Making Your Voice Count: Activism, Voting, and the Democratic Ideal

Join the SNF Agora Institute for a conversation with U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin, chair of the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and author of the new book, Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy. Raskin, a constitutional law scholar, served in the Maryland State Senate from 2007 to 2016 and has represented Maryland’s 8th congressional district since 2017. Throughout his career as a lawyer and politician, he has worked to improve voter representation, protect voting rights, and defend democracy. Raskin will be joined in conversation by SNF Agora Inaugural Director Hahrie Han.

Unthinkable tells the story of the 45 days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed Congressman Raskin’s life—and his family’s—as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold then-President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence.

This is the keynote event of the second annual Elijah E. Cummings Democracy and Freedom Festival, hosted this year by the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.