Stephen Spaulding is senior counsel in the Kohlberg Center, where he works to realize a fair and inclusive judiciary system that protects fundamental rights, democratic values, and the rule of law. He has extensive experience on Capitol Hill, in government, and in the nonprofit advocacy sector.
Before joining the Brennan Center, he was the policy director of the U.S. Senate Rules Committee, where he advised Chair Amy Klobuchar on election administration, election security, voting rights, campaign finance, artificial intelligence in elections, Senate rules and procedure, as well as oversight of key agencies. He previously served as the senior elections counsel to the U.S. House Administration Committee, where he advised Chair Zoe Lofgren and House leadership on federal election law and led efforts for the successful House passage of multiple bills to protect and strengthen access to voting and democratic accountability. Spaulding previously served as special counsel to Commissioner Ann Ravel of the Federal Election Commission.
Spaulding held multiple positions at Common Cause, most recently as vice president of policy and external affairs and earlier as its chief of strategy and legal director, and he was previously a litigation associate at Goodwin Procter. He began his career as a trial preparation assistant in the rackets bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Spaulding has appeared widely on television and radio, including CBS News’s 60 Minutes, NPR’s All Things Considered and 1A, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, and multiple shows on MSNBC and CNN. His expert commentary has been quoted by many national and local outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, and Slate, and his op-eds have been published by the Los Angeles Times, Politico, USA Today, NBC News, and The Hill.
He has testified in the House and Senate on several occasions and has authored numerous reports cited by national media outlets, including Bullies at the Ballot Box (examining voter intimidation laws), The New Nullification at Work (assessing the impact of the filibuster on agency leadership), and Did We Fix That? (analyzing implementation of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration’s recommendations).
Spaulding earned his BA in political science from Haverford College and his JD cum laude from Boston College Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Third World Law Journal, subsequently published as the Boston College Journal of Law & Social Justice.
