The Fulcrum Democracy Forum Meets Rob Richie, Co-Founder & Senior Advisor of FairVote

Rob Richie is Senior Advisor of FairVote, an organization he co-founded in 1992 and led as CEO from 1992-2023. He has helped advance major electoral reforms, including the Fair Representation Act in Congress, the National Popular Vote plan, ranked choice voting in Alaska, Maine and more than 50 cities, and voter access changes like voter preregistration, automatic voter registration, and remedies in voting rights cases. His thought leadership contributions include invention of the partisan voting index to project federal elections and Alaska’s Top Four Primary that combines all-candidate primaries with ranked choice voting.

He is a frequent media source and has been a guest on NPR’s All Things Considered, On the Media and Fresh Air, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox and NBC. His writings have appeared in all major daily newspapers and in 11 books, including as co-author of Every Vote Equal and Whose Votes Count. He has addressed conventions of the American Political Science Association, National Association of Counties, National Association of Secretaries of State, and National Conference of State Legislatures. He is a graduate of Haverford College, where he serves on its Corporation. He and RepresentWomen CEO Cynthia Terrell are parents of Savanna, Lucas and Rebecca.

Connect with Rob and David on LinkedIn

As one of the initial driving forces behind the Bridge Alliance and as chairman of the board, David Nevins brings business acumen, vision and a tireless this-must-and-can-be-done zeal to the burgeoning movement to bridge divides to transform the political process.

As a business leader, Nevins excels at building bridges between people and organizations from the right, left and center for civilized conversation and then action.

He co-founded the Bridge Alliance because, as he says, “No matter how well managed and how well funded any one organization is, significant political reform will not happen without an alliance to further collaborative interactions. Together we can and will raise the collective impact of all.”

Nevins is also co-publisher of The Fulcrum, a daily new publication committed to protecting democracy by educating the public on issues that matter. The Fulcrum is a key piece of a larger strategy to build a pro-democracy constituency of millions of Americans by making it easier to find and act on civic engagement opportunities. The Bridge Alliance, The Fulcrum, and Citizen Connect are all interconnected in their support of the ecosystem of our community of pro-democracy organizations and concerned and engaged citizens.

He established and continues to work with The Nevins Fellow program at The Mccourtney Institute of Democracy at  Penn State University. The Nevins Fellows program allows students to complete internships at organizations that bring people together to solve common problems. In this program students begin by taking a Democratic Leadership class that introduces them to a different side of democracy—one that focuses not on campaigns and elections, but on bringing people together to work on common problems. Students learn about organizations doing this kind of work, and develop the skills necessary to facilitate conversations about community issues.

He is a member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, with a focus on the Aspen Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership.

Nevins graduated with honors in economics from Penn State in 1969 and received an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. He continues as President of Nevins Real Estate Management.  Nevins is married to Catherine Moyal Nevins.  They currently reside in Palm Beach Gardens Florida and Cape May New Jersey.