Tennessee Voices, Episode 365: Matia Powell, executive director, CivicTN
Tennessee's voter turnout during midterm elections was on the decline since 2006 and the state's rank fell to 50th nationwide in 2014.
Then, the 2018 election with open gubernatorial and senatorial races created a surge. Voter turnout rose from 36.6% in 2014 to 49.6% in 2018 – no small feat.
However, it sank to 44.5% in 2022, according to a Brookings Institution analysis.
For Matia Powell, casting that ballot is key to creating, nurturing and sustaining a multiracial democracy.
As executive director of the coalition called Civic TN, she has fought for the last four years to engage citizens, fight against barriers to ballot access and make the case for why elections, especially local ones, matter.
On this episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast, she talked about her work, her origin story and how she developed her passion.
"Tennessee has challenges with democracy," Powell told me. "We have to decide if we really want to be a multiracial democracy."
The West Tennessee native talked about her family's story and how they overcame adversity through education and pivoting their career paths.
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About Tennessee Voices
The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.
Watch past episodes: Tennessee Voices videocast
Please email your ideas for future guests to me at dplazas@tennessean.com. Thank you for watching.
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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He is an editorial board member of The Tennessean. He hosts the Tennessee Voices videocast and curates the Tennessee Voices and Latino Tennessee Voices newsletters. Call him at (615) 259-8063 or email him at dplazas@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Video podcast: Matia Powell, executive director, CivicTN
