. Rather than demonize business, she sought the support of the local chambers of commerce. 

Maine U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s ads emphasize his independent-minded approach to governing—as do his votes. He notably voted against the American Rescue Plan Act and opposed Biden’s student debt cancellation plan. He also opposed the initial Build Back Better plan but supported the Inflation Reduction Act because it benefited seniors and deficit reduction. In the 2024 cycle, in one of his most competitive elections to date, Golden won the endorsement of the Chamber of Commerce and of local law enforcement.

In the last cycle, Golden ran an ad featuring a Republican and a Democrat who, for different reasons, supported his re-election: one because he’s “draining the swamp” in Washington, D.C., the other because he supports capping prescription drug costs. 

Rebecca Cooke is another depolarizer from a competitive congressional district in Wisconsin. According to Split Ticket’s Wins Above Replacement model, Cooke overperformed the fundamentals of her rural district by a whopping 7.3 points. How did she do it? The New Yorker published a post-election analysis of Wisconsin that featured this passage about Cooke:

Cooke believes that there is a problem with the national Party’s image, which was reinforced by Harris’s messaging choices. “The Democratic Party brand is far left right now, when that’s not the majority of the country,” Cooke said.
“We don’t have an agenda that really tells people what we’re going to do, how we’re going to make things better, and how we’re going to improve people’s lives.” 

Cooke’s 2024 campaign ads reflected this ethos, criticizing excessive government spending and proudly declaring herself to be ideologically in “the middle” rather than the far right or far left.

Former local news anchor and lifelong Republican Janelle Stelson ran as a Democrat in Pennsylvania’s 10th district against extremist Scott Perry in the 2024 election cycle. In her campaign, she highlighted her conservative upbringing and her commitment to independent policies. Her ads highlighted a mix of Democratic policies (stop abortion bans) and conservative policies (secure the border) as well as populist ones (end insider trading).

 

Rewarding depolarizers 

In a piece on moderation, Split Ticket co-founder Lakshya Jain analyzed eight years’ worth of data and found that in each election cycle, moderates outperformed generic Democrats. Further, the more moderate a candidate was, the better their electoral performance. 

The aforementioned Wins Above Replacement (WAR) model is chock full of the depolarizers mentioned in this piece, including Reps. Kristen McDonald Rivet, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and Jared Golden. 

When candidates are willing to align themselves with public opinion—moderating from their party’s positions—and authentically represent the voters of their districts, they win. Sometimes by a lot!

Sometimes, however, the effects of depolarization in public service aren’t always positive, which can dishearten and disincentivize depolarizers—and in some cases discourage them from serving at all.

When Washington U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez opted to vote against student-loan debt cancellation in 2023, her family auto-repair shop was plagued by bad Yelp reviews, as those who disagreed with her took out their frustration on her family business. Perez noted that the vote would not have been good for her constituents in a rural Washington State district. As the Seattle Times noted: 

She cited an analysis of federal data by the National Association for Independent Colleges and Universities that shows Washington’s 3rd Congressional District accounts for only 3% of student loan debt in the state. The 5th District, home to Spokane, and the 7th District, which covers most of Seattle, each account for about 31% of that debt.

“This is not a policy that’s tailored to deliver value to my district, and I didn’t think it was striking the structural reform that we all are desperate for,” she said. “And this is not just about, like, ‘I didn’t get my share of the pie.’ We can’t just give out party favors at the expense of structural reform and expect things to get better for our kids and the next generation.”

Gluesenkamp Perez also pointed to a June 2023 report from the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank, that estimated the debt forgiveness plan would have benefited Washington, D.C.—where the average adult would have had $2,224 forgiven—more than every state except Georgia. Washington state ranked 46th on the list, with the average adult standing to get $1,412 forgiven.

It’s important to distinguish the rewards for depolarization among the electorate from the negative consequences of depolarization driven by extremists. Leaders may be heartened by the former and must not grow disheartened by the latter.

 

Depolarization fuels liberal democracy

So why depolarize at all? 

Extremism and illiberalism destroy the American spirit and choke out liberal democracy, which is critical for the “land of the free, home of the brave” promise and vision for America we hold dear. Depolarization fuels the American spirit, tempers emotions, makes room for collaboration, and reminds us of our common goals and shared values. 

When people feel comfortable discussing controversial and challenging concepts, they are less likely to hold extreme views. If you can’t talk about a challenging topic with the people you disagree with, how can you expect to reach a pragmatic compromise on the matter? Public opinion is swayed by public discourse, often for good. 

In our podcast, The Depolarizers, we end each episode with the same question: What’s one activity listeners can participate in to depolarize our politics? The answers have varied, but the overarching theme has remained consistent throughout: Spend time with people in real life, both those you agree with and disagree with, those who are like you and not like you. Consume information that is outside of your preferred bubble of information, and remain open-minded to others’ perspectives. In participating in depolarizing activities, we change not only ourselves—we change our society’s cultural norms.

Political polarization is deafening to voters and causes them to grow a disdain for our national political parties—even when those parties are presenting good ideas and solutions. Today’s partisan labels often rob us of the experience of sharing common ground with those who identify with the opposing party. 

Depolarizing leaders and individuals will restore America’s liberal democracy and undo the erosion that’s been caused by political polarization. 

Where do we begin? As the saying goes, all politics is local—and we can start at that level, which in itself is typically a less polarized environment, as voters of all backgrounds share many of the same concerns about their communities. 

We can look to the following examples of local depolarizers who inspire us to evolve, proving to voters that we know how to admit where we’ve made mistakes, that we’re listening to them, and that we’re changing for the better. 

Troy Jackson is a logger by trade and served as the president of Maine’s Senate from 2018–2024. A former Republican, Jackson was initially elected to the Maine House of Representatives as an Independent before joining the Democratic Party. Jackson represented a rural, conservative district in Northern Maine his entire Senate career. After winning re-election by 5 points in 2022, he retired in 2024, and his former opponent won the seat by 32 points—a huge swing that proved his crossover appeal. 

Dan Quick worked as a material handler and maintenance mechanic at the power plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, for 28 years and served as president of his IBEW local chapter. Quick served in the Nebraska State Legislature from 2017–2020 and ran a grassroots campaign for the Nebraska Senate in 2024. He and his wife, Alice, knocked on more than 12,000 doors in Grand Island, and his campaign prioritized local issues, such as bringing funding back to his district and lowering property taxes. He pulled off a remarkable 100-vote win in a district Trump won by 27 points in 2024.

Depolarizers at every level of government know how to win and how to govern. We can learn a lot by authentically modeling their approach to help depolarize our politics.