Join the Institute on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, as we welcome Dr. Charles Wheelan, former Congressional candidate and founder of Unite America, who will speak about political innovation in the American election process. He contends that while the individuals we elect are clearly important, the methods we use to elect them are equally, if not more, significant. Wheelan maintains that the current electoral mechanisms—especially gerrymandering combined with partisan primaries—result in electing representatives who are more radical than the general populace and less inclined to engage in the compromises essential for governing a diverse nation.

Wheelan will delve into Alaska's pioneering 2020 referendum, where voters abolished party primaries in favor of a single, open primary system and introduced ranked-choice voting for the general election. Similar electoral reforms are being considered in several states for the 2024 elections.

Free and open to the public.

About the speaker:

Charles Wheelan, Ph.D.

Charlie Wheelan is a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and the faculty director of the Center for Business, Government, and Society. He teaches classes in public policy for graduate and undergraduate students. In 2020, he was awarded the Dartmouth’s Dean of the Faculty Teaching Award.

Wheelan is the author of many nonfiction books, including the “naked series”: “Naked Economics,” “Naked Statistics,” and “Naked Money.” In 2016-17, Charlie and Leah Wheelan spent nine months traveling around the world with their three teenage children. His humorous account of that experience, “We Came, We Saw, We Left,” was published by W.W. Norton in January of 2021, and reviewed positively in the New York Times.

Wheelan’s first novel, “The Rationing,” was published in 2019 by W.W. Norton. Kirkus described it as “An entertaining political satire . . . like a ‘West Wing’ marathon, with Sorkin-esque dialogue, well-drawn characters, and sharp-edged infighting . . . A highly readable and intelligent first novel.”

In March of 2009, Wheelan ran unsuccessfully for Congress as the representative from the Illinois 5th District in the special election to replace Rahm Emanuel. He is the author of “The Centrist Manifesto” and the founder and chair emeritus of Unite America, a movement of Democrats, Republicans, and independents working to put voters first by fostering a more representative and functional government.