UltraViolet Action is the lobbying arm of UltraViolet, a left-progressive advocacy organization, which generates campaigns on LGBT-interest and social-liberal women’s issues, typically involving petitions, social media engagement, and small protests.

Background

UltraViolet, UltraViolet Action’s parent organization, was founded in February 2012 with funding from the Citizen Engagement Lab, a left-progressive 501(c)(4) social welfare and political consulting group that organizes and funds left-of-center organizations that advocate for a wide range of liberal policies. ^[1] UltraViolet’s cofounders were Shaunna Thomas, formerly the executive director of the P Street Project, an organization which works to elect progressive candidates to state and federal office, and Nita Chaudhary, formerly the national campaigns and organizing director at MoveOn.org Political Action, a liberal political action committee (PAC). ^[2]

In August 2015, UltraViolet, under the name “UltraViolet Education Fund,” was registered as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit. ^[3] Roughly a year later, in September 2016, UltraViolet Action was registered as the group’s 501(c)(4) lobbying arm. ^[4]

Typically, UltraViolet leads campaigns against particular individuals, often calling for their dismissal or resignation. Notable figures against whom UltraViolet has led campaigns include conservative political commentator Bill O’Reilly, entertainment journalist Billy Bush, recording artist Celo Green, Rick Ross, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and President Donald Trump. ^[5] UltraViolet Action, on the other hand, as the group’s lobbying arm, is largely focused on advocating for and against particular pieces of legislation related to group’s broader progressive policy positions.

Notable Activities

In July 2014, UltraViolet advocated for the “Not My Boss’s Business Act,” formally known as “The Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act.” The bill, introduced by U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and then-U.S. Senator Mark Udall (D-CO), was formulated in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores. The ruling held that closely-held for-profit corporations are exempt from a regulation its owners object to on religious grounds as long as there is a less-restrictive means of achieving the regulation at hand’s interest. To wit, the court’s ruling struck down, for closely held for-profit corporations, the contraceptive mandate, a controversial regulation of the Department of Health and Human Services that had required such employers include coverage of contraceptives for female employees under the Obamacare law. The bill, which would mandate that employers not be allowed to disrupt employee coverage for contraception guaranteed under federal law, did not pass. ^[6][7][8]

In September 2019, UltraViolet advocated for Congress to investigate and impeach Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the wake of the publication of a controversial report in the New York Times, which alleged that Kavanaugh engaged in inappropriate behavior while he was a student at Yale. ^[9][10] It later emerged that friends of the person supposedly alleging the behavior said that she did not directly recall the alleged events; they had been recounted by a Democratic-aligned lawyer, Max Stier, and reportedly passed to the Times second-hand. ^[11][12]

People

Arisha Hatch

Arisha Hatch chairs the board of UltraViolet Action and works as the managing director of campaigns at Color of Change, a left-progressive social-policy mobilization organization based in Oakland, California. ^[13][14]

Shaunna Thomas

Prior to cofounding UltraViolet, Shaunna Thomas was the executive director of the P Street Project, a 501(c)(4) advocacy and lobbying group which supports the candidacies of progressives to federal and state political offices. Shaunna was also the COO of Progressive Congress, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit arm of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a caucus within the House Democratic Caucus consisting and supporting the aims of the caucus’s most left-wing members. ^[15][16]

Nita Chaudhary

Prior to co-founding UltraViolet, Nita Chaudhary was the national campaigns and organizing director at MoveOn.org Political Action, a liberal PAC, where she oversaw the fundraising program for the 2008 presidential election. Chaudhary was also the Democratic National Committee’s first director of online during the 2004 election cycle. ^[17][18]

Kat Barr

Prior to joining UltraViolet as COO, Kat Barr worked as a campaign director at MoveOn.org and as the communications director and then the director of political outreach at Rock the Vote, a left-leaning voter engagement group. ^[19][20]

Anathea Chino

UltraViolet advancement director Anathea Chino was an investment advisor at Democracy Alliance, a network of wealthy progressive donors who coordinate their donations to organizations that the Alliance endorses. Chino was also the Development Director at NARAL New Mexico, a nonprofit advocacy group which advocates for abortion on demand, and a regional field director for the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of New Mexico. Chino sits on the Board of Directors and Advisory Boards of left-of-center groups including Inclusv and PowerPac+. ^[21][22]