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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 in the United States that supported progressive ideas and political candidates. It was like a team that helped people who wanted to make changes in politics. Founded in 2004 by Howard Dean, a former political leader, DFA helped raise awareness about important issues. It also trained people who wanted to get involved in politics and gave money to candidates running for office. DFA stopped operating in 2022. At its busiest, it had over a million members across the country and even internationally.

History of Democracy for America

How DFA Started (2001–2004)

Before DFA, Howard Dean created a group called "Fund for a Healthy America" in 2001. This was 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 didn't work out, Dean used DFA to keep the energy going for other Democratic candidates. He also used it to help his own successful campaign to become the leader of the Democratic National Committee. DFA used online tools and community organizing, which Dean had used in his presidential campaign. This helped elect Democrats who shared similar ideas. In 2004, DFA supported many Democrats at different levels of government. These candidates were sometimes called the Dean Dozen.

DFA's Work from 2005 to 2022

In 2005, Howard Dean gave control of DFA to his brother, Jim Dean. This happened when Howard Dean became the leader of the Democratic National Committee. Since then, Democracy for America helped elect over 600 progressive politicians. This included President Barack Obama. The group also grew its membership to over a million people across all fifty states. In 2007, DFA became the first political action committee in the U.S. to be carbon-neutral. This means they balanced their carbon emissions.

Arshad Hasan was the executive director from 2007 to 2013. Then, Charles R. Chamberlain took over. In 2019, Chamberlain became the chair, and Yvette Simpson became the chief executive. However, the group struggled to raise money under Simpson. In December 2022, Simpson announced she would leave the organization. DFA was no longer able to pay its bills and had to close down. A related group, the DFA Advocacy Fund, continued some limited work.

DFA's Endorsements: The DFA-List

DFA focused on supporting candidates at all levels of government, from local to national. Often, DFA's members in local groups helped decide which candidates to support. DFA would then provide help, like money and contact lists, to the campaigns they endorsed. According to their records, the group supported over 578 candidates. Candidates who wanted DFA's support could apply on the organization's website.

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

However, in July 2016, the organization 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 well-known candidates DFA supported in the past include:

What DFA Believed In: Political Positions

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

In 2006, the group supported Ned Lamont over Senator Joseph Lieberman in Connecticut's elections. DFA also supported Carol Shea-Porter in her election victory in New Hampshire. In 2008, the group supported Donna Edwards of Maryland.

During the 2008 Minnesota Senate election, DFA worked with another group to create a campaign called "Donate a Dollar a Day to Make Norm Go Away." This was against candidate Norm Coleman, who later lost the election.

Domestic Issues DFA Supported

Before starting DFA, the group's founder, Howard Dean, was a strong supporter of universal health care. This means he believed everyone should have access to healthcare. So, DFA's first big campaign after the 2008 presidential election focused mainly on supporting universal healthcare.

In 2011, DFA was very interested in the rights of company employees. They supported this by promoting trade unions, which are groups that protect workers' rights. DFA and other organizations spent a lot of money to talk to people 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 organization said these laws were "too much" and made it hard for regular citizens to vote.

Additionally, DFA supported laws to help homosexual Americans. They worked to protect the rights given to them through the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. The organization sent volunteers to Maine to campaign against a law that would have canceled same-sex marriage. 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.

Foreign Policy Issues DFA Supported

Democracy for America supported the idea of the United States taking its troops out of the Iraq War.

Presidential Candidates DFA Supported

In 2008, Democracy for America supported Barack Obama. At that time, he spoke out against the Iraq War. In February 2009, President Obama said that American troops would leave Iraq by August 31, 2010. DFA continued to support Obama even when this didn't happen exactly as planned.

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

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

Training and Scholarships

DFA members, both nationally and locally, took part in many training programs. These programs taught future candidates how to run a successful political campaign. DFA's main training program was called the Campaign Academy. It involved 16 hours of hands-on workshops. Hundreds of local activists, campaign workers, and candidates came together for two 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 presence in the news, winning with social media, and building a strong volunteer team.

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

Netroots Nation Scholarship Competition

DFA also gave out scholarships to progressive or liberal bloggers. These were called the "Netroots Nation Scholarship." In 2010, DFA sent 60 online activists to Netroots Nation, a big conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Other places where the Netroots Nation Convention has been held include Austin, Texas, in 2008 and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2009.

Dean Corps

In 2010, DFA sent people called "field organizers" to progressive campaigns as part of a program called Dean Corps. These organizers were a way for DFA to contribute to the campaigns. The goal was to hire, train, and place these organizers on important progressive campaigns. This helped elect more progressive Democrats.

See also

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

Images for kids

  • DFA Logo

    The first logo for Democracy for America.

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