Explore Quotes by Zephyr Teachout

If we don't have a responsive democracy, all the debates about charter schools, and fracking, and high-stakes testing, and the militarization of police forces - all of which are issues I care about – they aren't real debates.

Until the 1980s, candidates spent a fraction of their time talking to donors; just a few weeks a year, a little more right before an election. True, they'd fund raise from the wealthy interests, as they do now, but it was a minuscule part of their job: policy and constituent services were the heart of the work.

We need to pressure lawmakers to hold hearings on pending mergers, and pressure federal and state enforcers to use their full powers.

You may think of Google as a single organic entity, but in 2011 it bought a different company every week.

In my view, we need to break up Facebook from Instagram and the other potential competitors that Facebook bought up.

Facebook is a known behemoth corporate monopoly. It has exposed at least 87 million people's data, enabled foreign propaganda and perpetuated discrimination. We shouldn't be begging for Facebook's endorsement of laws, or for Mark Zuckerberg's promises of self-regulation.

Most of the corruption in Albany is legal corruption, not illegal bribery. It comes from campaigns being funded by millionaires and corporations.

One of the more important things the Bernie Sanders campaign did is reach people who are political but not electorally political. They're political in either non-profits or community groups, but didn't see how important it was to get involved in electoral politics.

The way we fund campaigns is a feminist issue and a race issue. If you want more representation, you can't say it's going to be really expensive to run for office and you need a rolodex of billionaires.

I mean this is a revolution in how campaigns work - more money was spent by super PACs than by either myself or John Faso. So what that means is that if you're a voter in this district you are more likely to have heard from a super PAC than from me or my opponent.

So one of the things I want to focus on is how we can show how taking on private financing is taking on this fundamental democratic threat.

Parties are fun, but they don't create community.

You build massive databases, you learn everything you can about the people in those databases, you figure out exactly how they can be useful to your campaign, and you ask them to donate money, door-knock, the virtual equivalent of being a sort of army of stamp lickers.

People traverse the dangerous journey to the US because of deep fear. They are often escaping brutality, even life-or-death situations.

I have always wanted to run for Attorney General, and I always wanted to have a baby, but I did not think I would be doing them at the same time.

The corruption that hides in plain sight is the real threat to our democracy.