When the U.S. Agency for International Development began to crumble, democracy promotion was the first thing to fall apart.
Almost immediately, every program within the country’s global election monitoring system was canceled. The National Endowment for Democracy, which supports the core of U.S. democracy efforts, was blocked from all its funding. The U.S. Agency for Global Media, which promotes independent journalism across the world, was deemed “unnecessary.”
And the country’s most impactful pro-democracy organizations — including the International Republican Institute, a GOP-backed group once championed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio — have been left hanging by a thread.
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About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
