America Votes is a left-of-center lobbying and advocacy coalition that supports left-of-center issue advocacy and expanding voting access.¹ America Votes bills itself as the “Coordination Hub of the Progressive Community.” The organization was created ahead of the 2004 election by several left-of-center activists including Partnership for America’s Families president Steve Rosenthal, EMILY’s List founder Ellen Malcolm, former Clinton administration official Harold Ickes, then-Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president Andy Stern, and Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope. ²

Since its creation, America Votes has served as a coordination hub for left-of-center organizations. America Votes, in conjunction with America Votes Action Fund, has turned into a permanent advocacy and campaign infrastructure operation that gives out millions of dollars to left-of-center organizations and bills itself as “the largest grassroots voter mobilization effort in the country today.”³

In 2020, America Votes received a $129 million grant from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the “dark money behemoth” of the Arabella Advisors network, more than doubling its revenues from 2019 with a single grant. In an article summarizing the grant, left-leaning reporters at Politico described America Votes as a “liberal umbrella group that works on voter registration and turnout and collaborates with other political groups across the left.”  ⁴

America Votes continued to receive grants from the Arabella-managed Impetus Fund from 2021 to 2023. ^{5 6}

Founding

America Votes had its first formal meeting on May 1, 2003, at the offices of pro-abortion candidate recruiting group EMILY’s List. The organization was created ahead of the 2004 presidential election to organize and coordinate labor unions, issue advocacy groups, voter mobilization organizations, and media firms to help elect Democrats. ² The organization was the “brainchild of several longtime Democratic activists, including EMILY’s List founder Ellen Malcolm, former Clinton official Harold Ickes, SEIU President Andy Stern and Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope.” ⁷⁸

Led by Cecile Richards, a former staffer to U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and then-future Planned Parenthood Federation of America president, during the 2004 campaign, “America Votes held bi-weekly meetings of left-of-center activists to plot strategy. America Votes allowed member organizations to share voter files, survey data, and demographic information. This allowed America Votes staff to coordinate the efforts of groups such as the Sierra Club, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the League of Conservation Voters in stimulating voter turnout and contacting swing voters.” ⁹

Leadership

As of 2025, Greg Speed was the president of America Votes. He took over from Joan Fitz-Gerald in November 2013. ¹⁰ Speed previously worked as executive director for AV since late 2007 and as communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2004 election cycle. ^{11 12} His total 2014 compensation was $272,509.¹

As of 2020, Sara Schreiber was the managing director of America Votes, where she led day-to-day management of the organization and supervises directors of key departments. ¹¹ Her total 2014 compensation was $151,526¹ Bubba Scott Nunnery is the national political director. ¹ As of 2022, Schreiber had been promoted to executive director. ¹³

As of 2024, Schreiber had been replaced as executive director by Daria Dawson, an operative who has spent her career in labor unions and electoral politics. She was previously the deputy executive director of America Votes in 2020. She had also been the director of strategic engagement for Kamala Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign and the deputy national political director of the SEIU, leading the effort to lobby Congress regarding the Fight for $15 minimum wage campaign. ¹⁴

As of 2023, the board was chaired by Seth Johnson. Other directors included Craig Kaplan, Leslie Martes, Matt Morrison, Frank Smith, Wendy Wendlandt, Jodee Winterhof, Melissa Williams, Jenny Lawson, Brandon Boswell, Pete Maysmith, Grecia Lima, Julie Collier, John Grabel, Harry Johnson, Susanne Ruecker, and Desmond Serrette. ¹³

Financials

In 2020, America Votes reported $8.8 million in assets, and reported a combined $88.5 million in expenses between 2019 and 2020. ¹⁵

In 2022, America Votes reported $115,000,065 in revenue, $118,104,658 in expenses, and $18,959,324 in net assets. ¹⁵

Funding

America Votes is reportedly a member organization of the Democracy Alliance and since 2003 has been “the common link between many of the largest and most influential issue and membership organizations.”¹⁶

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros committed or donated $2 million to America Votes and another $1 million to a variety of state-based voter mobilization groups that do not have to disclose their donors.¹⁷

Between 2012 and 2013, America Votes received millions of dollars in contributions from labor unions, including $1 million from the National Education Association¹⁸, $443,000 from the Service Employees International Union¹⁹, $333,000 from American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)²⁰, and $28,000 from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).²¹

Additional left-of-center groups, such as Michael Bloomberg-founded gun control organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns (the predecessor of Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund), the League of Conservation Voters, and the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center have also financially supported America Votes in the past according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics and a review done by Center for Public Integrity of tax filings maintained by CitizenAudit.org.³

In 2021, Impetus Fund, a left-of-center grantmaking organization managed by Arabella Advisors, gave America Votes $1,530,786 for “civil rights, social action, and advocacy.” In 2022, Impetus Fund gave America Votes $2,175,199 for the same listed purpose. ^{5 6}

In 2022, left-of-center election integrity group Free and Fair Elections USA gave America Votes an unrestricted grant of $50,000. ²²

According to organizations’ tax returns, the following organizations have given major grants to AV during the calendar year preceding each organization’s IRS filing end date:

Funding from the Sixteen Thirty Fund

In 2020, America Votes received a $129 million grant from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the “dark money behemoth” of the Arabella Advisors network, more than doubling its revenue from 2019 with a single grant. It ended up being the largest grant handed out by Sixteen Thirty to any other organization in 2020. ⁴⁹ In an article summarizing the grant, left-leaning reporters at Politico described America Votes as a “liberal umbrella group that works on voter registration and turnout and collaborates with other political groups across the left.” ⁴

In 2021, Sixteen Thirty Fund president Amy Kurtz wrote that the $129 million grant to America Votes, which accounted for roughly 25 percent of the total grantmaking by the Sixteen Thirty Fund that year, “helped progressives across the country pivot to provide new and safe opportunities for voting during a deadly pandemic” and supported “national efforts to expand access to vote by mail and increase voter turnout in communities of color and among traditionally disenfranchised people.” ⁴

Trial Lawyer PAC Funding

In 2025, the right of center Alliance for Consumers (AFC) released an update to its report “Shady Trial Lawyer PACs,” analyzing the amount of funds disbursed from trial lawyer-affiliated federal political action committees to left-of-center organizations. These PACs are often given contracts by American politicians under the banner of “consumer protection.” America Votes was listed as a recipient of funds from several such PACs. ⁵⁰

America Votes received $250,000 from the American Association for Justice (AAJ) PAC in 2020, $625,000 from it in 2022, and $350,000 from it in 2024. AAJ PAC, the sister organization of long-standing left-of-center advocacy group American Association for Justice, is a major contributor to Democratic political campaigns. ⁵¹

Grantmaking

As a 501(c)(4) organization, America Votes has contributed a substantial amount of funds to political entities, all of them Democratic-aligned. Very few of them have been politicians, while the vast majority have been PACs and other lobbying organizations that in turn fund politicians and left-of-center causes. From 2004 through 2016, its contributions never exceeded $2 million per election cycle. However, starting in 2018, it significantly increased its expenditures, supplying Democratic causes with $14,274,477 that year, $59,472,809 in 2020, $32,704,385 in 2022, and $50,044,363 in 2024. ^{52 53}

Some of the major recipients of America Votes’ contributions have included Black PAC ($10,175,000), Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy PAC ($8,710,000), LCV Victory Fund ($7,540,000), Somos PAC ($4,985,000), and Workers Vote ($2,225,000). ⁵³

Activities

After the 2020 and 2022 elections, America Votes reported that its national network of partners had made hundreds of millions of contacts with voters, primarily in swing states. In October 2020, America Votes stated that “Since June 1, more than 400 America Votes partners have made over 350 million voter contact attempts, including more than 7 million door knocks, 175 million phone calls, and 100 million text messages sent, yielding over 14 million conversations with voters.” ⁵⁴

On November 4, 2022, America Votes boasted that the America Votes Coalition had knocked on 22 million doors, made 40 million phone calls, and sent 37 million text messages before election day weekend. During election day weekend the organization had further plans to “knock at least 25 million doors with a majority in the hotly contested states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.” ⁵⁵

The organization also published the below table, separating voter contacts by state:

Controversy

Partisanship

The America Votes website claims that “Our coalition carries out non-partisan, education-focused programs to engage voters particularly newly eligible and infrequent voters through mail, phones, and texts to make sure they feel confident and informed about the voting process in person or via mail.” ⁵⁶ Despite this, in October 2022, America Votes described its get-out-the-vote activities as “This GOTV push is targeting the “Blue Surge” voters whose massive turnout delivered victories for Democrats in 2018 and 2020. The Blue Surge refers to voters who either skipped voting in 2016 but returned to the polls for 2018 and 2020 or voted for the first time in 2018 or 2020. Turnout among this blue-leaning electorate will be key to determining control of Congress and the outcome of many state-level races this year. ” ⁵⁷

“Social Pressure” Mailers

In October 2022, left-leaning journalist John Ralston reported on Twitter that America Votes was sending mailers to voters in Nevada that read “Who you vote for is private, but whether you vote is a matter of public record. We will be reviewing public records after the election to determine whether or not you joined your neighbors in voting.” Ralston questioned whether the peer pressure tactic was appropriate or necessary, saying “You can’t be serious, @AmericaVotes? Is this the progressive way?” ⁵⁸

Writing a story about the mailer, a Nevada news outlet reached out the Secretary of State’s office. A spokesperson responded, “While this mailer seems aggressive, it does not appear to meet the threshold for voter intimidation. ⁵⁹ Speaking about the mailer, Dan Lee, professor of political science at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), remarked that “social pressure” is “a tactic that’s been used by groups to try to actually encourage people to vote.” ⁵⁸

When asked to comment on their controversial mailer, America Votes responded, “There is a lot at stake in this election and we encourage everyone to make their voice heard. Voters should make a plan to return their ballots before Election Day on November 8th.”⁵⁹

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