Press Coverage

Seattle is evolving and diversifying, new people are coming in with different experiences and backgrounds. Jayapal is doing something different as well. She’s running her 7th Congressional District campaign on a platform that hasn’t been common of Seattle politicians in the past, emphasizing racial justice and immigration reform.

And it’s working: Jayapal won the August primary with 42 percent of the vote. Her closest competitor, Brady Piñero Walkinshaw — who also represents a fresh, diverse face in the race — received only half of that. Jayapal and Walkinshaw will face off in November. …

Candidates running on progressive platforms are winning elsewhere, as well. Take Zephyr Teachout, running for the 19th New York Congressional seat, a rural swing district currently held by a Republican. She is up against John Faso, a Republican backed by big money, but she received substantially more votes in the August primary.

“I think people have always cared about progressive issues and we are beginning to show Democrats it’s the best way to win elections and get the biggest number of people behind them,” says Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “What you’re seeing now are voters demanding Democrats get back to talking about economic issues voters care about.”

It’s a direct challenge to the recent Democratic Party orthodoxy, which holds that the best way to win elections is to lead from the political center. That may hold true elsewhere, but in left-leaning, diversifying, fast-changing Seattle, Jayapal’s pitch seems to have powerful appeal.

Hillary Clinton has rankled anti-trade groups by hiring former Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) as her transition team leader.

Salazar, who also served as secretary of the Interior Department under President Obama, has expressed support for the trade deal with 11 countries spanning the Pacific Rim. …

”I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages — including the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Clinton said in last week’s address. “I oppose it now, I’ll oppose it after the election and I’ll oppose it as president.”

Democracy for America and CREDO have backed a petition that called on Clinton to publicly oppose a lame-duck vote on the TPP.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, says Clinton should publicly call on Obama to back away from the TPP.

“Now more than ever, Hillary Clinton should press the White House to take the TPP definitively off the table in the lame duck Congress,” Green said.

Aetna announced this week that, with a few exceptions, it would no longer participate in Obamacare exchanges run by individual states. The health-insurance powerhouse is following UnitedHealth and Humana out the door, leaving some state exchanges on, well, life support. Blue Cross and Cigna have also indicated they might get out too.

What’s the answer? Many left-leaning health-insurance experts and pundits say there’s only one way to save President Barack Obama’s signature domestic-policy achievement: the public option.

“Big commercial insurance corporations continue to put profits before patients’ health, which is why Hillary Clinton’s call for a public-insurance option so that everyone in every exchange in the country has a choice of an affordable option is more essential than ever,” Roosevelt Institute senior fellow Richard Kirsch declared this week through the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) renewed push for a government-run healthcare plan is getting a tepid reception from Democrats, with some saying he is waging a losing battle.

Democrats who back the public option say the public is on their side. Seven in 10 people said they supported the public option, according to a 2015 poll by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). Among Democrats, the support rises to about 77 percent. The PCCC is calling on Clinton to use the “super popular” issue to help drive Democrats to the polls in November and to make it a top priority early next year.

“Aetna’s announcement proves the larger point that private insurance companies are willing to deny care to make a few extra dollars,” Kait Sweeney, press secretary for the PCCC, wrote in a statement Tuesday, describing what she called “new urgency” for Clinton.

Hillary Clinton’s White House transition team, a mix of former advisers of President Barack Obama, close confidants, long-time colleagues and former elected officials, reflects the sense of careful organization the Democratic candidate has aimed to project in her presidential campaign. …

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee applauded the selection of O’Leary and Boushey, praising their economic positions. The environmental group Greenpeace criticized Salazar for not curbing fracking in his home state of Colorado.

On Tuesday, the former secretary of state announced Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator and secretary of the interior, would serve as the chairman of her transition committee. He brings with him one inconvenient policy position: outspoken support for TPP.

“President Obama’s events around the nation in favor of passing the corporate-written TPP after the election will hurt Democratic chances of success this November — and help Donald Trump’s chances with blue-collar voters,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement Tuesday.

Clinton has emphasized the high stakes for the high court, and while she has called on the Senate to confirm Garland, she has not indicated whether she would stick with him if there was still an opening come January 2017.

If she wins, Clinton will face pressure from her party’s left wing to select someone younger or more liberal than Garland. Standing by Obama’s man could alienate liberal Democrats, including those who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders in the presidential primaries.

Garland “was the most conservative possible Democratic nominee, and it makes no sense for that to be who Democrats offer the nation after winning a fresh mandate,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which stayed neutral in the primary. The energy of the liberal grassroots “plummeted,” he said, after Obama nominated Garland.

The White House is making an all-out push to win passage of the deal in the lame-duck session of Congress, organizing 30 events over the congressional recess to gin up support for the agreement, considered key to Obama’s strategy to counter China in the Asia-Pacific region. The strategy is to offer support and cover to the small flock of Democrats who supported legislation to fast-track the deal and to remind wavering Republicans that they oppose it at their own peril because of its strong business support.

“Every week that goes by that Donald Trump is allowed to undermine voters’ beliefs that the Democratic party stands for working people and against trade deals written by corporations, that’s another week that helps Donald Trump on this particular issue,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Warren-aligned Progressive Campaign Change Committee.

Green’s organization, along with liberal activist groups, Democracy for America and Credo Action, sent an online petition this week to an estimated 5 million members with the subject line: “Shame on Obama.”

Perhaps most importantly, she offered an unequivocal statement of opposition regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” she said. “I oppose it now. I’ll oppose it after the election. And I’ll oppose it as president.”
This is the stuff that activists want to hear, and the progressive groups that were slightly wary of Clinton heading into the speech were pretty ebullient over Hillary’s TPP remarks. “These were Hillary Clinton’s strongest words yet against the TPP,” Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said in a statement. “For the first time, Clinton signaled she will personally work to kill the corporate-written TPP if it comes up after the election in an unaccountable lame-duck Congress.” The Roosevelt Institute also lauded Clinton’s speech in a statement released in conjunction with Democracy Corps: “With this economic speech, Secretary Clinton has made this election a choice about whether our economy works for all, not just the few, and that allows progressive economics to win a mandate in November.”

Clinton, casting herself as a champion of working people, appeared to assuage liberal concerns that her campaign’s attempt to attract moderate Republicans turned off by GOP nominee Donald Trump would weaken her attention to progressive priorities.

“Today’s speech shows that getting some Republicans to say Donald Trump is unfit to be president is not mutually exclusive with Clinton running on bold progressive ideas,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Campaign Change Committee, said in a statement.

“Today’s speech shows that getting some Republicans to say Donald Trump is unfit to be president is not mutually exclusive with Clinton running on bold progressives ideas like debt-free college, expanding Social Security benefits and Wall Street reform,” said Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Clinton has paid no price for leftward shift, since Trump is more interested in litigating her character than her policy in any kind of traditionally ideological way. Trump’s own rhetoric on taxes and spending have undercut his and other Republicans’ ability to tag Clinton as, say, a tax-and-spend liberal. Republicans siding with Clinton are doing so in spite of her policy, not because of it.

College affordability and student debt sparked many moments of discord on the campaign trail between the two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for president. But now as the party pivots to take on Republican nominee, Donald Trump, those issues are proving to be key points of unity.

In her speech accepting the Democratic nomination Thursday, Hillary Clinton told supporters that she and her former rival Bernie Sanders would work together “to make college tuition-free for the middle class and debt-free for all.” That moment comes three days after Sanders said Clinton’s college affordability plan would “revolutionize higher education” as part of a pitch for party unity during his speech at the Democratic National Convention. …

“The root cause of unity on the debt-free college issue is it’s immensely popular with voters and would be a game-changer in millions of people’s lives. Both candidates knew that and had an incentive to unify around this big idea,” said Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Commission, which helped push debt-free college into the mainstream through its advocacy. “A year and a half ago almost no politicians were talking about debt-free college and at this convention we’ve heard Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and a bunch of down-ticket candidates unifying around this big idea.”

More than Sanders, Warren has taken the lead in shaping the Democrats’ next generation. Formerly a professor of law, Warren conceived and set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau formed in 2011 under President Obama.

She launched a political action committee to back Democratic candidates and inspired other advocacy groups, such as the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, to solicit donations to a bloc it terms the party’s “Warren wing.” …

The PCCC’s slate of “Warren wing” candidates supports a $15-an-hour minimum wage, campaign-finance reform and tighter rules for Wall Street.

One of those on the slate is Zephyr Teachout, a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York, who has campaigned in a T-shirt that reads, “I’m from the Elizabeth Warren wing of the party” and who has been endorsed by Sanders.

“There is a rising and very important populism, talking about money in politics, talking about trade, talking about economic issues,” Teachout, 44, told Reuters. “Within the party, and across the board, there has been a serious rethinking of trade, rethinking of big banks, rethinking of monopolies that have too much power.”

The progressives in the Democratic Party made their presence known at the convention and throughout the 2016 race. They shifted the party’s platform to the left. They protested outside the Wells Fargo Center and jeered speakers from the convention floor. And thanks to the party’s left flank, Democrats almost nominated a self-described socialist for president.

Now there’s just one question left: Who will be their leader next year, after the new president, whoever that is, moves into the White House? …

“The truth is that there is no need for them to clash over a leadership role because they can lead in different areas doing different things,” said Charles Chamberlain, the executive director of the progressive Democracy for America in Vermont, who organized a Draft Warren for president effort before eventually endorsing Sanders in the primary. “Sanders has a full range of issues he has talked about in the campaign, while Warren is laser focused on income inequality and Wall Street reform.”

Instead of one lion, there could be “many lions,” said Progressive Change Campaign Committee cofounder Stephanie Taylor, adding, “Let many flowers bloom.”

Another aspect of Clinton’s appeal is that she seems to have evolved with the Democratic Party as it’s shifted to the left in recent years. “Two years ago, it was almost unimaginable that Hillary Clinton would be campaigning on debt-free college, expanding Social Security, breaking up too-big-to-fail banks and the public option,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told me. “The fact that she’s there isn’t necessarily a revolution—it is symbolic of years of progressive hard work moving the Democratic Party in a populist direction.”

Though Hillary Clinton’s choice of running mate renewed charges from the left over the weekend that she is a centrist – even a “corporatist” – who posed as progressive to get through a hard-fought Democratic primary, her actions on the campaign trail are hardly those of a candidate racing back to the center.

Clinton heads into the Democratic National Convention starting Monday in Philadelphia as one of the party’s most liberal nominees in recent history, tacking so far in the direction of progressives that some are still astonished by the positions she has taken.

“Two years ago, it was almost unimaginable that Hillary Clinton would be campaigning on debt-free college, expanding Social Security, breaking up ‘too big to fail’ banks and all these other progressive issues,” said Adam Green, a founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “It is the sign of our times and her recognition of where the country has moved.”

Bernie Sanders hoped to use his primetime address Monday at the Democratic National Convention here to highlight the moral victories achieved by his progressive insurgency while urging his supporters to consolidate behind Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump.

But the leak of internal emails showing Democratic National Committee staffers disparaging Sanders and discussing ways to undermine his White House bid has reopened the wounds of Clinton and Sanders’ fierce primary battle, complicating the Vermont senator’s task. …

Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Sanders should stress his campaign’s successes in moving the party to the left on key economic populist issues.

“There’s process, and there’s substance. Despite some process flaws, progressives won the day on the substance,” Green said. “The fact that we have a Democratic Party united around debt-free college, expanding Social Security, breaking up too-big-to-fail banks and the public option shows that we won.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is relishing her role as one of Hillary Clinton’s most effective attack dogs against Donald Trump. …

But Warren is unlikely to stop attacking Trump and pushing her economic message just because she won’t be the vice presidential nominee, say allies on the left.

“She’s motivated by a policy agenda she believes in,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “She’s not motivated by a desire to audition for a title.”

Democratic vice presidential pick Tim Kaine’s support for the financial industry isn’t likely to allay some liberals’ concerns that the party’s presidential ticket is too cozy with Wall Street.

Since being chosen by presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on Friday, a few voices in the party’s liberal wing have criticized the selection, saying the Virginia senator is a centrist who has taken positions out of step with the party’s anti-Wall Street, populist mood. …

Hoping to sway progressive voters, who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the campaign has taken on a more liberal agenda on financial regulation, including a robust defense of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and calling for the U.S. Postal Service to offer basic banking services. …

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee lauded initial steps by the Clinton-Kaine ticket to adopt populist positions and urged continued steps on financial regulation.

“We hope Tim Kaine soon joins Hillary Clinton in calling for breaking up too big to fail banks and prosecuting Wall Street bankers who break the law,” Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the organization, said in a statement Saturday.

Hillary Clinton debuted running mate Sen. Tim Kaine on Saturday as a can-do progressive committed to social justice and equality — “everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not” — at a boisterous rally ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention.

“He is qualified to step into this job and lead from Day One. And he is a progressive who likes to get things done,” Clinton declared at Florida International University. …

But progressive groups said they want more assurances that the White House, which has pushed the trade deal, won’t try to ram it through after the November election.

“The selection increases the burden on Hillary Clinton to pressure the White House to take TPP off the table in a lame-duck Congress,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Commentators have suggested that after Sanders’ success in Michigan, Clinton courted the big Midwestern states this week by sounding more like her rival than ever – that she won not by opposing Sanders, but by emulating him.

“Hillary Clinton won Ohio and had a Super Tuesday by riding the economic populist tide instead of fighting it,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, in a statement. “The primary continues – but no matter who wins, the center of gravity has fundamentally shifted in the Democratic Party.”

If Sanders’ goal was to force a sharp left turn out of the Clinton campaign – to force her to respond to those disillusioned with centrist politics – he has achieved it unequivocally. And despite her decisive victories yesterday, the fact remains that if Clinton is to win the White House, she will have to continue to accommodate the ideological challenge that Sanders represents and the voters who support it.

Sanders won Michigan by tapping into angst over trade, manufacturing and the overall economic outlook, primarily for lower-income workers in industrial Midwestern states.

As she has seen voters’ frustrations grow in her own party, Clinton has adopted Sanders’ message and even his language sometimes when speaking about income equality, and in opposing a large Pacific trade agreement that she once called the gold standard.

“Hillary Clinton won Ohio and had a Super Tuesday by riding the economic populist tide instead of fighting it,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Clinton has engaged Bernie Sanders in a race to the top on key issues like expanding Social Security instead of cutting it, breaking up too-big-to-fail banks, jailing Wall Street executives who break the law, and debt-free college. That was almost unimaginable a year ago.”

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last November found deep frustration, with nearly 7 in 10 Americans agreeing they were angry that the political system “seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington.”

1.3 Million Petition Signatures Delivered to Senators Calling For Supreme Court Nominee To Get Fair Consideration
Sen. Schumer: ai???They swear theyai??i??re gonna hold their ground, but over time, they fold.ai??? Sen. Murphy: ai???Senate Republicans are giving a middle finger to the American people.ai??? Groups: This is just the beginning of organizing the public.
Leaders From CREDO Action, Color of Change, MoveOn.org Civic Action, Every Voice, Daily Kos, Demand Progress, PFAW, Common Cause, PCCC, Ultra Violet Action, and NextGen Climate Tell Senate Republicans:
Do Your Job. Follow The Constitution. Or Prepare For Public Outrage.

Sen. Chuck Schumer as well as Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy accept over 1.3 million petition signatures from progressive groups includingCREDO, MoveOn.org Civic Action, Daily Kos, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), Demand Progress, UltraViolet Action, People For the American Way, Color of Change, Common Cause, NextGen Climate, and Every Voice, calling on Senate Republicans to stop SCOTUS obstruction.

Today, Senate Democrats and leading progressive groups vowed to increase public pressure on Senate Republicans until they stopped their Supreme Court obstruction and allowed a nominee to be fairly considered.

Standing with progressive organization leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said: ai???They swear theyai??i??re gonna hold their ground, but over time, they fold. Republican leadership said they would never fund the Affordable Care Act — they did. Republican leadership said they were never going to break the budget gaps and relieve sequestration — they did. They said theyai??i??d never reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank — they did. They said theyai??i??d never pass a DHS bill which funded the presidentai??i??s executive action on immigration. They said theyai??i??d never confirm Loretta Lynch — they did. And so, over and over again weai??i??ve seen this movie.ai???

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) added: ai???Senate Republicans are …

New PPP Poll Shows Sanders and Clinton Supporters Voting on Candidates Willingness to Challenge Corporate Power, Tackle Income Inequality, Protect Social Security

In a final poll of Iowans who plan to caucus for a Democrat completed over the weekend by PPP, and commissioned by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, voters say they are driven strongly by economic populism in their final voting decisions.

“During candidatesai??i?? closing statements last night, both Clinton and Sanders competed to embrace the mantle of economic populism, talking about the ai???rigged system,ai??i??” said Adam Green, PCCC co-founder, who is on the ground in Iowa for the Caucuses.

ai???Our new poll shows tapping into the growing economic populist tide in America is a winning strategy. A huge majority of Iowans are basing their vote tonight on candidatesai??i?? willingness to tackle income inequality, corporate power, and other powerful interests.

ai???Thatai??i??s why Democratic candidates for president are marching in an economic populist direction — competing to sound bolder on ideas like Wall Street reform, jailing bankers who broke the law, and other ai???Warren Wingai??i?? progressive priorities. No matter who wins the caucus, they will need a strong progressive platform to continue to win over Democratic voters for the nomination and win in November.”

PPP Poll Takeaways: Of Iowans who plan to caucus tonight for Democrats…

73% say ai???a candidateai??i??s willingness to strongly challenge powerful interestsai??? is ai???very importantai??? in how they vote.

Including 69% of Clinton voters and 87% of Sanders voters;

76% say ai???a candidateai??i??s willingness to challenge corporate power and take strong economic populist positionsai??? is ai???very importantai??? in how they vote.

Including 62% of Clinton voters and 86% of Sanders voters;

73% say ai???a candidateai??i??s commitment to addressing income inequalityai??? is ai???very importantai??? in how they vote.

Including 71% of Clinton voters, and 79% of Sanders voters.

Campaigns can seem daunting. Thatai??i??s why we recommend setting a series of manageable ai???microai??? goals, with rewards along the way. Itai??i??s the best and easiest way to make progress, even when it feels like there are a million things that need to be done.

Three examples of manageable goalsai??i??and rewards:

Fundraising. Set a goal for how much money you are going to raise in a day. The reward is that you wonai??i??t have to make any more fundraising calls once you hit that number. Five great phone calls to meet your goal is worth more than hour after hour of excruciating effort.

Endorsements. Set a goal for how many endorsements you will collect in the next week. You can ask anyone for endorsements, from elected officials to community leaders. Donai??i??t forget to post the endorsements on your website! When you meet your goal, reward yourself with a night off with your family. Remember that you can manage your endorsements in the ai???Endorsement Directoryai??? app in PIES.

Volunteers. When it comes to bringing volunteers in the door, results matter. Set a goal with your campaign team to complete ai???X Number of Volunteer Shiftsai??? over the next two weeks. Provide a pizza party at the end if the team meets their goal. Remember that you can track your volunteers in the ai???Field Managerai??? app in PIES.

Don’t have a PIES account yet, or not sure how to access it? Bringing PIES to your campaign begins by completing ourAi??candidate questionnaires hereAi??– or just email us atAi??help@campaignpies.comAi??with any questions.