About
Doug Chapin didn’t plan to run for Congress, but after a lifetime of working to strengthen democracy and improve government, he's answering the call to rescue democracy and serve Minnesota's Sixth District.
Doug Chapin is a nationally recognized expert on election policy and administration with almost forty years of experience in the field.
He worked for ten years at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where he founded the nation’s first online undergraduate and graduate certificate program in Election Administration.
Doug spent over a decade leading The Pew Charitable Trusts’ elections team, where he successfully lobbied for enactment of military and overseas voting reform in Congress and state legislatures, linked state election offices and technology partners like Google to provide official voting information online; and worked with the elections community to design and implement efforts to upgrade the nation’s voter registration systems.
In 2001, Doug founded electionline.org, which is still the nation’s leading nonpartisan source for election policy news and information. He was a frequent speaker and commentator on election matters, including for the New York Times, Governing Magazine and National Public Radio.
He has been an attorney in private practice specializing in election and ethics law and served as elections counsel to the Democrats on the U.S. Senate Rules Committee.
Doug holds a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center, a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Russian Studies from Princeton University.
He is widowed with three adult children and lives in beautiful Hanover, MN.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives write and vote on federal laws, including the federal budget. Each represents one district and serves a two-year term. Tax bills must start in the House, only the House can impeach federal officials, and members oversee federal agencies through their committees.