The Argument is a media outlet founded by Jerusalem Demas in August 2025 to argue in favor of “liberal democracy” and “liberalism” while advocating moving away from a “post-liberal, populist moment.” ¹ The Argument was founded through funding left-of-center organizations including Arnold Ventures, Open Philanthropy, and Tyler Cowen’s Emergent Ventures. Listed columnists for the magazine include Derek Thompson, Matt Bruenig, and Matthew Yglesias. ^{1 2}

Background

In August 2025, The Argument was founded by Jerusalem Demas, a former staff writer for left-of-center magazine The Atlantic who left to found her own publication. According to a statement written by Demas on the magazine’s launch, she claimed “To move out of this post-liberal, populist moment towards a better future…will require our government, culture, politics, and people to recommit ourselves to liberal values.” ¹ The publication’s website argues to write on specific topics such as “politics and economics of growth, technology and society, gender and family.” ²

The outlet was founded through an “extensive network of high-profile contributors” including Vox co-founder Matt Ygelsias, The Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson, former Biden administration staffers Mike Konczal and Zach Liscow, and Center for Public Enterprise founder Paul Williams. ¹

The Argument was founded with $4 million in funding from Arnold Ventures, Open Philanthropy, philanthropist Susan Mandel, XN founder Gaurav Kapadia, Pritzker Innovation Fund founder Rachel Pritzker, philanthropist Simone Coxe, Twilio co-founder John Wolthuis, and Stripe founder Patrick Collison, as well as a grant from Tyler Cowen’s Emergent Ventures. ¹

Content

As of September 2025, The Argument was publishing around five articles per week on its online platform. Articles typically ranged from 1,800 to 2,500 words. ^{3 2} At the time, The Argument has divided its content into three categories: “Politics and Economics of Growth,” which includes discussions on immigration and “Abundance” economic policy as well as the welfare state and housing; “Technology and Society” on Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as government policy toward technology; and “Gender and Families” on “the role of policymakers, institutions, and individuals in ensuring freedom of gender expression.” ²

Leadership

The Argument was founded by Jerusalem Demas in August 2025 and is also listed as the publication’s editor-in-chief and CEO. Demas was a staff writer at The Atlantic from 2022 to 2025 and as of September 2025 remained a contributing writer. Previously, Demas wrote for Vox, was an energy and environment fellow at the Center for American Progress, and was a fellow at Climate Action Campaign DC. ¹

Criticism

In September 2025, UnHeard columnist Sohrab Ahmari criticized The Argument for promoting “reheated neoliberalism.” In his publication, Ahmari criticized the publication’s “neoliberal and libertarian funders” such as Emergent Ventures while arguing it to be a “barely disguised attempt to revivify market-worshipping neoliberalism as the [Democrat] party’s dominant ideology.” ⁴

1. Tani, Max. “The left gets a new publication.” Semafor. August 17, 2025. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/08/17/2025/with-the-argument-the-left-gets-a-new-publication
2. “About.” The Argument. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://www.theargumentmag.com/about
3. “Archive.” The Argument. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://www.theargumentmag.com/archive?sort=new.
4. Ahmari, Sohrab. “‘The Argument’ magazine is reheated neoliberalism.” Unheard. August 19, 2025. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://unherd.com/newsroom/the-argument-magazine-is-reheated-neoliberalism/?lang=us.