The Patriotic Millionaires

Patriotic Millionaires was founded in 2010 to pressure then-President Barack Obama to not extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts on individuals making over $1 million in annual income. Patriotic Millionaires has also advocated creating government-run health care, opposed the first Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, argued for Democrats to block the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court Justice to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg,  and advocated that Congress enact additional tax hikes by the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. ^{1 3 4 5 1 2}

Patriotic Millionaires has previously donated to left-of-center organizations and the campaigns of Democratic Party-aligned individuals including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY),  the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, American Bridge 21^st Century, and ActBlue. ⁶

Background

Patriotic Millionaires started as a pro-tax hike campaign in 2010 by Democratic lawyer Guy Saperstein and Democracy Alliance co-founder Erica Payne.⁷ The group was founded to protest tax cuts initially enacted under President George W. Bush on people with incomes of over $1 million and to advocate for then-President Barack Obama to not support an extension of the tax cuts. Saperstein and Payne drafted a letter to President Obama asking him to allow Bush-era tax cuts to expire on December 31, 2010, and collected 42 signatures of people who made more than $1 million a year. Saperstein and Payne drafted a letter to President Obama asking him to allow Bush-era tax cuts to expire on December 31, 2010, and collected 42 signatures of people who made more than $1 million a year.⁸ The signers included former Google engineer David DesJardins, Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Ben Cohen, and hedge fund financier Michael Steinhard. ^{9 1}

Coordinated by the Agenda Project, a nonprofit political group founded by Erica Payne, Patriotic Millionaires (originally called the Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength) continued to recruit more millionaires to take part in its publicity campaign for tax increases for the wealthy.¹⁰

The pro-estate tax advocacy group Wealth for the Common Good worked with Patriotic Millionaires from 2010 to 2012 on the tax hike campaign. In 2015, the groups merged.¹¹

Legal Status

According to records accessed through the Washington, D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs public database, a non-profit corporation called “Patriotic Millionaires (The)” listing Erica Payne as its president officially dissolved March 6, 2015. The same database also lists a second a non-profit corporation called “Patriotic Millionaires Action Fund (The),” with Payne as president and a March 6, 2015 dissolution date. ¹²

On June 8, 2016, two new Patriotic Millionaires entities were filed with the District of Columbia. “The Patriotic Millionaires, LLC” lists Erica Payne, Morris Pearl, and Eugene Haigh as directors.¹³ The other entity is the “The Patriotic Millionaires Research Center, LLC,” and lists Charles Collins, Morris Pearl, and Eugene Haigh as directors. ¹³

Organizational Overview

Patriotic Millionaires has a staff headquartered in Washington, D.C. that works with members to gain attention to the group through activities such as op-eds, media appearances and photo-ops.¹⁴

As of 2024, Patriotic Millionaires claimed roughly 175 members of the across 28 states, down from over 200 members in 2011, a year after its founding. ^{15 16}

According to its website, Patriotic Millionaires has three primary goals: tax the rich, use funds from taxing the rich to give money to other people, and pass policy reforms to spread power to the non-rich. ¹⁷

The Patriotic Millionaires runs the Great Economy Project. This project argues that for working people’s wages are too low and lower-income people’s taxes are too high, and that to build stronger communities addressing these economic barriers is essential. The Great Economy Project operates in North Carolina and Wisconsin. The Great Economy Project was launched in 2022 in Whiteville, North Carolina, by 60 people who met regularly with members of the Patriotic Millionaires to discuss how the economy is “rigged” against working people and in favor of the rich. The organizers attempt to educate local communities through community events and monthly dinner to promote economic policies in line with the Patriotic Millionaires. ^{1 18 19}

Political Activism

Early Activities

Patriotic Millionaires’ began political activism upon its founding in 2010 with a pro-tax hike letter-writing publicity campaign to pressure then-President Barack Obama to not extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts.⁸ Then-U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) responded to the campaign by writing that the U.S. Treasury Department accepts voluntary, tax-deductible contributions for the purpose of reducing the nation’s debt.²⁰

In 2012, then-President Obama appeared at the White House with a group of Patriotic Millionaires members to announce their support for his campaign to raise taxes. Among the members in attendance were Daphne Foundation president Abigail Disney; Whitney Tilson of T2 Partners; Frank Jernigan, a Google retiree; and Lawrence Benenson, of Benenson Capital. ²¹

The group broadened its political activism to other areas including minimum wage hikes to $15 per hour and restrictions on so-called “dark money” spending in political campaigns. ²² Another major campaign for Patriotic Millionaires in 2016 was elimination of the carried interest tax break.²³

While Patriotic Millionaires conduct high profile national campaigns, it has also mobilized publicity campaigns in states. The group bought television advertising in Maine to support a failed minimum wage increase in Portland to $15. ²⁴ Chair Morris Pearl testified before Connecticut lawmakers in support of eliminating the state’s carried interest tax break. ²⁵

In July 2017, Patriotic Millionaires launched a campaign called “Fix It – Healthcare at the Tipping Point” to promote a government-controlled single-payer health system.²⁶

2017 Tax Reform Act

In November 2017, the Patriotic Millionaires launched an advertisement campaign attacking then-U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) for his role in passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. ²⁷

2020 Letter to Senate Democrats on Supreme Court Nomination

In September 2020, Patriotic Millionaires wrote an open letter to Senate Democrats in response to the potential nomination of a Supreme Court Justice following the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Patriotic Millionaires president Erica Payne stated that the plan followed her strategy of “mak[ing] this an unbelievably painful process for Senate Republicans” and “kick[ing] the f— out of” Democratic senators who do not fight the nomination. ²⁸

The letter demanded that Senate Democrats “Boycott the confirmation hearings entirely;” “Block the typically-proforma ‘Unanimous Consent’ agreements that set the daily schedule and the terms of conduct for Senate business, including any resolutions to adjourn the Senate;” and “Repeatedly force your Republican colleagues to produce the quorum of 51 Senators necessary to conduct Senate business on their own.” The letter described the nomination process as an “illegitimate farce,” said Democratic Senators must exhaust all resources necessary to stop it, and “discredit permanently the judicial fitness of any nominee who agrees to be a part of it.” ²⁹

Opposition to the Trump Administration

Following the start of the second Trump administration in January 2025, Patriotic Millionaires conducted a survey of 2,000 millionaires in the G20 major economies, with 70% of respondents saying that the “influence of the extremely wealthy is leading to a decline in trust in Democracy.” ³⁰

2025 AMERICA 250 Agenda

In 2025, the Patriotic Millionaires released a legislative platform called AMERICA 250: The Money Agenda. The agenda promotes four tax policies: The “Cost of Living” Tax Cut Act that raises taxes on millionaires in order to provide an exemption from federal taxes to cover the cost of living, which the group estimates to be approximately $40,000 per year for single adults with no children; the “Cost of Living” Wage Act that raises the minimum wage; the Equal Tax Act to equalize the tax rates for capital gains and ordinary income over $1 million; and the Anti-Oligarch Act, which would impose “significant” death taxes to prevent intergenerational wealth transfers and increasing taxes on the rich in general. ^{1 2}

#NoKings Protests

In June 2025, Patriotic Millionaires participated in organizing or supporting protests branded under the “#NoKings” banner, a national day of demonstrations positioned as a defense of democratic norms against President Donald Trump. These events were part of a larger mobilization involving over 70 Democratic Party affiliates and allied organizations across at least 19 U.S. states and multiple international locations, according to publicly available event listings on Mobilize.us, a Democratic Party-aligned organizing platform. ^{31 32}

Lobbying

In 2016, The Patriotic Millionaires, LLC registered as an official lobbying organization. Eugene Haigh, Patriotic Millionaires’ senior vice president of government affairs, has registered as a lobbyist for the group. ³³ The government lobbying registration document digitally signed by Erica Payne on June 20, 2016, identified Haigh as being employed by “affiliate Tesseract.”³⁴ Tesseract, LLC is a political consulting firm founded by Payne whose clients have included the Democracy Alliance, Center for Independent Media, and New Democrat Network.³⁵

According to Open Secrets, Patriotic Millionaires spend $280,000 on lobbying in 2024 and $220,000 on lobbying in 2023. During that time, Patriotic Millionaires also made $309,338 in contributions predominantly to left-of-center and Democratic Party-aligned people and organizations, including giving $11,600 to House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), $66,950 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, $50,000 to American Bridge 21^st Century, and $22,950 to ActBlue. ⁶

Leadership

The founder and president of the Patriotic Millionaires is Erica Payne. Payne was previously the founder of The Agenda Project, an advocacy organization that argued that the “far right” was distinct from “decent Americans,” and was also a principal at the Tesseract Group, which was formerly the Agenda Project Action Fund. ^{36 37}

The chief operating officer of the Patriotic Millionaires is Adam Shubert. Shubert was previously the chief of staff of the organization. Before that, he was the communications director in the Fairfax County board of supervisors in Virginia and a district director for a Democratic member of the Virginia state legislature. ^{38 39}

The chair of the Patriotic Millionaires is Morris Pearl. Pearl is also on the board of the Center for Political Accountability. ⁴⁰ Pearl was formerly the managing director of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment management company. Pearl retired from BlackRock in 2014. ¹

Other “featured members” of Patriotic Millionaires include documentary filmmaker Abigail Disney, chair of Magnit Global John Driscoll, vice chair of Patriotic Millionaires and founder of Card Market Stephen Prince, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies Chuck Collins, and alumni fellow at the Engelberg Center in the New York University School of Law Patricia Martone. ⁴¹