The Empty Chair Strategy

How Governors Are Quietly Silencing Voters Without Canceling Elections

There’s a particular kind of silence in Washington that doesn’t make headlines.

It’s not the silence after a vote fails, not the silence of a filibuster, not even the silence of a government shutdown.

It’s the silence of an empty chair, a congressional seat left vacant for months, sometimes nearly a year, while the people who are supposed to be represente…