Laboratories of Autocracy by David Pepper

Laboratories of Autocracy by David Pepper

It's the statehouses, stupid.

Laboratories of Autocracy shows that far more than the high-profile antics of politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Jim Jordan-and yes, even bigger than Donald Trump's Big Lie-it's anonymous, often corrupt politicians in statehouses across the country who pose the greatest dangers to American democracy.

Because these statehouses no longer operate as functioning democracies, these unknown politicians have all the incentive to keep doing greater damage, and can not be held accountable however extreme they get. This has driven steep declines in states like Ohio and others across the country. And collectively, it's placed American democracy in its greatest peril since the dawn of the Jim Crow era.

But Pepper doesn't stop there. He lays out a robust pro-democracy agenda outlining how everyone from elected officials to business leaders to everyday citizens can fight back.

David is the Ohio Democratic Party's Chairman. He first ran for office in 2001, when he was elected to the Cincinnati City Council. He was elected to the Hamilton County Commission in 2006 and served until 2010. David graduated with a B.A. He earned his B.A. from Yale and his J.D. from Harvard.

Yale Law School, to be exact. In 1999, he interned at the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for the Honorable Nathaniel Jones. He has also lectured at the University of Cincinnati College of Law on election and voting rights issues. David is a fifth-generation Cincinnatian, having been born and reared in the city.

Jack, 3, and Charlie, 1, are his two sons with his wife Alana.