Of the People, For the People, By the People

Katie Fahey, the woman who made gerrymandering illegal in Michigan, talks political engagement, voting reform, and 2022 election

By Jillian Manning | Oct. 29, 2022

What were you doing in your late twenties? While many of us were hoping to get a promotion, leaving graduate school, or trying to figure out our first life insurance policy, Katie Fahey was quite literally changing the Michigan constitution.

Fahey, an Aquinas grad who studied sustainable business and public administration, says she never planned to become a political activist. In fact, she didn’t even grow up in a very political family, though she says “patriotism—or caring about the country at large—was definitely a big part of growing up.”

Fahey has always been an independent voter and believed in the power of the vote, though she “really didn’t like political parties in general.” Too often, she felt the government on a national and statewide scale was “only interested in figuring out how to ignore the will of the people.”

Still, she encouraged friends and family to vote to help change the status quo, no matter which party they punched a hole for. She became especially interested in local politics thanks to a long commute between Grand Rapids and Lansing, when she’d listen to local news and began to hear about “the dysfunction of our government” and “some of the rural changes that were happening that were basically taking away local power from from people who are trying to pass things or change things at the city or the county level.”

The Catalyst
Then came the 2016 presidential election and the ensuing partisan divide. Fahey says she was “kind of panicking” as the folks around the proverbial (and, perhaps, literal) Thanksgiving table could no longer see eye to eye on any subject.

And that’s when the idea struck. Perhaps there was an issue that folks from both sides of the aisle could agree on.

“I really didn’t want us arguing about who we voted for anymore, especially because the election was done,” Fahey explains. “I thought, maybe people would want to fix gerrymandering. It gets at the root of democracy and accountability. It’s one of the ways to literally drain the swamp or hold a peaceful political revolution that will give voters the power to determine elections again.”

For those who missed the day in civics class, gerrymandering happens when the boundaries of a legislative or congressional election district are manipulated to achieve a certain result. Those boundaries are based on the national census, and they can be drawn in a way that influences who gets elected.

Sounds rather undemocratic, right? And yet, in 2016, gerrymandering was not illegal in Michigan. So Fahey set out to change that.

It began, appropriately for a millennial, with a Facebook post. Fahey wrote, simply, “I’d like to take on gerrymandering in Michigan. If you’re interested in doing this as well please let me know.”

In the days, weeks, and months that followed, that Facebook post sparked an influx of comments, volunteers, and donations, which led to the creation of the nonpartisan organization Voters Not Politicians (VNP). Fahey took up the reins as director of VNP, eventually leaving her day job and spearheading an effort that collected more than 400,000 signatures for a redistricting reform proposal—Proposal 2, the Independent Redistricting Commission Initiative—on the Michigan ballot.

“In a way, figuring out that we could amend the [Michigan] constitution and do something about this, and that citizens had the power to do that, it was kind of like a test of democracy itself,” Fahey says. “For me personally, [I thought], if the people really want this, can we actually succeed in changing it? Or is the government going to find another way to subvert it?”

The Change
Fahey soon found that her idea had broad support from just about everyone, from progressives to Tea Party supporters and those in between. The only folks who didn’t seem to much like the idea were those who stood to lose their power.

Prop 2 had raised $2 million from thousands of individual supporters over the course of a year and a half, but in one fundraising cycle—“basically overnight,” says Fahey—their opposition garnered $4 million. Attack ads followed, some of which were eventually taken off the air for being untruthful, and Prop 2 was challenged with multiple lawsuits in the Michigan Supreme Court.

Despite the hurdles, Prop 2 made it to the 2018 ballot. Not only that, but it passed with more than 61 percent of the vote. A 13-member, independent redistricting committee was formed to create new boundaries with the 2020 census data.

The biggest takeaways from the experience?

“I think it helps re-inspire people that our democracy is worth not giving up on,” Fahey says. “Change is possible. It might be slow, it might take a little while, but…we really can start getting a government that’s more reflective of what the people of Michigan want and need.”

She adds, “Prop 2 was the beginning of people waking up to us, as the people of this country, or at least of Michigan, really being able to take that role and responsibility that that we need to play, which is looking out for our democracy.”

This November, Fahey predicts, we’ll finally see the results of all that work.

“I think the first opportunity [to see] what does this mean for governing and for how different candidates can win is November. Even during the primaries, [we saw a rise in] the number of new types of candidates: younger candidates, more diverse candidates who were deciding to run just because the incumbents didn’t have that protection from being able to draw their own lines.”

The Present
Fahey has taken what she learned and is now serving as the executive director of The People, an organization that “gathers and enables everyday Americans to find common ground and take action together to create a government that is truly of, by, and for the people.”

After seeing firsthand how hard it was to get support and infrastructure for a nonpartisan organization off the ground—Fahey adds that Voters Not Politicians is still “going strong”—Fahey wanted to “break down the barriers to citizen success.”

“I really did want to just pay it forward. How do we take the lessons we learned, the connections that we’ve made, the tools and processes that we’ve built, and just help other citizens who are also trying to fight for keeping our democracy for, of, and by the people?” she explains. “So we launched The People to really help catalyze that citizen leadership so that citizens can take that role in our democracy and create a more accountable and responsive government.”

The organization works on everything from helping people learn about—and how to navigate—the political process to ways to make changes, work with the legislature, and build bridges.

“We’re helping people come together in their community and find shared solutions, identify where Democrats and Republicans and Independents and people of all ages and races have common ground, and then what they can do about that common ground to fix the system,” Fahey says.

The Future
Even with those heady responsibilities, Fahey still offers simple solutions for getting involved in your own political backyard.

First, she encourages people to get to know the voting process, whether that means signing up to be a poll worker or election observer, watching your county clerk run tests on voting machines, or talking to a friend or family member involved in the process. “Don’t let somebody else tell you what to think,” she says, “especially somebody who’s running for office and has something to gain.”

Second, vote for the candidate that best supports your beliefs and interests…and hold them to their promises. Fahey says this year’s redistricting maps have made the voting landscape the most different it has looked in at least 50 years. “We have a larger opportunity to elect different types of candidates, and to hold the candidates accountable in a different way, and hopefully have candidates that realize that even if somebody didn’t vote for their political party, it actually matters that they pay attention to that voter,” she explains.

Third, Fahey says not to ignore the down-ballot races and proposals, aka the hyper-local issues in your community. “It really matters who your city commissioners are, and who’s on your school board, and county officials,” she says.

Fourth and finally, be cautious about spreading misinformation about voting. “People who are in your immediate network, the folks who are your neighbors or friends who will follow you on social media, they actually trust you a lot more than they trust news [or politicians],” she tells us. “So whatever you’re putting out into the world, you really are helping amplify to the people you care most about.” Fahey recommends doing your research and checking in with experts you know before sharing information that could be false.

A helpful tool for the confused, curious, or skeptical is The People’s voting video series, with different videos about how voting works in Michigan. Head to thepeople.org to learn more.