David Pepper

Former chair of the Ohio Democratic Party and Author of Laboratories of Autocracy and Saving Democracy

David Pepper is a lawyer, writer, political activist, adjunct professor, former elected official, former chair of the Ohio Democratic Party (2015-2021), and presently a Charles F. Kettering Foundation senior fellow. While chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, he was engaged in numerous battles and extensive litigation over voter suppression and election laws in the Buckeye State, as well as reform efforts to enhance voting and end gerrymandering. Pepper is the author of Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines (2021) and Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual for Every American (2023). Both books discuss recent attacks on state level democracy and lay out the steps citizens can take to save it. He also teaches election and voting rights law as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Born and raised in Cincinnati, David is a fifth-generation Cincinnatian who served on the Cincinnati City Council from 2001 to 2005. David earned his BA magna cum laude from Yale University, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and later earned his JD from Yale Law School.

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