Small Boise Group Tries to Leverage Big Changes for Democracy
A new Democracy Circle uses the model formed by the national Workers Circle movement
July 25, 2025
By Laura Guido
Link to the Idaho Capital Sun article can be found here.
Lifelong Boise resident Susan Hudson, 72, lately has felt the American values and freedoms she and her parents have worked toward are eroding.
“I’ve been worried and upset, and kind of obsessed with the way things are going in our country,” Hudson said.
In an effort to follow her mother’s World War II-era advice to “do your bit,” she sought out the national nonprofit advocacy group Workers Circle. The group was founded 125 years ago by Jewish Eastern European immigrants to the U.S., “fleeing autocracy and persecution and seeking democratic freedoms and economic opportunities,” according to its website.
Democracy Circle
Information about Democracy Circles can be found at circle.org/democracycircles
To inquire about starting one, fill out the group’s online form.
In 2021 and 2022, the group was in the process of trying to push the administration under then-President Joe Biden to do more to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill that would create a new formula for determining which states and localities had a pattern of voting discrimination, provide federal government oversight to prevent discrimination, and require public disclosure of voting changes 180 days before an election.
The bill narrowly passed the U.S. House in 2021 but stalled in the U.S. Senate.
Noelle Damico, director of social justice at Workers Circle, said that once the act died, she and other demonstrators from the organization brainstormed on the train ride home about what they could do next. A college student suggested a network of small local groups who could work in tandem across the country to continue advocating for changes.
“It’s a very simple premise,” Damico said in a phone interview. “It’s that you bring together groups of people you know, people to whom you are connected, people who care about our democracy … essentially it uses the power of people’s relationships.”
In 2023, the Democracy Circle model officially formed, and people in any state could connect with Workers Circle to get tools and training for organizing their own local group, Damico said.
Hudson reached out in late December and launched her small Democracy Circle in January. She had been an adjunct professor at the Boise State University writing department for years, and said she enjoyed working in small groups.
In convening her own circle, Hudson tried to reach people she knew close to her age as well as younger people to create a “crosscurrent” of experiences. There are around five to six people actively engaged in her small group, and they try to connect with other people in the community and other groups.
Boise Democracy Circle focuses on voting rights, immigration
A major focus of the group had been to oppose the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act. The bill creates new documentation requirements to prove citizenship for voting and registering to vote in federal elections.
Some voting advocates have voiced concern that it would disenfranchise voters who are eligible but don’t have the required documents, such as those without a passport or women whose married name doesn’t match their documents.
Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane advocated for the bill during a Subcommittee on Elections Hearing in April in Washington, D.C., the Idaho Press reported.
Hudson’s group in June tabled outside the Boise Public Library Collister branch to provide handouts with information about the act and encourage people to contact their elected officials.
However, the members didn’t give much of their “schpiel,” Hudson said, as many people approached them to talk about their own experiences or feelings about the state of democracy.
“Listening is what we ended up doing there,” Hudson said. “Almost everyone who wanted to talk with us in any detail just unloaded their frustration, and in a couple of cases, their outright despair.”
The group had brought along a list of addresses of local elected officials – from the Boise mayor to the Idaho congressional delegation – and postcards, and encouraged people with frustrations to make them known to their representatives.
Hudson’s group meets once a month, usually by Zoom, and has also participated in protests, written post cards and made phone calls to elected officials. Part of the issue for Hudson is a nationwide increase in divisiveness and vitriol. She believes the model helps build community to counter that.
“You just work person-to-person, and then there’s maybe some hope that we’ll get a critical mass, and something can happen,” she said.
The next issue they’ve set their sights on is the mass deportations taking place.
Through Workers Circle’s “Talk to Your Sheriff” initiative, the local group is hoping to meet with Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford and discuss the level of coordination and action taken with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Idaho law enforcement agencies, under an executive order by Gov. Brad Little and a new state law, are required to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. A federal judgeblocked some of the state immigration enforcement law, House Bill 83, from being enforced in an injunction while the constitutionality of the law is challenged in court, but allowed the portion of the legislation that requires cooperation to go into effect, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.
Hudson said she, or whomever is sent as a representative for the group, plans to listen and learn to the sheriff’s perspective and hear what the Ada County Sheriff’s Office is doing. She has also reached out to local faith leaders to hear their concerns and gather questions they want answered.
She said her desire to organize the group and engage in advocacy is strongly rooted in her family. Her mother grew up in a Republican household in Moscow, Idaho, and her father came from the Midwest. Both their families were devastated by the Great Depression.
Her mother was a Government Girl — women who filled administrative positions in defense and other government agencies — in Washington, D.C., and her father was a New Deal statistician.
“They looked at that as kind of a duty,” she said of service.
And she is also motivated by her role as a parent.
“You’re always a parent, even when your kids are grown up,” she said. “And I just feel like this is an opportunity for me, using democratic means and democratic processes to try not to leave the world such a mess for the next generation.”
About the Workers Circle
Celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2025, the Workers Circle is a national Jewish social justice organization founded by Eastern European immigrants who came to the United States fleeing autocracy and persecution and seeking democratic freedoms and economic opportunities. That history drives the organization’s work for an inclusive democracy and social equality today. Through strategic and impactful social justice initiatives, vibrant Yiddish language classes and programs, and interactive educational activities, the Workers Circle powers a growing multigenerational community of 150,000+ activists creating meaningful social change, building transformative coalitions and demanding a multiracial multicultural democracy for all. Learn more at www.circle.org.