Civic Nation

Leadership

Valerie Jarrett is the board chair for Civic Nation. ³ Prior to this, she worked as the Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama from 2009 through 2016. ⁴

With the exception of Jason Waskey, the previous president of Civic Nation, the organization’s Board of Directors consists entirely of former high-ranking staff of the Obama administration:⁵

• Valerie Jarrett, Former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama  ⁴
• Tina Tchen, Former Chief of Staff to Michele Obama ⁶
• Sam Brown, Former Director of the White House Business Council ⁷
• Cecilia Munoz, Former Director of Domestic Policy Council ⁸
• Pete Rouse, Former Counselor to President Obama ⁹
• Joe Paulsen, Former Special Assistant and Deputy Chief of Staff to President Obama ¹⁰

Since 2019, Kyle Lierman has worked as Chief Executive Officer of Civic Nation. Prior to this, he worked as a field director for “Obama for America” during Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008 before joining the Obama Administration in 2010. There he served as Liaison and then as both Senior Associate Director as well as Senior Policy Advisor to the White House Office of Public Engagement in 2015. ¹¹ From 2018 to 2021, he worked simultaneously as the CEO of When We All Vote, a voter outreach organization and initiative of Civic Nation ¹² that is funded by New Venture Fund, part of the left-wing “dark money” Arabella Advisors network. ¹³

The previous executive director Jenn Brown had worked for over a decade as a left-of-center political activist and community organizer.  In 2008 she was the Minnesota regional field director for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign. In March of 2012 she began work as executive director of Battleground Texas, a PAC designed to shift Texas from a Red state to a “battleground” state through community organizing and increased registration of voters from Democratic-leaning groups. ¹⁴ In 2015, Brown became executive director simultaneously of Civic Nation and its partner organization, Creative Alliance. On April 11, 2019, Brown announced on Twitter that she would be starting her new job as campaign manager for the 2020 Presidential election bid of U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.). ¹⁵ Following Senator Booker’s presidential campaign suspension, Brown joined Planned Parenthood Federation of America as its Senior Vice President of Policy, Campaigns & Advocacy in August 2020. ¹⁶

Affiliated Campaigns

Erase the Hate

Originally founded in 1994 by current NBCUniversal Chairman Bonnie Hammer as a media-driven anti-discrimination campaign, Erase the Hate began as a series of documentaries starring Martha Plimpton. The campaign was relaunched by Hammer in October 2010,¹⁷ as a series of advertisements and short interviews starring Hollywood figures including Omar Epps, Alicia Keys, and Cuba Gooding, Jr. ¹⁸

In addition to its media campaign, Erase the Hate has endeavored to shift cultural perceptions and perspectives through select left-wing social policy organizations in its ‘Change Makers’ initiative.  One example is Athlete Ally, founded by former Columbia University wrestling coach Hudson Taylor to promote LGBT interests in the athletic community. ¹⁹

#VoteTogether

In September 2018 Civic Nation launched its #VoteTogether project, intended to increase voter turnout among university students by associating voting with a fun, celebratory atmosphere. That same year they partnered with MTV to disburse $1,000 grants to event hosts across the country to defray celebration costs. ²⁰

College Promise/Better Make Room

Civic Nation also oversees College Promise, a campaign launched in 2015 designed to implement government-funded community college. ²¹ A related project, Better Make Room, focuses on preparing low-income high school upperclassmen for secondary education. ²²

It’s On Us

Civic Nation is affiliated with “It’s On Us”, an anti-sexual misconduct campaign begun under the Obama administration, which benefits from widespread support of celebrities and politicians including Barack Obama, Jon Hamm, and Joe Biden. ²³

 The United State of Women

Civic Nation is also affiliated with The United State of Women summits, which took place in June 2016 and May 2018.  In June 2019 United State of Women launched a PSA promoting the renewal and expansion of the Violence Against Women Act. ²⁴

The Hope Incubator

In September 2018, editor Gautam Raghvan announced a new Civic Nation endeavor, The Hope Incubator, is to be funded by proceeds from a collection of Obama administration staffers’ memoirs: “West Wingers.” ²⁵

When We All Vote (WWAV)

Created in 2018, When We All Vote is a a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) program started by former first lady Michelle Obama and is also an initiave of Civic Nation. ¹² The initiative’s goal is to increase voter registration across the country through advocating for greater voter participation. ²⁶

All In: Campus Democracy Challange

The All In: Campus Democracy Challenge was created as an initiative of Civic Nation to promote civic engagement by increasing voter registration among students on college campuses across the country. ²⁷ One of its goals is to support voter participation on over 1000 campuses including community colleges and institutions for minority groups. ²⁸ In 2016, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) refused to endorse the project on the grounds that it appeared too partisan. NAICU President David L. Warren explained:  “It was hard to know where one ended and the other began…The issue of the White House and Civic Nation, either separately or together, moving in this direction struck me as an entangling perception at best that I did not want.” ²⁹

According to a February 2024 memo from the Biden Administration’s Department of Education, a new Federal Work-Study Program was announced that would allow university students to earn money through jobs on campus as well as registering voters. The memo reads, “This work can include supporting broad-based get-out-the-vote activities, voter registration, providing voter assistance at a polling place or through a voter hotline, or serving as a poll worker.” ³⁰ In April 2024, a memo was sent to the Department of Education by 16 Republican Attorney Generals claiming the new program violated the law. It reads, “Voter-registration efforts can serve overtly political functions even when they seem facially nonpartisan, as turning out the right voters is often a matter of knowing where to boost ‘broad-based’ turnout.” ³⁰ According to an article by the Daily Caller, several employees of All In had previously lobbied for programs to increase voter registration on college campuses for the 2024 election before the Biden Administration announced the same policy. ³⁰