Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) is an American nonprofit progressive political advocacy organization. Founded in 1996, the organization bills itself as “the strategy center for the progressive movement.” ¹ The organization signed a petition supporting the Green New Deal. ² Campaign for America’s Future has opposed the use of zero carbon nuclear energy. ³

Campaign for America’s Future advocates for a left-of-center eleven-point “pledge agenda,” in order to correct what it calls “conservative failure.” ⁴ CAF advocates for a Green New Deal, Medicare-for-All, tax reform, and tuition free college, along with other progressive issues. ⁵

Campaign for America’s Future website features a spread of all of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, and provides an annotated outline showing where each candidate stands on CAF’s progressive “pledge agenda.” ⁶

Campaign for America’s Future encourages citizens to sign “the Pledge” on its website, encouraging support of its progressive agenda. It aims to create a “resistance” movement against the Trump administration and Republicans in general, in order to oppose income inequality and support environmentalist policies. ⁷ “The Pledge” is allegedly signed by over 20,000 people, and CAF lists the initial 90 signers, almost all of whom are involved with left-progressive organizations. ⁸

Campaign for America’s Future is the sister lobbying and campaigning organization to the Institute for America’s Future, a left-progressive think tank.

Activities

Campaign for America’s Future claims that “conservative dominance” has existed in American politics for thirty years, and has led its progressive eleven point “pledge agenda” not to have been implemented. ⁹ CAF advocates for the socialist Green New Deal, a government-run Medicare-for-All health care program, liberal tax increases, and government-funded tuition-free college, among other issues. CAF’s website provides countless links to polls, articles, and online petitions that support its agenda. ¹⁰

Campaign for America’s Future’s website contains a line-up of all of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, and tracks how closely each person’s position matches with its progressive “pledge agenda.” CAF provides an annotated online for each candidate, including quotes from the candidates themselves, as well as from other mainstream media outlets. ¹¹ It is worth noting that Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist,” has a much more complete, and favorable page than,¹² for instance, Joe Biden, who is considered to be a more moderate democrat, and has a very sparse page. ¹³

Campaign for America’s Future uses its website to promote “the Pledge,” reinforcing its progressive agenda by encouraging people to sign said pledge, in a show of support. The Pledge encourages a resistance movement against the Trump administration and Republicans in general, in order to fight for environmentalist and economic-left policy. ¹⁴

Signers

Campaign for America’s Future features the first 90 signers of “The Pledge” on its website, which includes:¹⁵

• Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Former director of strategic campaigns and civic communications director for MoveOn;¹⁶
• Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance;
• Alan Jenkins, president and co-founder of The Opportunity Agenda, former director of human rights at the Ford Foundation, former Assistant to the Solicitor General at the S. Department of Justice, Former associate counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund;¹⁷
• Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and president of PolicyLink, former senior vice president at the Rockefeller Foundation;¹⁸
• Anna Galland, executive director of org Civic Action;
• Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace;
• Baye Adolfo-Wilson;
• Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org;
• Billy Wimsatt, founder and executive director of the Movement Voter Project; co-founder of the League of Young Voters, Ready for Warren, Solidaire Network, and Rebuild the Dream; consultant for the 2008 Obama Campaign, org, Rock the Vote, and Green For All;¹⁹
• Bob King, former president of United Auto Workers;
• Bonnie Castillo, executive director of National Nurses United;
• Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America;
• Charles Rodgers, board member of the Institute for America’s Future;²⁰
• Christopher Edley, Jr., co-founder and president of the Opportunity Institute;
• Christopher Shelton, president of the Communications Workers of America;
• Chuck Collins, program director at the Institute for Policy Studies, co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good;²¹
• Corbin Trent, co-founder of Brand New Congress, co-director of Justice Democrats, former National Campaign Coordinator for the Bernie Sanders Campaign, former communications director for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY);²²
• Dan Cantor, co-founder, board chair, and former executive director of the Working Families Party;
• David Donnelly, president and CEO of Every Voice;
• Dean Baker, founder and co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research;
• Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, senior fellow on the racial wealth divide at Prosperity Now, former senior director of the economic department at the NAACP, former national crisis coordinator and national field director at National Action Network;²³
• Donald Cohen, founder and executive director of In the Public Interest, founding board member of the Partnership for Working Families, founder and executive director of the Center on Policy Initiatives, board member of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center;²⁴
• Donna Smith, advisory board chair, and former executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, former executive director of the Health Care for All Colorado Foundation, and former community organizer for National Nurses United/California Nurses Association;²⁵
• Dorian Warren, president of the Center for Community Change, fellow at the Roosevelt Institute; board member of Working Partnerships USA, the Workers Lab, the National Employment Law Project, and The Nation editorial board;²⁶
• Gabriela Lemus, president of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center (CPCC); former director of policy and legislation at the League of United Latin American Citizens; former leader of the Labor Council of Latin American Advancement; former vice-chair and former chair of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda;²⁷
• Gar Alperovitz, co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative;
• George Goehl, director of People’s Action;
• Gloria Steinem, co-founder and board member of the Women’s Media Center, Equality Now, and Donor Direct Action; advisory board member of Apne Aap, and Advisor to TIME’S UP;²⁸
• Gloria Totten, founder and president of Public Leadership Institute, former leader of Progressive Majority, former political director for NARAL, board member of the New American Leaders Initiative, advisory committee member of the Drum Major Institute scholars program, ProgressNow, Wellstone Action, and the Women’s Information Network;²⁹
• Heather Gautney, executive director of Our Revolution;³⁰
• Heather McGhee, former distinguished fellow and former president of Demos;
• Hector Sanchez, executive director of Labor Council of Latin American Advancement, chair of National Hispanic Leadership Agenda;
• Ilya Sheyman;
• James Galbraith, Chair of the Board of Economists for Peace and Security³¹
• James Zogby, co-founder, Arab-American Institute;
• Jane Fonda, actress and activist;
• Jane Kleeb, president of Bold Alliance, board member of Our Revolution, chair of the board of Nebraska Democratic Party;
• Janet Dewart Bell, senior executive with organizations like The Opportunity Agenda, PolicyLink, the National Urban League, the National Committee on Household Employment, and NPR;³²
• Jeff Faux, founder of the Economic Policy Institute;
• Jennifer Epps-Addison, Network President and Co-Executive Director of the Center for Popular Democracy;
• Jim Hightower, board member of Our Revolution;
• John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies; founding fellow of the Transnational Institute; board member of Congressional Progressive Caucus Center, the International Forum on Globalization, International Labor Rights Forum, the Fund for Constitutional Government, and the New Economy Coalition;³³
• Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Good Jobs Nation;
• Julie Burton, president of the Women’s Media Center;
• Karen Nussbaum, executive director of Working America;
• Krystal Ball, former Democratic candidate for U.S. House and president of People’s House Project PAC;
• LaDonna Harris, founder and president of Americans for Indian Opportunity, founding member of Common Cause;³⁴
• Lara Bergthold;
• Larry Cohen, board chair of Our Revolution;
• Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Co-founder of Solidaire Network;
• Leo Gerard, president of United Steelworkers;
• Madeline Janis, co-founder and executive director of Jobs to Move America;
• Margery Tabankin;
• Maria Echaveste, policy director at the Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California Berkeley School of Law; Former Deputy Chief of Staff and a Senior U.S. Department of Labor official in the Clinton administration; non-resident fellow of the Center for American Progress; Board of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy, and Mi Familia Vota; Advisory Board of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute;³⁵
• Mark Winston Griffith, co-founder and executive director of the Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC); former executive director and senior fellow for economic justice at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy; board member of Center for an Urban Future, the Center for Working Families, and Free Speech TV;³⁶
• Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party (WFP), co-founder of Blackbird, an organization within the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL);³⁷
• Maya Wiley, Senior Vice President for Social Justice at The New School;
• Michael Brune, executive director of Sierra Club, former executive Director of Rainforest Action Network;³⁸
• Michael Lighty, director of public policy for National Nurses United;
• Naomi Klein, radical-left author;
• Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition;³⁹
• Nina Turner, former president of Our Revolution;
• Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of UltraViolet, former national campaigns and organizing director at org Political Action;⁴⁰
• Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers
• Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color Of Change; former leadership roles at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and FairVote;⁴¹
• Richard Eskow, senior advisor for health and economic justice at Social Security Works;⁴²
• Ro Khanna, U.S. Representative (D-CA), vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus;⁴³
• Robert Borosage;
• Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, founding editor of American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause;⁴⁴
• Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen;
• Roger Hickey;
• Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs With Justice;
• Saru Jayaraman, co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), Director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley;⁴⁵
• Shaunna Thomas, co-founder and executive director of UltraViolet, former executive director of the P Street Project, former COO of Progressive Congress;⁴⁶
• Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and the Progressive Change Institute (PCI); advisory board member for the State Innovation Exchange (SIX) and X-Lab;⁴⁷
• Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute;
• Toni Van Pelt, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW);
• Vien Truong, CEO of Dream Corps;
• Wenonah Hauter, founder and executive director of Food and Water Watch;
• Zack Exley, co-founder of Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress.

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

Campaign for America’s Future was one of more than 600 co-signing organizations on a January 2019 open letter to Congress titled “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The signatories declared their support for new laws to bring about “100 percent decarbonization” of the transportation sector but denounced nuclear power as an example of “dirty energy” that should not be included in any legislation promoting the use of so-called “renewable energy.” ⁴⁸

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ⁴⁹ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ⁵⁰

People

Leadership

Left-progressive writer and activist Robert Borosage is the co-founder and co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future; he is also the organization’s secretary-treasurer of the board. Borosage is the co-founder of Progressive Majority PAC and ProgressiveCongress.org (now Congressional Progressive Caucus Center) and sits on the board for the far-left think tank Institute for Policy Studies. Borosage formerly worked as the issues director for the Jesse Jackson 1988 presidential campaign. ⁵¹ Borosage is the president of the board of the Institute for America’s Future. ⁵²

Roger Hickey is co-director and co-founder of both the Campaign for America’s Future and the Institute for America’s Future. He was a founder of the Economic Policy Institute, where he formerly worked as a communications director. Hickey is also a founder of the Public Media Center in San Francisco and a former organizer for the Virginia Civil Rights Committee. ⁵³

Board of Directors

Baye Adolfo-Wilson is the former Deputy Mayor and director of Economic and Housing Development for the city of Newark, New Jersey. ⁵⁴

Lara Bergthold serves as chairperson of the boards of both Campaign for America’s Future, and People for the American Way. Bergthold is also secretary of the board of Rock the Vote and has been the executive director of the Lear Family Foundation since 1997. She also worked as national deputy political director for former Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. ⁵⁵

Leo Gerard is the outgoing international president of the United Steelworkers. ⁵⁶

Van Jones is the founding president of Rebuild the Dream. Jones is the co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and Green For All. Jones worked as the Green Jobs advisor to the Obama Administration in 2009. ⁵⁷

Actor Warren Beatty is a staunch Democratic activist. Beatty considered a presidential run in the late 1990s that never came to pass, and has strong convictions about the need for campaign speech regulation. ⁵⁸

Former members of the board include Andrea Batista Schlesinger, Eric Pariser, Hilary Shelton, Jeff Faux, and Maya Rockeymoore Cummings.

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