Stand Up America is a left-of-center advocacy group created by Sean Eldridge, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives and spouse of liberal activist Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.

Eldridge founded Stand Up America in 2016 to oppose the election of Donald Trump, supporting theories that the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 election and organizing support for President Trump’s later impeachment. ¹ Since 2016, the group has expanded to support a range of left-of-center policy initiatives, including giving Washington, D.C. statehood, abolishing the Electoral College, and ending the Senate filibuster to promote left-of-center policies. ² During the COVID-19 pandemic, Stand Up America became active in supporting efforts to expand mail-in voting for the 2020 presidential election. ³

Stand Up America is led by officials with extensive ties to the left-of-center organizing community, including the Poor People’s Campaign, Service Employees International Union, and MomsRising. ⁴

Background

After the 2016 election, Sean Eldridge founded Stand Up America as a “resistance” organization to oppose then-President-elect Donald Trump and a right-of-center political agenda more broadly. ⁵ Eldridge was a Democratic nominee for the United States House of Representatives in 2014, and is the spouse of Facebook co-founder and liberal activist Chris Hughes. ⁶ Stand Up America described President Trump and conservative policy as promoting a “dangerous agenda.” ⁷

Stand Up America has used President Trump to support a larger range of left-of-center electoral policies, calling President Trump’s election symptomatic of “broken democracy” in the United States. Stand Up America aims to institute left-of-center reforms to “unrig” what the group claims is an American system controlled by “conservative, corporate and largely white voices.” These reforms include giving Washington, D.C. statehood, abolishing the Electoral College, and ending the Senate filibuster to promote left-of-center policies. ⁸

Stand Up America runs both digital and offline campaigns. The group claims to have mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to contact their representatives in Congress and in their state legislatures to push left-of-center policies. Stand Up America claims to have organized more than 1.2 million calls to lawmakers, more than 6,000 letters-to-the-editor, more than 75,000 active protesters, and 35,000 emails sent to policymakers. ⁹ The organization also claims to have 15,000 individual donors. ¹⁰

Leadership

Eldridge is a long-time pollical activist, primarily working on LGBT issues. Eldridge previously worked as director of Freedom to Marry, a group which advocated for the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage. Even before founding Stand Up America, Eldridge has advocated for campaign finance laws to restrict political donations, despite his marriage to Hughes, a Democratic megadonor. ^{11 12}

Brett Edkins is the political director of Stand Up America. Edkins was previously the communications director for Integrity First for America and an aide to former President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. ¹³ Stand Up America digital director Joe Hines has spent years organizing for left-of-center groups, working on the digital advocacy team at BerlinRosen on behalf of organizations including the Poor People’s Campaign, Service Employees International Union, MomsRising, BlackPAC, and Civic Nation’s VoteTogether. ¹⁴ Reggie Thedford, deputy political director of Stand Up America, has worked in consulting and lobbying for left-of-center advocacy groups such as Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin and Together Wisconsin. ¹⁵

Stand Up America Press Secretary Ryan Thomas previously worked as a media spokesperson for Tax March, in addition to working on the communications teams for both The Hub Project and the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. ¹⁶

Policies and Advocacy

Aside from promoting left-of-center policies, Stand Up America has supported efforts to impeach President Trump. Throughout the early years of Trump’s presidency, Stand Up America  lobbied to keep alive Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of an alleged conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. ¹⁷ In late 2019, Stand Up America joined with Defend the Republic, a Democratic Party-aligned advocacy group, to establish ImpeachmentHQ, a nonprofit that created a rapid response campaign “war room” to send out press links and spin to media to support President Trump’s impeachment and removal.

Throughout the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Stand Up America led a series of left-of-center election initiatives. In April of 2020, Stand Up America organized a group of 50 left-leaning organizations to push Congress to provide funding for states to expand mail-in voting and early voting. ¹⁸ In May, the organization launched a campaign to pressure the Senate to approve a $4 billion funding bill backed by Democrats to provide election assistance. Stand Up America mobilized constituents to call members of Congress and prompted 50 left-of-center electoral organizations to send letters to Congressional leadership. ¹⁹

In August of 2020, Eldridge and Stand Up America accused President Trump of seeking to defund the U.S. Postal Service in order to “sabotage the election” by damaging the efficiency of mail-in voting. ²⁰ Later that month, the group launched a $1.5 million virtual campaign with the goal of reaching 20 million people to increase mail-in voting in the battleground states key to determining the 2020 election. The campaign targeted Democratic-leaning voter demographics such as African Americans, Latinos, and young voters. ²¹

On September 1, 2020, Stand Up America announced that its new project Protect the Results added over 80 advocacy groups and organizations to its coalition. ²² The coalition was designed to coordinate protests in the event that President Donald Trump contested the outcome of the 2020 election. Protect the Results organizes protests, teaches how to effectively mobilize a protest, and requires its partners to advertise the protests with their members. As of October 23, 2020, the organization garnered over 100 partners. ²³

1. Stand Up America. The Action Network. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://actionnetwork.org/groups/stand-up-america
2. About Us. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/about-page/
3. Touchberry, Ramsey. “Amid Trump Attacks, $1.5 Million Campaign Targets Mail-In and Early Voting in Swing States.” Newsweek. August 19, 2020. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.newsweek.com/amid-trump-attacks-15-million-campaign-targets-mail-early-voting-swing-states-1525988
4. Meet the Team. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/our-team/
5. Stand Up America. Idealist. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit/3204ddbe408d41e98e4710947ceae835-stand-up-america-new-york
6. Meet the Team. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/our-team/
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8. About Us. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/about-page/
9. About Us. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/about-page/
10. About Us. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/about-page/
11. Meet the Team. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/our-team/
12. Zahn, Max. “How Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Could Use His Fortune to Help Break up Big Tech.” Yahoo! Finance. Yahoo!, May 9, 2019. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-chris-hughes-political-donations-172050406.html.
13. Meet the Team. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/our-team/
14. Meet the Team. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/our-team/
15. Meet the Team. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/our-team/
16. Meet the Team. Stand Up America. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.standupamerica.com/our-team/
17. Stand Up America. The Action Network. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://actionnetwork.org/groups/stand-up-america
18. Miller, Maggie. “Dozens of Progressive Organizations Call on Congress to Fund Vote-by-Mail Efforts.” The Hill. https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/492580-dozens-of-progressive-organizations-call-on-congress-to-fund-vote-by
19. Press Release. “Stand Up America to Senate: Pass House Democrats Relief Bill With Election Assistance Funding.” May 12, 2020. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/05/12/stand-america-senate-pass-house-democrats-relief-bill-election-assistance
20. Johnson, Jake. “GOP Stands by Complicit as Trump Openly Touts His Sabotage of Postal Service.” Salon. August 15, 2020. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.salon.com/2020/08/15/gop-stands-by-complicit-as-trump-openly-touts-his-sabotage-of-postal-service_partner/
21. Touchberry, Ramsey. “Amid Trump Attacks, $1.5 Million Campaign Targets Mail-In and Early Voting in Swing States.” Newsweek. August 19, 2020. Accessed September 5, 2020. https://www.newsweek.com/amid-trump-attacks-15-million-campaign-targets-mail-early-voting-swing-states-1525988
22. “‘Protect the Results’ Expands To 80 Groups As Coalition Prepares To.” Indivisible, September 1, 2020. https://indivisible.org/statement/protect-results-expands-80-groups-coalition-prepares-mobilize-should-trump-contest.
23. “Timeline: Censorship of Pro-Life Speech by Big Tech – Susan B. Anthony List.” Susan B. Anthony List, October 23, 2020. https://www.sba-list.org/censorship.