Americans speak with many voices, and nobody hears more of those voices than the people they elect to represent them and to fulfill the various tasks of governing. A member of Houston City Council, an eight-year mayor of a diverse California community, an elected public-service regulator from a few miles south of the Canadian border, and a state attorney general from a high-tech education center in the South will explore the great mix of American democracy: What matters to the people they represent? What are the challenges their communities face? What is the future they’re striving for?