Hemorrhaging the People Who Power Democracy Could Sink Us in 2026
A series on our progressive infrastructure: When Campaigns end the the trauma stays.
We’re organizing the Powerful IDEA (Impacting Democracy, Elections, and Advocacy) Awards and Democracy Expo, where we’ll discuss this and more on June 24 and 25 in Washington, DC.
We are hemorrhaging the people who power our movement.
It’s only been 130 days since the inauguration, but it already feels like a hundred years (SNL nailed this). And we have 1,331 more to go of this madness.
The progressive ecosystem is alive with debates over content channels, messaging, strategy, and the path forward. But I’ve been focused on a different crisis we can’t message our way out of - what we doing to the people who power our movement.
Based on the private and public feedback, my introduction to this series struck a chord. I’m not surprised. I’ve been counseling traumatized professionals for months now—some young and new to the cycle, others more seasoned and established who should be used to it by now. They’re burned out, disillusioned, and asking whether this work is still worth it. No one feels appreciated.
This isn’t just a workforce issue—it’s a moral and strategic one. We are losing experience, trust, passion, and community memory.
At GAIN Power, we have a unique bird's-eye view into the organizations and individuals powering our democracy—from national party committees to consulting firms, down-ballot campaigns to unions and advocacy orgs. We see who’s hiring, who’s laying off, and who’s getting funded—often before the public does. And from that vantage point, one thing is clear:
The Perfect Storm of Talent Loss
Far too many experienced, committed leaders have struggled to find their footing professionally since the election. Now we're facing a perfect storm:
The democracy market is flooded with talent from DOGE's downsizing. As of April 2025, nearly 200,000 people had been laid off or targeted for layoffs, with Elon Musk boasting of "feeding USAID into the wood chipper."
The international democracy sector has been effectively obliterated.
Organizations dependent on government funding face sudden termination.
And too few are stepping up to meet this moment.
Our most precious commodity is time, and we're squandering it.
"Does Any of This Work?"
Charlotte Swasey, a veteran in Democratic data analytics, recently asked that exact question. Swasey admits, "I have a lot of anxiety about whether many specific programs aimed at reaching voters actually work—or if we're just burning money on fire."
In The Connector, Micah Sifry observed that our "meta-machine" of texts, calls, and door-to-door visits may now deliver declining, zero, or even negative returns. (kudos to him for lifting
’s post above too ).And this isn't just about campaign effectiveness. It's about the human cost. He goes on to make a point I especially want to lift.
… I think those of us in the power-building camp would expand the horizon of what’s needed to include investments in leadership development akin to what the Right does with PragerU, the Leadership Institute, etc.. There is nothing comparable on the progressive side that invests in finding and uplifting young leaders or building leadership cohorts at scale.
Organizing experts
and describe in "From Lists to Leaders" how our current practices:Contribute to an impersonal marketing approach,
Build no sense of community,
Replace authentic two-way conversations with tightly scripted, check-a-box interactions.
We're Underbuilding the Infrastructure That Actually Wins
Despite all the messaging innovation, we still fail to build the infrastructure that brings strategy to life. As Paul Tewes, Obama's legendary Iowa State Director, said in this interview:
"We are spending exponentially more money every year on our political campaigns, and we're talking to fewer and fewer people... I get 25 emails asking me for my money. I have yet to get an email asking me for my labor."
Compare that to 2008, when Obama's campaign fielded 400 teams in Missouri—each covering 8–12 precincts, led by paid staff, and starting months before Election Day.
Now? Colin Delany reports in "How Did Democrats Forget These Four Things about Field Organizing?" that in 2024, many campaigns didn't begin grassroots organizing until GOTV season—far too late to build anything lasting.
The Entry Point Crisis
As Chuck Rocha points out on The Takeout:
"There isn't an entry point into power or politics for working-class kids... especially Black and Latino kids."
He built his firm to mentor and launch new leaders. And he's succeeded—133 young professionals have come through his program. But even Chuck will tell you: we need infrastructure that works at scale, not just hero efforts.
Meanwhile, research from Arena and Dalberg Advisors found that "Republicans invest four times as much as Democrats in pipeline work. In 2020 alone, a single Republican organization spent more on pipeline building than the top 10 progressive organizations spent combined."
This Can't Be the Model
I've never been paid for GAIN Power or Democratic GAIN work, though I would love it to be my full-time job. Like many political consultants, I've been well compensated for this work and use my personal resources to subsidize GAIN Power and create this needed infrastructure. It’s not sustainable—actually, it’s killing me.
We need to do this together.
We need systems where people are paid to build and maintain the backbone of democracy, where building this infrastructure is a better professional pathway.
What We Can Do Right Now: Creating a Talent Table
The good news? Many of these problems have solutions that don't require massive new funding or reinventing the wheel:
We need a collaborative Talent Table (join this Slack channel here if you’re interested) to discuss these issues and share resources, but we also need much more.
Bridge the Talent Gap: Create emergency bridge funding to keep experienced professionals employed between cycles. Even modest stipends would prevent the brain drain we're experiencing.
Build Entry Points: Establish skills-based hiring frameworks that recognize transferable expertise and skills from adjacent fields—especially other public service careers, marketing, data science, and project management—instead of requiring traditional political backgrounds.
Capture Knowledge: Implement simple debriefing protocols and shared documentation systems. Stop losing hard-won campaign wisdom when staff scatter after Election Day.
Create Spaces: Virtual and Brick and Mortar. People need to know where to go to get help.
Mentorship: Connect the Chuck Rochas of our movement with emerging talent through structured programs, not just informal relationships. Our friends at the Arena just launched a mentorship initiative to do this and hope it is well-resourced and lots sign up.
Connections: We have different ideas based on Intro - where we can facilitate some relationship.
Demand Accountability: Establish basic transparency requirements and performance metrics for consultants. Start tracking what actually works instead of rewarding familiar faces.
Invest in People, Not Just Messages: As Michael Jarvis and Dean Jackson propose, create a "Democracy Corps" to deploy displaced democracy experts domestically. For $50 million, foundations could redeploy 1,000 professionals to strengthen organizations nationwide. I think this is a brilliant idea and hope someone does fund it - I for one want to be part of organizing this.
Join Us in Building the Solution
This isn't just analysis—it's a call to action. We're actively building the infrastructure our movement needs, but we can't do it alone.
We need investors and partners who understand that democracy requires sustainable infrastructure. This is an absolute pitch for financial support and collaboration from people who want measurable returns on democracy investments.
We're organizing the Powerful IDEA (Impacting Democracy, Elections, and Advocacy) Awards and Democracy Expo, where we'll discuss these solutions and more on June 24 and 25 in Washington, DC.
Register to attend and be part of the conversation about building democracy infrastructure that lasts.
⏳ Time Is Running Out
157 days until the 2025 elections
521 days until the midterms
1,257 days until the 2028 presidential election
The talent pipeline should be under construction right now. Instead, we're watching experienced professionals struggle while new messaging projects attract six- and seven-figure investments.
Most major institutions in our movement have no real sense of how traumatized our people are—and frankly, they don't seem to care.
They see application numbers, not the panic behind them. They talk about innovation while people quietly disappear. They call it "resilience" when it's survival mode.
They're not evil. They're just insulated from the trauma, the exhaustion, and the heartbreak of a movement that asks so much and gives so little back between cycles.
From where I sit, the disconnect is daily and clear:
Many employers think there's a surplus of talent because they're inundated with applications; therefore, there isn’t a talent shortage.
Campaigns—especially down-ballot—can't find people to fill roles.
Both are true. And both reflect a system that's not just underbuilt—it's fundamentally misunderstood by the very people with the power to fix it.
People deliver messages.
Without investing in the human infrastructure behind our communications, even the most compelling message fails.
The question isn't whether we can afford to build this infrastructure. It's whether we can afford not to.
📣 Join the Conversation
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💬 Join our Slack Community to talk about this and more.
General GAIN Power Community Slack Join Link: https://gainpower.link/slackcommunity
Talent-Table Slack Channel in GAIN Power Community: https://gainpower.link/Talent-Table-Slack
And if you've ever been dropped after an election, left without a pathway, or just wondering if this work still sees you, you are not alone.
If you're getting this far, I hope you'll join this conversation and share your comments below. If you're so moved, please donate or endorse our work so others see its importance. We need significantly more investment in these programs. This series builds the case for transformational investment in progressive coordination infrastructure—a fraction of what we spend on elections, but potentially game-changing for everything we do.
Invest Today. We see you. And we're building for you.
We’re organizing the Powerful IDEA (Impacting Democracy, Elections, and Advocacy) Awards and Democracy Expo, where we’ll discuss this and more on June 24 and 25 in Washington, DC.
 | A guest post by
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100% it all feels very transactional and extractive of labor and energy at the expense of our health and financial stability. So many of my colleagues have left the field all together and dysfunction in campaigns is seen as normal. The amount of free labor Im asked for is debilitating and the hallow messaging without actual movement work should not be what’s funded. People know when an effort is more of the same and not transformational. The trauma is real.
This is spot-on!
I would add that the on-ramp is nonexistent not just for working class kids, but anyone who doesn't have the specific personality and energy levels required for campaign work.
And because campaigns are basically the only entry point to working in Democratic politics, the leadership pipeline by definition excludes those who can't or don't want to do campaign work. Come to think of it, that's probably part of why the party's work remains so stubbornly cycle/campaign based... the people who might have come up with a different approach aren't even at the table.