Daniel Weeks leads the New Hampshire Rebellion, a cross-partisan movement of citizens “walking the talk” for true democracy where the people’s voice is louder than special interests. Launched by Lawrence Lessig, the Rebellion is marching thousands of miles through sun and snow to bring a hopeful message of independence from big money to citizens, presidential candidates, and the nation as a whole. The Rebellion is a project of Open Democracy, a non-partisan organization founded by legendary reformer Doris “Granny D” Haddock that works to expand democratic participation and stop the corrupting influence of money in politics.
Daniel brings over a decade of organizing and leadership experience in the democracy movement. As founding director of Students for Clean Elections in 2002, he helped pass comprehensive funding reform for state and municipal elections in Connecticut, including the first legislature-approved public funding law in the country. From 2007-11, he served as president of Americans for Campaign Reform, working with a bipartisan team of former U.S. senators to advance citizen-funded elections in Congress. In 2011, he founded the Money and Politics Project for democratic reform in South Africa before returning to New Hampshire in 2013 to lead Open Democracy.
A scholar-activist at heart, Daniel has written on democracy issues for The Atlantic, New York Times, Huffington Post, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. He speaks regularly at conferences and universities, libraries and town halls, and has appeared on PBS, NPR, and the BBC. In 2013, he put his reform work on hold to conduct research on poverty and democracy as a fellow at the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, visiting 30 states by Greyhound bus on a poverty-line budget of $16 per day. His research may be found in The Atlantic, Business NH Magazine, and a forthcoming UNH publication. Daniel holds degrees in Political Science, International Studies, and Political Theory from Yale and Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar, He and his wife, Dr. Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, reside in Nashua, NH.
