Shaping a Conservative Agenda for Democracy

In a pivotal moment in America, the SNF Agora Institute developed an initiative to explore, research, and help define the contours of a conservative agenda for democracy.

Led by SNF Agora Fellow Scott Warren, the Shaping a Conservative Agenda for Democracy initiative aims to foster dialogue, refine strategies, and catalyze an effective conservative movement that champions the core values, rules, and institutions underpinning the American republic.

For the past two years, the SNF Agora Institute has partnered with the R Street Institute to explore, research, and shape a pro-democracy agenda with a particular emphasis on engaging with politically conservative Americans. The project began with a national convening in 2022 and has since expanded to nearly two dozen convenings reaching conservatives across the country. These convenings have led to a set of conservative principles for trust in elections, new polling and research into election trust, and authentically conservative efforts focused on strengthening democracy across the country.

The overall goal of this initiative is a vibrant center-right conservative movement and a Republican party that actively promotes and fights to maintain democratic norms and principles.

We aim to continue this work through 1) sustaining and building a community of principled conservatives, 2) continuing efforts to continuously improve elections and build trust in the process, and 3) catalyzing innovation.

Sustaining + Building a Community of Principled Conservatives

We have seen huge value in building community around the identity of Republicans who believe that the 2020 election was legitimate. Using this existing network, we will continue to build a durable, sustained, and mutually reinforcing community to support pro-democracy, center-right conservatives at the state and federal level.

We will continue our work on elections, but also explore new areas like improving civic culture. We recognize that trust in elections is either intertwined with or downstream of broader trendlines that have pervaded the general American public, including: a lack of trust in institutions, broadly speaking; affective polarization between citizens of divergent political beliefs; a lack of civics education and awareness of the various ways political change is made; and a widening acceptance of political violence, amongst other topics.

Continuing Efforts to Continuously Improve Elections + Build Trust in the Process

There is always a need to improve policies and the administration of elections themselves. In the aftermath of the 2024 general election, there is an opportunity to focus on continuous improvement in the years ahead. This will involve highlighting policy priorities at the state and federal level, and promoting and leading on necessary improvements while pushing back against potentially damaging policies.

Elections will continue in communities and states across the country. Additionally, the policymaking process in state legislatures across the country and updates to election procedures will help determine how the midterm elections are run in 2026. Those elections will also prove to be of vital importance in determining the efficacy of the work to date.

We will continue efforts to promote the conservative principles for building trust in elections, including focusing on transparency, sharing best practices in messengers and messages that resonate, and not taking our foot off the pedal to promote trust.

Catalyzing Innovation

After the 2024 election, we have seen interest from across the center-right in innovating in the elections and broader self-governance ecosystem. Recognizing the need to work proactively, and not just reactively in this space, we are proposing efforts to catalyze this innovation, especially at the local level. This includes ideas such as supporting local infrastructure, setting up an accreditation system for election administrators, promoting increased turnout in local primaries, spurring talent support and pipelines amongst election clerks and administrators, and promoting effective adult civics education. This may include setting up a separate entity that can fund and support this work.