{"id":66022,"date":"2026-04-06T10:19:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=66022"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:21:13","slug":"legacy-media-paints-harmeet-dhillon-as-plucky-underdog-fighting-woke-ideology","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/analysis\/legacy-media-paints-harmeet-dhillon-as-plucky-underdog-fighting-woke-ideology\/","title":{"rendered":"Legacy media paints Harmeet Dhillon as plucky underdog fighting \u2018woke ideology\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>To the legacy media, Harmeet Dhillon has spent her career as an underdog \u2014&nbsp;bravely swimming against the liberal tide to stand up for her values, no matter the consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a largely admiring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/04\/06\/harmeet-dhillon-doj-ag-california-00855561\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">profile<\/a>, Politico explains that Dhillon \u2014 the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights division chief who\u2019s reported to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/reports-doj-civil-rights-chief-harmeet-dhillon-to-be-promoted-amid-department-shakeup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in line for a promotion<\/a> \u2014 has a \u201cpersonal familiarity\u201d with what she calls \u201cwoke ideology,\u201d as a San Francisco Republican \u201cvastly outnumbered by Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"sign-up\n\t\">\n\t<div class=\"sign-up__inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"sign-up__header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"sign-up__eyebrow text--h6\">\n\t\t\t\t\tSIGN UP TODAY\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"sign-up__title text--h1\">\n\t\t\t\t\tGet updates straight to your inbox \u2014 for free\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sign-up__desc\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>Join 350,000 readers who rely on our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest in voting, elections and democracy.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"sign-up__form\">\n\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/js.hsforms.net\/forms\/embed\/v2.js\"><\/script><script>hbspt.forms.create({ region: \"na1\", portalId: \"48216804\", formId: \"fab07014-69b1-4490-9551-b7340cb6c2ba\" });<\/script>\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe entirety of my career has been a minority, conservative viewpoint in a very liberal profession,\u201d Dhillon says, providing a framing for the story that Politico does little to challenge. \u201cI\u2019m not here for a popularity contest.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Democracy Docket\u2019s coverage of Dhillon\u2019s tenure at DOJ has been very different.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ve understood Dhillon\u2019s effort to turn the Civil Rights division away from protecting, um, civil rights as part of the Trump administration\u2019s bid to undermine democracy on behalf of existing powerful interests \u2014 not as a bold example of independent thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve highlighted Dhillon\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/new-doj-election-denier-voting-lawyers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hiring<\/a> of numerous lawyers with records of working to overturn the 2020 election \u2014 including naming an acting chief of the voting section who has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/dojs-new-voting-lawyer-has-web-of-ties-to-election-conspiracy-theorists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">collaborated closely<\/a> with election deniers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/new-doj-blunder-voter-roll-case-in-chaos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a> the numerous basic lawyering errors \u2014 from missed deadlines to failure to properly serve defendants to a seemingly unending string of embarrassing typos \u2014 that have hamstrung the division\u2019s effort to grab state voter rolls.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/civil-rights-chiefs-social-media-post-fulton-county-ballot-seizure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a> how Dhillon\u2019s extremely active social media presence has at times appeared to undermine DOJ\u2019s cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You won\u2019t find any of that mentioned in Politico.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you needed more evidence that legacy media isn\u2019t equipped to meet the challenge to democracy posed by our current moment, you don\u2019t have to look much further.\u00a0 Luckily, that&#8217;s why we&#8217;re here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To the legacy media, Harmeet Dhillon has spent her career as an underdog \u2014\u00a0bravely swimming against the liberal tide <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":65874,"template":"","meta":{"content-type":"","header_eyebrow_text":"","header_subtitle":"","display_share_icons":true,"custom_share_text":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"last_updated":"2026-06-04 04:39:48","author_name":"","external_link":false,"external_link_url":"","related_links":[],"_display_featured_image":true,"footnotes":""},"article-type":[39],"state":[],"topic":[381,58],"coauthors":[378],"class_list":["post-66022","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article-type-from-our-desk","topic-doj-voter-data-access","topic-voting"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_1317-1024x683.jpeg","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Legacy media paints Harmeet Dhillon as plucky underdog fighting \u2018woke ideology\u2019\u00a0 - 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