More than 70 journalists from all over the United States will participate in this year’s Advancing Democracy Fellowship, where they will learn strategies that they will then embed in their reporting practices. They will be joined by additional journalists from three newsrooms who have previously participated in the fellowship and want to deepen what they learned previously and/or involve additional staff members. They also will share their insights with the new group.

Here are the 2024 fellows and what they plan to do in the program: 

Organization	Project Description
	Canopy Atlanta, a community journalism nonprofit redefining journalism by Atlanta and with Atlanta, will focus on listening to community concerns about the 2024 election and directly respond to that community input with enterprise reporting, personal essays and podcasts. Led by the community engagement and editorial teams, we also plan to provide an opportunity for conversations and coverage on local and state races and how those races will impact local communities. Additionally, we will engage with and report on the voters who were integral in swinging their districts from red to purple in the 2020 election and hear their perspectives about the 2024 election. View mission statement and FAQs on election/political coverage
	Capital B is a local-national nonprofit newsroom that centers diverse Black voices, audience needs and experiences. Led by national editor Dalila-Johari Paul and national politics reporter Brandon Tensley with contributions from rural issues reporter Aallyah Wright and criminal justice reporter Christina Carrega, our national newsroom’s political coverage will put Black voters first. We ask these central questions: How does the fight for democracy and voting rights play out in diverse Black communities across the country and what are the major stakes at play? Through enterprise reporting, Q&As, explainers, a weekly newsletter launching in March and in-person events in battleground states, we’re pushing to not only better engage communities but broaden the scope of political reporting. View FAQs about election/political coverage
	Founded in 1926, La Opinión (www.LaOpinion.com) is the top Spanish daily newspaper in the USA, covering local news in Los Angeles, California, and also national and international news. La Opinión and its sister publications (Impremedia newspapers) will do special coverage of the 2024 election campaigns and elections with special focus on the issues, demands, and solutions that affect the Hispanic communities in the USA, with focus both in the local and the national contexts. political managing Editor Jesús García, executive editor Armando Varela, and grants development director Jesús Del Toro will be key participants in the fellowship on behalf of La Opinión and Impremedia. View FAQs about election/political coverage
	Led by reporter Nick Reagan and content manager Sam Yaw, Charleston-based newsroom WCSC-Live 5 News will use the fellowship to improve election coverage by launching a research panel in the DMA, assessing viewer interest in various topics and questions that could inform their vote in the November election. The research results will be used in concert with a less scientific viewer poll on the station website, promoted on both the station’s broadcast and social media channels. The results will transparently lead the topics of coverage in the three months ahead of the election, as well as fuel the questions in our planned congressional debate and election special ahead of November 5. View mission statement about election/political coverage
	Missoulian newspaper State Bureau reporter Vic Eavis, Indigenous Affairs reporter Nora Mabie, State Bureau editor Holly Michels and enterprise editor Rob Chaney will seek better ways of publishing election news where candidates are refusing to debate or give interviews, judicial races are getting loaded with dark-money influence, election offices have been demonized and the Native American communities face growing challenges to ballot access. In a state deeply divided along urban/rural lines, where many people have lost faith in traditional information sources, we want to rebuild the public forum so voters can find and share facts about the issues they face.
	News director Tracci Dial, reporter Lauren Gallup and videographer Tela Moss will apply knowledge and skills from this fellowship to connect with Northwest Public Broadcasting audiences to engage and be transparent. With a specific focus on civics, NWPB plans to circulate a survey, invite feedback and curate our coverage through November to the responses. By connecting with audiences, we can answer some of the questions that keep them up at night – and send them to ballot drop boxes (we mainly serve a mail-in state). We’ll also investigate how those boxes are saving local governments money. Connecting with the audience ensures communities are served over candidates in 2024. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	Notivision Georgia is a digital Spanish platform catering specifically to the underserved Hispanic population in Georgia, with a particular focus on Middle Georgia. Our core mission revolves around informing, advocating for, and amplifying the voices that are often marginalized within our community. Through this fellowship, our aim is to further solidify our commitment to these principles. We seek to mobilize, educate, and inform young Hispanic voters and their parents by ensuring comprehensive coverage of the 2024 election cycle in their native language. Moreover, we aspire to shed light on the glaring underrepresentation of Latino voters and the sparse presence of Hispanic legislators in Georgia. By doing so, we hope to spark crucial conversations about inclusivity and diversity within the political arena, ultimately igniting a dialogue on the imperative for a more representative government that accurately reflects the rich tapestry of our state’s demographics. View mission statement about election/political coverage
	Led by deputy editor Michelle Zenarosa, the national newsroom Reckon will use the fellowship to improve its election coverage by creating a voter guide on issues like LGBTQ, reproductive rights, climate and for communities we serve, especially younger voters from the emerging majority, to combat misinformation and disinformation that disproportionately affects marginalized communities and to offer reliable and neutral information about candidates and ballot measures. Reporters will also do people-centered, solutions-based reporting based on the topics covered by the newsroom. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	Led by CEO Carson Walker, investigative reporters Bart Pfankuch and Stu Whitney will look for additional ways to engage South Dakotans during this year’s political coverage and also through a solutions journalism pilot that will identify top problems in three to five communities and the solutions they’re developing to address them. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	Minnesota’s largest newsroom will use this fellowship to enhance our election coverage by focusing on voters to explore and bridge the political divide in our state. Led by Politics & Government Editor Laura McCallum and State Editor Pam Louwagie, reporters Briana Bierschbach, Ryan Faircloth, Reid Forgrave and Rochelle Olson and Ashley Miller from the audience team will help educate readers about the process through FAQs and social videos, from how to caucus to how a ballot is counted. We plan to spend more time in rural communities outside the Twin Cities and in the neighboring swing state of Wisconsin to understand the divide there. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	The 19th, an independent nonprofit newsroom that writes at the intersection of gender, politics and policy, takes its name from an amendment that both expanded access to the franchise for some and spotlighted the unfinished work of representative democracy. Through this fellowship, state politics and voting reporter Barbara Rodriguez will tackle how to cover access to the ballot — who is included and who is left behind — with a focus on people marginalized because of their gender. We will also create small experiments on how best to engage with our readership, which is scattered throughout the country, to better capture the issues that they care about in elections and voting coverage.
	The Austin Common is a local news site & civic engagement organization that actually explains the news and helps Austinites make their voice be heard at the local level. We use art and social media to make learning about local government accessible, approachable, and even a little bit fun. Led by Chief Inspiration Officer Brandi Clark Burton and Editor-In-Chief Amy Stansbury, we will use the fellowship to strengthen our outreach efforts with young people in our community (who historically have low voter turnout rates in local elections). We want to experiment with new ways of engaging our community at in-person events and through our “A Beginner’s Guide To Local Government” zine, which we distribute at local college campuses and community spaces. Most importantly, we want our readers to understand that they have a real voice when it comes to local elections… and to give them the tools they want and need to vote with confidence in the 2024 election cycle. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	There is little reporting in the Midwest by and for Latinos. The lack of coverage of topics important to Latinos prevents them from influencing policies that can affect their lives — including the 2024 election cycle. Reporter Stefania Lugli will lead a collaboration between The Journal, a statewide outlet published by the Kansas Leadership Center, and Planeta Venus, a Wichita-based Spanish-language publication with a regional footprint, to increase the flow of high-quality information about elections in English and Spanish and combat misinformation that could discourage voter disengagement. Lugli will be supported by Claudia Amaro, publisher of Planeta Venus, and Chris Green, editor of The Journal. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	Though primarily pursued by Reporter Lonyae Coulter and Managing Editor Nasir Anthony Montalvo, Black abolitionist newsroom The Kansas City Defender will be sending a host of its young reporters to learn more about election coverage––and solutions journalism as a whole––as part of its mission to proliferate the number of Black writers in their region. And on the audience-side, The Defender will utilize the learnings from this experience to better educate Black voters on processes, candidates, and combating voter suppression in the ways people are able. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	Managing Editor Gary Lee and Reporter KImberly Marsh will use the training to bring its political coverage in closer sync with the information needs and interests of our readership: the Black and BIPOC communities of Tulsa and elsewhere in Oklahoma. Few if any news outlets in Oklahoma are sensitive to the particular themes that interest the Black community. Nor is there much awareness in the general interest media of how the Black community consumes and uses political news. Through this training we hope to make the Oklahoma Eagle’s coverage more dynamic and relevant.
	Editor Scott Morris and city hall reporter Ryan Geller of the Vallejo Sun in Vallejo, California, are seeking to improve their award-winning election coverage, which has focused on explaining how the process works and providing holistic portraits of political candidates and describing their responses to the region’s most pressing challenges. The Sun is particularly interested in improving its audience engagement and building trust in our reporting as an audience more engaged with our work will be able to better engage with their democracy. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	The Tucson Sentinel’s nonprofit newsroom, including senior reporter Paul Ingram and government and political impact reporter Jim Nintzel, with editor and publisher Dylan Smith and co-publisher/engagement editor Maria Coxon-Smith, will hone our award-winning journalism by focusing on the likely outcomes of political proposals, and not merely report horse-race stories about polls and fundraising. With a dedication to the Borderlands of Southern Arizona, we’ll dig into misinformation and provide clear FAQs and explainers about voting processes in both English and Spanish, and use extensive community engagement to help determine our coverage priorities and the questions we ask during candidate debates. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	Led by Director Brittany Harlow and assisted by journalists Rachael Schuit and Trista Vaughn, Native-owned VNN Oklahoma aims to leverage this fellowship to increase informed civic engagement and improve voter participation in our Indigenous communities. Native issues have increasingly been forged into political weapons across our state over the past few years. We are hoping to advance Native perspective through outreach, dialogue and dedicated election coverage. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage
	WRAL PolitiFact reporter Paul Specht, NC Capitol editor Jack Hagel and enterprise executive producer Ashley Talley know that the coming months will be challenging for election coverage, especially in purple states like North Carolina. They look forward to engaging in conversations about strengthening local civic engagement, reaching under-represented audiences and increasing trust in journalism. View mission statement about election/political coverage View FAQs
	The Yakima Herald-Republic and El Sol de Yakima in Washington state will explore voting and turnout issues among the Latino community, and engage community members so election coverage is focused on issues they care about. The newsroom also will better explain coverage through FAQs. The project will be led by editors Joanna Markell and Gloria Ibáñez, with reporters Phil Ferolito, Santiago Ochoa and Jasper Kenzo Sundeen. View mission statement and FAQs about election/political coverage

Returning fellows:

Organization	Project Description
	Conecta Arizona, led by Martiza L. Felix, will focus on using the skills and support of the fellowship to continue their work covering how best to counter polarization and disinformation.
	Under the guidance of Executive Editor Tracy Quattrocki and reporters Duncan Agnew, Alex Harrison and Carlos Williamson, Chicago area nonprofit newsroom the Evanston RoundTable is launching a new community engagement initiative in 2024 to adopt the “citizens agenda” approach to elections coverage. Instead of reporters and editors determining questions for political candidates on our own, we will bring candidates to the people for small group conversations, where residents have the chance to speak directly about the issues that matter to them in this cycle.
	WITF will explore the concept that things need to change with elections in Pennsylvania. But how do we know whether the proposed ‘changes’ stem from/support the election fraud lie, or whether they are honest attempts at making things better? We’ll also build on our plans to put voters first in our election coverage, while keeping accountability at the forefront amid misinformation, disinformation, and extremism.