The Fires of LA

When it feels like the world is on fire, sometimes it is.

It has been devastating for all of us seeing wildfires consume thousands of homes, businesses and schools in Southern California these past days. The loss of life and memories is incalculable. This may be the most destructive natural disaster in our lifetimes.

It hurts on multiple levels. I have friends who have been burnt out of house and home. I’ve been to that part of the country many, many times and it’s no exaggeration to say it’s one of the most beautiful parts of the United States. In many places you can see the ocean and feel what has drawn people there for generations. Now, those communities are ashes and husks and thousands of families are not sure whether they will ever return.

There’s both a sense of helplessness and frustration that the wildfires could not be better contained. Seeing families in despair that their homes could not be saved is heartbreaking in part because it feels like it could have been different. This is not an earthquake, where you could say, “Well, what could you do?” Instead, it seems that some of this destruction was avoidable and preventable.

America being what it is in 2025, this disaster has become politicized. Climate change certainly played a role, intensifying the vulnerability of the region and the intensity of the winds. Donald Trump is crowing about blue state failure. California politicians are looking to shift blame and responsibility. Gavin Newsom is looking at Karen Bass, who will be an easy target given that she was abroad when the fires intensified.

To be sure, these fires will have profound political implications. I’ve spoken to multiple Californians who are furious at what they see as profound incompetence by a clumsy, bureaucratic government that failed to protect them when it mattered most. There will be a movement in the days to come calling for change and accountability.

But the impact is felt by all of us because of the scale of the destruction and the human toll. One of our cultural centers has partially burnt to the ground, 24 people have died and thousands are dislocated. If the people of Los Angeles aren’t safe from a fire, who can consider their way of life secure? That’s not a question we have been forced to ask ourselves, but it’s now with us more and more. We are all set to become firefighters in one way or another. I wish it were different.

To donate to shelters for the dislocated, you can do so here with the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Talking Good

Hello, I hope ’25 is off and running for you!

I get asked all of the time about what it was like running for President. Running for President was in many ways a communications challenge. You have a vision you want to present to people. But it’s also competitive in that there are others – lifelong politicians – who want airtime and you have to try to break through.

This week on the podcast I interview Michael Chad Hoeppner, the author of the new book “Don’t Say Um: How to Communicate Effectively to Live a Better Life.” Michael was the expert, then a communications professor at Columbia Business School, my campaign brought in to coach me prior to the 2nd primary debate. You might recognize him as the “Terence” character in The Last Election.

“People think of communication as something you either are good at or you’re not. But it’s something that virtually anyone can get better at if they put in the time and practice in the right way,” Michael observes. “Communication is a physical act and something that responds to training.” Michael was a Broadway performer earlier in his career, which is very physical.

Michael’s approach clicked for me because he homed in on how I was speaking as a performance activity. For example, he identified immediately that I had a tendency to cram too many words per minute into some of my answers. A slower pace would lead to more pauses and emphasis and a stronger delivery. Michael changed the timer in my head so I felt that I didn’t have to rush through a number of drills and exercises.

His book takes the same approach with different aspects of communication, like vocal variety: Pace, Pause, Power, Pitch and Placement. He also writes about optimizing your posture, gestures and nervous energy. My team got used to my reciting “Topeka bodega, topeka bodega” as a warm-up prior to a televised interview. I would sometimes jump up and down or jog in place backstage before a debate to get my blood pumping.

I said to Michael on the trail, “You should write a book.” And now here we are. One thing I love about Michael is he’s totally pragmatic. “The title of the book is a trick; we get negative directions all of the time, like ‘don’t be nervous.’ That stuff doesn’t work. Thought suppression doesn’t work, like ‘don’t think of a pink elephant.’ The question really is how do we develop the muscle memory to do all of the things we want to do in a communications setting without thinking about them. My goal for the book is to have people be aware of their top 1 to 3 communications practices they can improve on and then actually implement them in real life.”

Michael is passionate about helping people communicate better. He’s acutely aware of the era we are in. “With technology getting more and more powerful, it’s more important than ever that we have positive humans who are effective communicators with good intentions.” As he writes in his book, “We need honorable, moral communicators!” I couldn’t agree more, whether it’s advancing in one’s career, running for office or just living a better life expressing your thoughts to those around you.

For my podcast interview with Michael, click here. For his book, including a free chapter, click here. It’s also my birthday today – if you want to help me celebrate do something positive for someone in your life!

A Big Year

Hello, I hope that 2025 is off to a great start for you and yours!

This should be a big year. I turn 50 next week, which I suppose is a natural time to be a little reflective.

Some people express surprise when they hear that I’m turning 50 – I guess the moisturizer works. Apparently I seem much younger? Occasionally an older friend says, “You’re still a baby, welcome to the club!” I guess both can be true.

I’ve been young my whole life. I skipped kindergarten as a kid – I never learned to share – and was the small, young, scrawny kid every year. I was 11 in 7th grade for example. It did not help in sports.

Incidentally, I now think it’s a good idea for boys in particular to start later as they mature a bit more slowly. One of our boys is repeating a grade right now. Also a good idea? Gap years. I don’t think there’s a rush.

But back then, I kind of did. I started a company that flopped when I was 25, sold a company when I was 34, started Venture for America at 36 and started running for President at 43. I was convinced that AI was around the corner that was going to make life even more tenuous for the average American.

I was 45 in 2020, which definitely made me one of the youngest candidates in the field. Politics will make you seem young by comparison.

I’m grateful that I ran when my kids were too young to understand what the heck was going on. They still think of Iowa as a fun, chilly place with a children’s museum that allowed you to actually saw objects in half.

A mentor said to me, “You’re going to be more productive in the next 10 years than you ever were.” His argument was that I now know gajillions of people, I know how things work, I’ve been inside the machine. Not coincidentally, he’s 10 years older than I am. He also said, “A lot of people are looking to you to make sense of what’s happening.”

One thing that has given me a positive attitude about turning 50 is that I’ve tried to maximize my time in terms of making a difference. I haven’t been slacking, you know what I mean? I’ve taken big swings and have had a journey I’m proud of.

Thank you helping to make that so.

My friend is right that I know things now that I didn’t know before. I’d like to take advantage of them.

Can we accomplish big things? Let’s do our best in 2025. We have the time that’s given to us and nothing more. It’s up to us to make the most of it.

Thank you for keeping up with me. If you’d like to help celebrate my birthday, please consider making a donation to Forward – we have some new gear that I’m enjoying. To hear my 2025 predictions on this week’s podcast, click here.

Here’s to thriving in ’25!

Expect More Lawmakers to Go 'Independent' in the Coming Year

Hello, I hope your holidays are going well. I wrote an op-ed in Newsweek to ring in the new year, with some bold predictions for 2025. I hope you enjoy it!

Expect More Lawmakers to Go 'Independent' in the Coming Year

Happy New Year! 2024 is now in the rearview mirror, and we have a big new year to look forward to. What can we expect in '25? Here are my top predictions for what we're likely to see:

For starters, the Republicans will struggle to pass legislation due to their historically narrow margin in the House. We saw this in December, as Elon Musk went against the budget plan that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had painstakingly hammered out before Trump even took office. Extending Trump's tax cuts will become a major intra-party food fight with a few deficit hawks balking at anything that raises the deficit, which will be just about everything. Pity Mike Johnson; unifying the different factions of the GOP will be next to impossible given his lack of leverage. He might not last the year as Speaker, even as the Republicans have no one better situated to lead the caucus.

You can also expect at least one member of Congress or the Senate to declare him or herself an Independent, mirroring a trend. In this last Congress, two Senators—Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema—left the Democratic Party and became Independents. Expect the same to happen on the Republican side this time. It's not just a trend among lawmakers: 50 percent of voters now identify as Independents, according to Gallup, and Jim Duggan, the mayor of Detroit, has already declared that he's going to run for governor of Michigan as an Independent. Being an Independent will become more of a common attribute in 2025, as officials look to brand themselves as not beholden to one party or another.

Expect at least one Democrat to declare their presidential candidacy for 2028 in 2025, three years before the primary. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the Democratic Party is in the wilderness looking for an identity, and electing a DNC Chair that most Americans have never heard of isn't going to change that. Multiple heavyweights are going to declare in Fall of 2026, so why not get a jump on them and have the Left-leaning media all to yourself? They'll have you on cable news shows, as they don't have much else to talk about for the next two years. I declared early in the 2020 cycle because I knew I would need time to build up recognition. It had its plusses and minuses, but this cycle, the plusses outweigh the downsides for multiple candidates. Expect someone to take the plunge early, and for election season to be every season.

Next, I expect there will tragically be more assassination attempts on both CEOs and political figures. Luigi Mangione's murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth, unfortunately drew sympathetic reactions in many quarters. Trump of course survived one assassination attempt, perhaps two. In disintegrating and polarized societies, targeted violence becomes normalized. Unfortunately, the United States fits that description. One common pattern in decaying democracies are attacks on judicial figures. 2025 is likely to represent a high-water mark in political violence committed by the misguided, deranged and criminal.

I expect there to be multiple major strikes, including by teachers, airline workers, healthcare workers, and postal workers. 2024 had notable labor stoppages, including dockworkers and a recently resolved Actors and Writers Guild strike in Hollywood. A number of major contracts are up in 2025, and the pressure being brought to bear by automation is increasing. The Republican administration will be unlikely to intervene. At least one of these strikes will drag on for weeks, causing meaningful disruption.

Also, expect inflation to stay alive and well. The Fed signaled in December that it would not be cutting rates as much as many hoped to guard against inflation. Trump himself recently admitted "it's hard to make prices go down after they go up," and many companies have realized that they can pass costs along to consumers. Tariffs are inflationary, and so are deportations. Prices for many consumer goods will go up if tariffs are established on imports from certain countries. Housing prices will stay high too, as mortgage rates stay elevated compared to 2021 levels.

Finally, expect the movement to reduce smartphone use among teens to grow and spread to numerous states that implement phone-free schools. Jonathan Haidt's book The Anxious Generation has dominated the bestseller list for months, and parents have figured out that smartphones are not their kids' friends. Young people also are realizing that clicking on other people's exaggerated lifestyles doesn't lead to a positive frame of mind. There will be an impulse for many Americans to live simpler lives, and more people both old and young will opt out of social media networks.

Of course, the most important thing for each of us in the New Year will be how we approach opportunities and setbacks in our own lives. Try to look out for yourself and those around you. The institutional challenges are going to keep on picking up steam. If you want something to happen, you might have to do it yourself.

Here's to thriving in '25!

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays! We hope that you are enjoying the holiday season with friends and family.

This is a special time. I remember as a kid being thrilled when holiday lights went up in the neighborhood.  Evelyn and I now do our best to create those kinds of memories for our children.  A big part of that is spending time with their grandparents.  My father is now entering his mid-eighties and doesn’t travel very well, so we go visit him.

Occasionally my boys will quarrel or call each other annoying.  I try to tell them that family is the most important thing, and they are very lucky to have each other.  When you’re a kid, you see a ton of your sibling because you’re trapped in a car together for hours on end.  When you’re older, life gets busy and it’s easy to go a while without seeing family members unless you try.

I’ve always seen the Holiday Season as a time to commune with those closest to you.  Whether it’s friends or family or colleagues or neighbors, let the people in your life know how much they mean to you.  Sometimes hearing from you will make an enormous difference.

Happy Holidays!  Give your family a hug for us and see you in 2025!

With warmth and gratitude,

Andrew, Evelyn, Christopher and Damian

Humanity Lost

“Guys, defending or justifying shooting a man in the street is a path to hell.  Don’t do it.”  I posted that on social media and it touched a chord on both sides, getting millions of views and thousands of responses.

I obviously wrote it about the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth.  Watching the video of his execution was jarring, like a dystopian scene come to life.  It’s stunning to me how many people have taken the side of the killer given how cold-blooded his actions were. 

Brian Thompson was the father of two children.  Those kids will never see their Dad again. 

I’m also sad for Luigi Mangione, a young man radicalized to commit murder who will spend the rest of his life behind bars.  A young person becoming a killer is tragic.

Beyond these two lives and families destroyed, I’m sad for what this killing and the reaction to it augur for our society.  Amazon has sold over 100,000 green “Luigi” knit hats and the jacket Mangione wore during the shooting has apparently sold out.  A demented young man is now an icon to those who feel that the system is rigged against them.

The first step toward violence is regarding others as less human than you are.  To some, a wealthy CEO of a health insurance company is no longer a human being worthy of consideration.

Some would make the argument that UnitedHealth prematurely ended thousands of lives through its business practices.  A Zoom was leaked that showed the new UnitedHealth CEO saying that his team should ‘ignore the noise’ and that the company’s practices were sound; one can only guess that it was leaked by an employee on the call.  But the practices of a company have nothing to do with the right and wrong of gunning a man down.  It’s only when people become figures in a morality play rather than flesh and blood humans that atrocities become subject to argument.

Is this killing a sign of things to come?  I fear it is.  I have looked into the eyes of a person radicalized by social media yelling obscenities on the street.  There was no reason or empathy in those eyes – only hatred.  They did not regard their ideological opponents as people, but as enemies to be defeated or conquered.

“The most ferocious fight is never good vs. evil,” someone once told me, “but good vs. good.”  People feel that their cause is righteous.  Righteousness bleeds into protest which in some cases leads to violence.  If you are on the side of justice, what side is your enemy on?  And what are you willing to do to ensure that your side wins?

I often think that the antidote to what ails us is to see everyone, including our enemies, as human beings with friends and families.  It seems obvious, but it’s becoming less and less the norm in American life.

Is it possible to lower the temperature and raise people’s awareness of our shared humanity?  We can only hope so, but the winds are blowing the other direction more and more strongly.  The answer is more humanity, not less.

Forward is having an end-of-year online event on Wednesday – come see what we’re up to including special announcements and guests!  For an in-depth conversation with an economist on the impact of online sports gambling, click on the podcast here.

Sports Betting Hurts American Men. Time To Rethink Its Regulation

Hello, I hope your December is off to a great start!  This week, I wrote a Newsweek op-ed about the growing dangers of online sports betting and its impact on American men.  I hope you’ll take a moment to read and reflect on this important issue.

Sports Betting Hurts American Men. Time To Rethink Its Regulation

I do something regularly that I wish I didn't. I bet on sports online.

Perhaps you've seen the advertisements for FanDuel, DraftKings, Fanatics, and the like. You definitely have if you've turned on any sports program recently, as the advertisements come in hot and heavy every few minutes, including on SportsCenter, which now has segments on what bets to make. Heck, ESPN has even gotten in on the action — literally — with ESPN Bet.

These apps are now enormous businesses. Estimates are that online sports betting companies are taking in around $15 billion in 2024, and that 37.6 million people bet online in the United States. About three in four betters are men. Broadcasts and sporting events are regularly sponsored by one of the online sportsbooks.

I'm one of their customers. I watch a lot of sports and started betting on various games and events a couple years ago. I was enticed in part by a promotion that would give me $250 if I made a couple of bets. Who would turn down free money? Not me.

This is all a relatively recent development, as in 2018 the Supreme Court ruled that it was up to each state to decide whether sports betting would be legal within its borders. New Jersey was first to declare betting legal and many others quickly followed; today we are up to 38 states that have legalized betting in some context.

So what are the problems?

The data are clear and compelling — and not good. As author Charles Fain Lehman put it, "The rise of sports gambling has caused a wave of financial and familial misery, one that falls disproportionately on the most economically precarious households."

First, households save less. One study showed that for every $1 spent on betting, households put $2 less into investment accounts. You see more families overdrafting a bank account or hitting the limit on a credit card. This makes sense to me; the money I bet remains either in the app or in a bank account to be recycled for the next bet.

Second, personal bankruptcies go up. Economists have found that legalizing sports betting increased the risk of a household going bankrupt by 25 to 30 percent, with the risk highest among young men living in low-income counties. Bad debt rates also went up.

Third, domestic violence increases. This is hard to say out loud but anyone who has bet on sports can see the connection. When you lose money on a bet, it puts you a terrible mood. It stresses you out. If you go home to a partner, it could be your partner that suffers. Researchers estimate that legalized sports betting leads to a 9 percent increase in domestic violence.

These are measurable phenomena, but addiction has been connected to feelings of anxiety and depression as well. I get it. I used to watch a sporting event and root for a team, or a player or outcome. The emotions are different when money is involved. It has transformed a sense of disappointment into calamity — and in my case the money I'm betting isn't going to keep me from putting food on the table. Imagine if it did?

Athletes now also report that fans bark at them for "ruining their parlay." It used to be that maybe the fan liked the athlete or identified with them. Now, the fan's bet is the dominant thing on his mind.

Betting on sports online is a perfect storm for men in that it combines things we enjoy at a visceral level: sports, money, speed, risk, and thinking that we know something that others don't. It's social, and it makes spending time on sports seem like a job that will pay you money. But what makes it such a powerful intoxicant also gives it the ability to ruin your financial life, your relationships, and your mental health.

I would love to see the regulation on this issue rethought. The main imperative right now is for the states that have not made sports betting legal — Alabama, Alaska, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, and Utah — to keep it from reaching people's phones. I'm sure the companies are in your statehouses right now making their case. "It's easy tax revenue and everyone else is doing it! It's fun!" But the facts are clear. Online sports betting is the equivalent of a new tax on Americans that preys upon vulnerable, low-income men in particular. It increases financial stresses and emotional problems. It's not what your citizens need.

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Struggling with gambling or know someone who is?  You're not alone — resources are available to help you and your loved ones.  This week on the podcast, Donté Stallworth shares his incredible journey from underdog to NFL superstar, offering a unique perspective on the impact of sports gambling on professional athletes.  Plus, I’m honored to have made the list of the top 10 most-viewed TED Talks of 2024 — check out my TED Talk here!

Being Thankful

Hello, I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  We spent it with family and friends.  My Mom did a great job of maintaining a Thanksgiving tradition for years, and now it's our turn.  

I sometimes get asked how I stay positive.  There are a few things I try to do.  Exercise.  Spend time outdoors.  Reading and writing. 

One other thing – which is very appropriate for the season – is being grateful.  “Science shows that expressing gratitude is one of the best things we can do for our own happiness,” says Rajiv Satyal, a comedian and public speaker I interview on the podcast this week. 

“Every day I jot down a few things I’m grateful for that day.  It could be something as simple as a free pizza I got.  And then I express it either in writing or as part of a dinner toast.”  Rajiv’s technique is a bit different than mine; I have a file on my phone with the big things:  my parents are still with us and healthy, my family is doing well, etc.  Rajiv goes with the little things instead of the big things.  It turns out they both work.

One reason I wanted to talk to Rajiv is that these are kind of depressing times.  Heck, even the holiday season is depressing for many as it gets colder and the sun isn’t out as much.  We can all use a little bit of happiness nudging. 

In addition to gratitude, Rajiv has a number of other techniques.  “Don’t try to measure your progress so often.  A lot of the time you’re in a plateau.  A plateau can last for a while and then you level up.  One day is definitely too short.  One week or one month might also be too short.  Now, if you don’t make progress in six months, that’s another story.” 

Rajiv also says to define yourself and your activity accurately.  “Look, I’m a comedian.  I can be a comedian whether a certain joke worked or not, or a certain concept worked, I’m still working it out.  If I define myself by what the market is saying or how much I made in a particular period, then I might think of myself a different way.  Define yourself in a way that gives you the ability to grow.” 

Rajiv is a very positive guy.  “Out of 64 people in that first comedy competition that I won, I might be the only one who is still onstage.”  But he also remembers giving someone some very unusual advice.  “There was another comedian, I told him to quit. And it wasn’t because he wasn’t funny.  The problem is he was getting less funny.  You could tell.  When that’s your trend, you should probably rethink your line of work.  I saw him years later and he pulled me aside and said, ‘Thank you, you’re the only one who would tell me.’”  Sometimes being positive means letting it go.  

For my convo with Rajiv, click here.  Find things to be grateful for.  Happy Holidays and let the people in your life know how much they mean to you!

What Are the Limits?

Hello, I hope that you and yours are doing well. 

Appetite for the news has gone down in the wake of the election, as many people find it depressing. 

That said, a few questions are on everyone’s minds in regards to the incoming administration: 

1.     Are they going to be able to confirm their announced Cabinet appointments? 

2.     Will the Department of Government Efficiency really be able to downsize the federal government? 

3.     Will they follow through with their announced plans, i.e. mass deportations?

To help answer these questions, I interviewed legal expert and ABC news contributor Sarah Isgur on the podcast this week.  “The Supreme Court has taken a dim view of the expansion of executive powers these past several years.  A few of the Justices who Trump appointed, for example, actually said in one opinion that recess appointments weren’t still a thing and were an anachronism based on a time when it was a lot harder for the Senate to get to D.C. from their hometowns via horse and carriage.”  This is one of the main workarounds that gets mentioned, which is that Trump would make his appointments when the Senate is in recess.  Sarah thinks this would run afoul of recent rulings. 

That said, Sarah noted that it’s possible that the Supreme Court could wait to hear the case for months during which time the appointed Cabinet member could serve in their role.  “The Court could say you can’t appoint the person while they’re waiting for the case to be heard, or they could say that they can serve in a temporary capacity.  But the temporary capacity could be 18 months, after which it could become moot.” 

A number of Republican Senators have already indicated that they don’t like a couple Cabinet picks. Gaetz likely dropped out for this reason. Sarah said that both the Supreme Court and the Senate could look to avoid a head-on confrontation with Donald Trump in order to preserve their power.  “It looks bad, obviously, if you say something and then Trump does another. So both the Senate and the Supreme Court will try and avoid that situation.” 

So it seems that the Senate will indeed wield clout in its traditional approval role. What about Trump’s stated desire to fire various federal employees and downsize the government?  

“There is actually a law called the anti-deficiency act that stipulates that the Executive Branch must spend the amount of money allocated by Congress to a particular agency,” Sarah observes.  “So you can’t just not spend the money, at least according to the statute.”  I don’t think this would constrain Trump and his allies.  Elon in particular is going to want to head down this road. His WSJ op-ed with Vivek lays out a clear plan to shrink the workforce by reducing the number of regulations they are responsible for.  In a battle between Elon and the bureaucracy, I’d bet on Elon.  I’d be very concerned if I was a rank-and-file federal employee. 

There’s a famous quote from President Andrew Jackson about the Supreme Court ruling against forced removal of Native Americans in 1832:  “John Marshall (the Chief Justice) has made his ruling, now let him enforce it.”  Andrew Jackson is not an admired President.  But Donald Trump is going to feel he has a popular mandate based on his sweeping electoral win.  His staff picks indicate that he was sincere in what he said he was going to do as President.  I think he follows through, and the Senate and the Supreme Court will find themselves increasingly challenged as to when to stand up to Trump and when to let him have his way.  The ongoing decline of our institutions will speed up in 2025. 

For my interview with Sarah Isgur, which is more positive, click here.  To help fuel the Forward political movement click here – new people are joining these days.  For a bottle of wine, click here.  Kidding!  

The Solution in Plain Sight

Hello, I hope that your weekend was great. 

Trump’s appointments are coming in every hour.  Some of them are better than others.  Of course, the most unprecedented is to see what Elon Musk can do as one of the co-efficiency czars. 

I’m in the school of thought that, yes, there are many extraneous expenses and employees in the massive federal government, but you don’t want to take a wrecking ball to it because you might need something or someone and there are a lot of legacy responsibilities, so you have to go in with a scalpel.  You also want to give everyone some notice and time to adjust, both within the government and among the many people that are touched by various programs.  But we are likely going to see the wrecking ball approach. 

This regime is going to seriously engage with its stated missions and will let very little stand in its way.  That’s how they won, after all. 

I’m particularly focused on whether they genuinely can deliver a better standard of living for working class voters.  The history of the Republican Party under Trump has been measures that exacerbate the plight of the have-nots combined with symbolic gestures that gin up energy. 

I’ve been trying to improve people’s circumstances since my presidential run started in 2018.  Right now Humanity Forward is lobbying for a return of the enhanced child tax credit, which is the biggest anti-poverty opportunity on the table.  There is an expressed openness among Republicans to doing something that their base would like; JD Vance for example was very bullish on the CTC during the campaign.  There is hope on this front. 

Bigger picture, I have been working on reforming the political system so that it can respond to people and solve problems.  Forward Party got many new members last week and helped elect 25 new office holders, bringing the national total to 65.  That’s not bad for a scrappy upstart party. 

I’ve been a big proponent of ballot initiatives for open primaries and ranked choice voting, most of which had a very tough Election Day.

This week on the podcast, a new front in the democracy reform movement has been opened up.  It’s allowing people to vote by phone. 

“Why are our politics so dysfunctional?  It’s because a small proportion of extreme voters vote in our primaries, making our politics more extreme,” says Bradley Tusk the founder of MobileVoting.org.  “One way of opening up the electorate is primary reform, which I’m all for.  But the other way is to allow people to vote on our phones.” 

“Fundamentally, how do we make the primary electorate bigger?” Bradley asks. “Make it easier to vote.  We all run our lives on our phones – we might be able to triple the number of people who vote in primaries if we can do it on our phones.”  That would indeed transform politics. 

Bradley explains, “We need a solution that can be advanced at the local level, without an act of Congress.  Individual towns and cities can decide to use mobile voting technology to complement their existing systems – we can make it so that each digital vote actually prints out a paper ballot and can integrate with existing ballots so no one is nervous about how it gets processed or counted.” 

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Who’s going to build this?  Here’s the phenomenal thing:  Bradley already did it.  “We got started back in 2020 and I spent $20 million building it.  It’s already been used by servicemembers stationed at military bases and piloted in multiple states.  Now, any city or town can use it for free.”  Yes, free.  This is all a philanthropic venture. 

Why is he doing it?  “My family immigrated to this country for a better life, and it happened,” Bradley says.  “I spent years working in politics and technology and genuinely think this is the last and best hope we have for democracy.”  He may be right about that.

Forward is going to be helping to make mobile voting the norm – we already have Forward-affiliated mayors who are interested.  I love the idea of voting on your phone; the leaders who make it happen in America will have changed the system for good.  Plus, last I checked I’m the candidate from the future, and in the future we definitely vote on our phones, don’t we?  Bradley is leading the way to make it happen. 

For my interview with Bradley Tusk click here.  To check out mobilevoting.org click here.  To order Bradley’s new book ‘Vote With Your Phone’ click here.  To fuel the political movement that will be embracing mobile voting head to Forward – let’s go build the future.