Noah Cole

Project: Building a Small-Donor Democracy in California: Outlining the Needs, Considerations, and Recommendations for Initiating a Statewide Publicly Financed Elections System in California

Client: California Common Cause

Noah Cole, MPP '22, attended Emory University, where he majored in political science with a minor in educational studies. Prior to his MPP pursuits at the Goldman School, he served as Legal Analyst with Facebook's Austin TX offices. During that period Noah co-founded and managed a course entitled "Community-Engaged Research," offered at Austin’s local Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Huston-Tillotson University. Earlier Noah interned in Washington, both with the Obama White House and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. His CCDE fellowship project, a study conducted for California Common Cause, was entitled "Building a Small-Donor Democracy in California: Outlining the Needs, Considerations, and Recommendations for Initiating a Statewide Publicly Financed Elections System in California." Noah's analysis surveyed existing programs hosting campaign-finance innovations (e.g., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley & Seattle), to inform a series of recommendations toward implementing such reforms in order to maximize donor diversity, small-donor participation, and other objectives. 

For more information, download Noah's report summary and overview of public-finance systems. His work charts the policy elements for advancing more fair and inclusive elections throughout California. His full report was published on his client's website and can be downloaded here.