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Democracy for America
Democracy For America for logo.png
Founded 2004
Headquarters Burlington, Vermont
Membership
 1 million+
Chair
 Charles R. Chamberlain
Chief Executive
 Yvette Simpson
Key people
 Howard Dean, Jim Dean

Democracy for America (DFA) was a group that worked to support progressive ideas and candidates in the United States. It was based in Burlington, Vermont. Howard Dean, who used to lead the Democratic National Committee, started DFA in 2004.

DFA helped people learn about important public issues. It also trained activists and gave money to candidates running for office. The group stopped its work in 2022. At its busiest time, DFA had many local groups and over a million members in the U.S. and other countries.

How Democracy for America Started

Early Years (2001–2004)

Before DFA, Howard Dean created a group called Fund for a Healthy America in 2001. He did this when he was planning to run for president. After his presidential campaign ended in March 2004, the group changed its name to "Democracy for America."

After his try for president in 2004, Dean used DFA to keep the energy going for Democratic candidates across the country. He also used it to help him become the leader of the Democratic National Committee. DFA used online organizing, which Dean had used for his presidential campaign. This helped elect Democrats who shared similar ideas. In 2004, DFA supported a group of Democrats known as the Dean Dozen at federal, state, and local levels.

From 2005 to 2022

In 2005, Howard Dean became the leader of the Democratic National Committee. He then gave control of DFA to his brother, Jim Dean. Since then, Democracy for America helped elect more than 600 progressive leaders. This included President Barack Obama. The group also grew to have over a million members who shared similar progressive views across all fifty states. In 2007, DFA became the first political group in the U.S. to be carbon-neutral. This means they balanced out their carbon emissions.

Arshad Hasan was the executive director from 2007 to 2013. After him, Charles R. Chamberlain took over. On January 1, 2019, Chamberlain became the chair, and Yvette Simpson became the chief executive. The group's ability to raise money became difficult under Simpson. In December 2022, Simpson announced she would leave the organization. DFA was no longer able to operate and was closed down. A related group, Democracy for America Advocacy Fund, continued to do some limited work.

DFA's Endorsements

DFA Logo
First DFA logo

DFA focused on supporting candidates at all levels of government, from local to national. DFA's endorsements often came from local members. The group provided help like money and contact information to the campaigns they supported. According to their records, DFA supported over 578 candidates. Candidates who wanted DFA's support could apply on the group's website.

DFA first supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential race. He received a very high 87.9% of votes in their online poll.

However, in July 2016, the group changed its support. They decided to join Bernie Sanders in officially supporting Hillary Clinton for President. Sanders later started his own group called Our Revolution.

Some important candidates DFA supported in the past include:

DFA's Political Views

Democracy for America's views on social and economic topics placed the group strongly on the left side of the American political ideas. Even though they often supported Democratic Party candidates, DFA was sometimes more left-leaning than many national and state Democratic lawmakers.

In 2006, the group supported Ned Lamont over Senator Joseph Lieberman in Connecticut's primary and general elections. DFA also supported Carol Shea-Porter in her Democratic primary and general election win in New Hampshire's 1st congressional district. In 2008, the group supported Donna Edwards from Maryland's 4th congressional district.

During the 2008 Minnesota Senate election between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, Democracy for America worked with another group. They called their campaign "Donate a Dollar a Day to Make Norm Go Away." Coleman lost to Franken after an official statewide recount.

Views on U.S. Issues

Before creating DFA, its founder, Howard Dean, was a strong supporter of universal health care. This means healthcare for everyone. So, DFA's first big campaign after the 2008 presidential election focused mainly on this issue. They supported the idea of universal healthcare.

In 2011, DFA was very interested in the rights of company employees. They supported this by promoting unions, which are groups that protect workers' rights. DFA, along with other groups, spent a lot of money to talk about these issues. They made phone calls, went door-to-door, and ran TV ads.

DFA also worked against laws that require voters to show government ID cards, birth certificates, or passports before voting. The group sometimes called these laws "too much" and "harsh." They argued that such laws made it harder for regular citizens to vote.

Also, DFA's Advocacy Fund helped support a digital campaign for universal Pre-K. This means free preschool for all children. They worked with Democratic Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici and other groups.

Furthermore, DFA supported laws to help homosexual Americans. They worked to protect the rights given to them by the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. The group sent volunteers to Maine to campaign against a vote in 2009. This vote would have canceled a same-sex marriage law passed by the state's lawmakers. DFA also pushed for the end of the ""Don't Ask, Don't Tell"" rule in the U.S. military. This rule used to prevent openly gay people from serving.

DFA also ran campaigns against big banks on Wall Street. They also had a "Boycott BP" campaign after an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from a pipe owned by BP.

Views on World Issues

Democracy for America supported the idea of the United States leaving the Iraq War.

Presidential Candidates DFA Supported

In 2008, Democracy for America supported Barack Obama. At that time, he was openly against the Iraq War. In February 2009, President Obama clearly stated that American troops would leave Iraq by August 31, 2010. DFA continued to support Obama even after this date passed.

In 2016, DFA supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 United States presidential election. This was based on a poll of their supporters on the DFA website.

In 2020, DFA again supported Bernie Sanders, also based on a website poll.

Training and Learning Programs

DFA members at both national and local levels took part in many training programs. These programs were designed to teach future candidates how to run a successful political campaign. DFA's main training program was called the Campaign Academy. It included 16 hours of active workshops. Hundreds of local activists, campaign staff, and candidates came together for 2 days of intense campaign training. Topics included: how to organize online, how to end a campaign, talking to voters door-to-door, making phone calls, finding volunteers, how to get more people to vote, planning how to raise money, keeping up your media presence, winning with social media, and building a volunteer army.

"DFA Night School" was the group's online training program. Each session was an hour-long interactive phone call and web presentation. Trainees could take part and ask questions.

Netroots Nation Scholarship

DFA also gave scholarships to progressive or liberal bloggers. This was called the "Netroots Nation Scholarship." In 2010, DFA sent 60 online activists to Netroots Nation. This event was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Other places where the Netroots Nation Convention was held included Austin, Texas, in 2008 and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2009.

Dean Corps Program

In 2010, DFA sent field organizers to progressive campaigns for a program called Dean Corps. This program was similar to another one called Progressive Patriot Corps. The organizers were a helpful gift to the campaigns they joined. The goal was to hire, train, and place field organizers on important progressive campaigns. This helped elect more progressive Democrats.

See also

  • America Coming Together
  • Howard Dean
  • Jim Dean (activist)
  • Dean Dozen
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