Park City resident Reed Galen is the co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an organization which launched in 2019 to thwart President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.
Galen, a former Republican who now labels himself independent, left the Lincoln Project last year to start a new nonpartisan group called The Union.
“The Lincoln Project was very much based on the idea of hard-hitting attack ads, specifically as related to Donald Trump in the 2020 and 2024 elections,” Galen said. “[The Union] is much more of a grassroots effort. This is much more of an opportunity to say we have to get back to the basics of what civic life is in this country.”
Galen said he’s specifically focused on low voter turnout and a lack of competition in elections. Traveling around the country during the run-up to the 2024 election, he said he found many voters tuned out.
“Not because they’re not informed,” Galen said. “Anybody I met in all the states I went to and all the towns I walked around, everybody was very informed about what the stakes were, what’s going on in the world. Too many of them just decided that the democratic process didn’t have anything for them.”
Galen said Trump was reelected president because many voters feel the federal government is out of touch with average Americans.
His goal with The Union is to get more voters politically engaged through community conversations, one of which will take place in Park City Wednesday.
Galen will moderate a discussion at the Jim Santy Auditorium with former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger.
Following the 2020 election, Kinzinger was a leading critic of Trump’s allegations of voter fraud. He also sat on the U.S. House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol that sought to overturn the 2020 election results and keep Trump in office.
Kinzinger and former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming were censured in 2022 by the Republican National Committee for taking part in the investigation. Before leaving office, President Joe Biden pardoned all members of the Jan. 6 committee.
Park City resident and Democratic politician Caroline Gleich, who lost in Utah’s senate race last year, will also speak at Wednesday’s event at the Park City Library.
Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and run until 8:30 p.m.
Attendees are asked to RSVP online – a link can be found here.
