The Idea

Who We Are

Over the past decade, nearly every industry has had a fundamental operating system shift that has led to its democratization, from education, to entertainment, to hospitality, to transportation. But one sector remains wholly unchanged: Politics. In fact it’s getting worse...
Run for America is a citizen-powered movement across the political spectrum to reimagine politics, reinvigorate government, and restore the promise of America for the 21st century. Over the next decade, Run For America will inspire, recruit, and equip a new generation of candidates, supporters, voters, and donors to transform the operating system of American politics

What we do

INSPIRE

Like a head hunting firm, we strategically scour the country for the most talented leaders, and encourage them to think about running for office, almost always for the first time. We use data science to both identify leaders and districts where they can win.

RECRUIT

After an exhaustive review, we ask leaders to consider serving their country by running for office in their community, where they can run with integrity, and provide the leadership America deserves. We train them to understand the new paradigm and prepare them for the intensity of a campaign

EQUIP

Finally, we remove barriers to help candidates win by designing their strategy, assisting them with fundraising, building their teams, and more using the RFA platform to help them run smart effective campaigns

PATHWAYS

INSPIRING, RECRUITING, EQUIPing - An RFA Intiative

A NEW PARADIGM IN AMERICAN CIVIC LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Pathways is our signature program to help promising leaders discover their potential to make change and be independently, intellectually, and politically empowered to more deeply engage in civics, gain greater access to running for public office, and possess the tools, skills, and agency to govern and impact public policy effectively.

Leadership

Solana blockchain development
Bit QT
Immediate Momentum
Casinos Seguros y Fiables
Immediate Momentum

DAVID BURSTEIN

David is the CEO and Founder of Run For America. David is also the author of Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaping Our World which analyzes millennials—the largest generation in history—how and why they are changing business, technology, culture, and politics.

David previously founded Generation18, a nonpartisan young voter engagement organization that registered over 25,000 new voters and held over 1,000 events in 35 states. The organization grew out of David’s first documentary film 18 in ’08. He is a frequent speaker and commentator on social innovation, millennials, and politics with appearances on CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, NPR, ABC Evening News, and C-SPAN, and in The New York Times, USA Today, The Huffington Post. As a writer, his work has appeared in Politico, Salon, Vanity Fair and Fast Company.

David is the Founding Co-Director of the Bluhm/Helfand Social Innovation Fellowship @ Chicago Ideas Week, which helps outstanding young social entrepreneurs grow their impact. He is also a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Disruptor Foundation Fellow, and serves on the advisory boards of Watson University, The Common Good, and CanLeads. He is a proud alumni of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

OUR ADVISORS

MARK MCKINNON
Chief Media Advisor, Bush ’00 and ‘04 Co-Founder, No Labels

KATHY GALLO
Founder, The Goodstone Group

MATT DOWD
ABC News Independent Commentator
Chief Strategist, Bush ‘04

JIM KOLBE
Former Member of Congress (AZ-R)

NORM ORNSTEIN
Resident Scholar, AEI

BOB CARR
Former Member of Congress (MI-D)

PETER MARONEY
Former National Finance Co-Chairman for John Kerry’s Presidential Campaign
Financial Advisor, Bernstein

ANDY KARSCH
Motion picture producer and political advisor
BARRY SCHECK
Director, Innocence Project

STEPHEN KENNEDY SMITH
Deputy Campaign Manager for Senator Edward Kennedy

FISHER STEVENS
Academy Award Winning Director, Producer, Actor, and Writer

SE CUPP
CNN Commentator

NANCY STEINER
Cross River Productions

HEATHER SMITH
Former President, Rock The Vote

ERIC GOODE
Founder, Turtle Conservancy

BOBBY KENNEDY Jr.
Founder, Waterkeeper Alliance

Support Us

SIGN UP

Consider supporting our partner Pathways for America to help promising leaders discover their potential to make large scale civic change.

Donate