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Forward Majority Action
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| Forward Majority Action | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | New York, N.Y. |
| Type: | Super PAC |
| Affiliation: | Democrat |
| Year founded: | 2017 |
| Website: | Official website |
Forward Majority Action is a super PAC that was founded in 2017 to support Democratic candidates for state legislative races. Forward Majority Action can spend unlimited amounts in support or opposition to a candidate for office but cannot make direct contributions to candidates or their campaigns. The group is affiliated with Forward Majority Action PAC, a federal political action committee that can donate directly to candidates running for office.
Mission
As of September 2017, the website for Forward Majority Action listed the following mission statement:[1]
| “ | Turn resistance into power. Forward Majority is a new movement to take control and protect our democracy by winning back state legislatures.[2] | ” |
Background
Forward Majority was founded in 2017 by David Cohen, who formerly worked on President Barack Obama's (D) 2008 campaign, and Vicky Hausman, a longtime Democratic strategist. According to Politico, the organization was founded with the aim to flip as many as 12 state legislatures from Republican to Democratic between 2017 and 2021. Politico wrote, "Forward Majority’s model includes targeting more races than most local parties or state caucuses are likely to touch. The goal is to flip chambers from GOP hands to Democratic control by using the kinds of expensive campaign tactics seldom used in such local races, including polling and message testing."[3]
Work
2018 elections
Targeted states
According to Axios, Forward Majority Action targeted 12 state legislatures in 2018 using information they hoped to gain in Virginia's state elections in 2017. They intended to work on 130 state House races and 60 state Senates races in the following states:[4]
2017 elections
According to The Washington Times, Forward Majority's first efforts were aimed at influencing the 2017 elections for Virginia's House of Delegates. Vicky Hausman, the organization's chief operating officer, said, "To start, we are going to put seats in play that expand the map of competitive districts in the Virginia House of Delegates. To win, we will run powerful, efficient campaigns to support Democratic legislative candidates and bring the necessary muscle to win state chambers back for Democrats. Virginia is considered one of the most gerrymandered states at the legislative level, and the map is rigged to Republicans’ advantage."[5]
These were the 12 states that Forward Majority said it would target in the 2017-2018 state legislative elections. Of the 12 states, only Virginia held elections in 2017. The other 11 states held elections in 2018.
These partisan breakdown figures roughly reflect the partisan breakdown of a chamber heading into either the 2017 or 2018 elections. It does not show the partisan breakdown of the chamber following the election. Please see the chamber page for a more precise count.
Last updated February 2018.
| States targeted by Forward Majority: 2017-2018 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Senate breakdown | Senate seats up in 2017-2018 | House breakdown | House seats up in 2017-2018 | U.S. House seats |
| Colorado | 18-17 | 17 | 37-28 | 65 | 7 |
| Florida | 24-15 | 20 | 76-40 | 120 | 27 |
| Georgia | 36-17 | 56 | 116-62 | 180 | 14 |
| Michigan | 27-11 | 38 | 63-47 | 110 | 14 |
| Minnesota | 34-33 | No elections[6] | 76-57 | 134 | 8 |
| New Hampshire | 14-10 | 24 | 219-174 | 400 | 2 |
| New York | 31-30[7] | 63 | 106-41 | 150 | 27 |
| North Carolina | 35-15 | 50 | 75-45 | 120 | 13 |
| Ohio | 23-9 | 17 | 65-33 | 99 | 16 |
| Pennsylvania | 34-16 | 25 | 121-80 | 203 | 18 |
| Virginia | 21-19 | No elections[8] | 51-49 | 100[9] | 11 |
| Wisconsin | 19-13 | 17 | 63-35 | 99 | 8 |
| Total | -- | 327 | -- | 1680 | 165 |
Leadership
As of September 2017, the website for Forward Majority listed the following individuals as members of the organization's leadership:[10]
- Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), Honorary co-chair
- Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Honorary co-chair
- Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Honorary co-chair
- David Cohen, Founder and executive director
- Vicky Hausman, Founder and chief operating officer
- Saul Shemesh, Polling and analytics director
- Ethan Roeder, Campaigns director
Legal status
Forward Majority Action is a super PAC. A super PAC is a political committee that can solicit and spend unlimited sums of money. A super PAC cannot contribute directly to a politician or political party, but it can spend independently to campaign for or against political figures. These committees are also called independent expenditure-only committees. A super PAC is not legally considered a political action committee (PAC) and as such is regulated under separate rules.[11][12]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Forward Majority Action'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Forward Majority, "Mission," accessed September 8, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Politico, "Democrats launch super PAC to win back statehouses," September 6, 2017
- ↑ Axios, "Dem super PAC expanding state legislature campaign to 12 states," September 12, 2017
- ↑ The Washington Times, "Democratic PAC looks to flip statehouses, starting with Virginia in 2017," September 6, 2017
- ↑ The Minnesota Senate held elections in 2020. Sixty-seven seats were up.
- ↑ As of February 2018, the partisan breakdown of the New York State Senate was 31-30 with two vacancies. One Democrat caucused with the Republicans and eight Democrats were members of the Independent Democratic Conference.
- ↑ The Virginia Senate held elections in 2019. Forty seats were up.
- ↑ The Virginia House held elections in 2017.
- ↑ Forward Majority, "About Us," accessed September 8, 2017
- ↑ The Atlantic, "The New York Times' Disingenuous Campaign Against Citizens United," February 24, 2012
- ↑ The New York Times, "Who's Financing the 'Super PACs?" May 7, 2012
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