People Demanding Action is a left-of-center network of activists that focused on economic issues, climate change, voting rights, and left-progressive social policy with an aim to securing liberal victories in elections. ¹ It is a political network that protects left-leaning progressive social and economic programs while attempting to build political power. ²

People Demanding Action is the civic arm and sister organization to Progressive Democrats of America, a left-leaning political action committee (PAC) founded in 2004 that works within the Democratic party and through outside movements, focusing on ending wars, enacting left-liberal voting policies, ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, enacting government-run healthcare, and supporting left-wing racial and social policies by endorsing staunchly left-progressive Democratic candidates. ³ When filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the organization’s name is “Progressive Vote AKA Progressive Democrats of America.” ⁴

All donations made to People Demanding Action are not tax deductible. The organization does not endorse candidates (whereas its sister organization does), but it does lobby on legislation. ⁵

People Demanding Action has opposed the use of carbon free nuclear energy. ⁶

Campaigns

The organization has a variety of left-progressive issue campaigns. The campaigns are: expand and protect Social Security, the federal budget (providing an alternative federal budget plan), stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership, end mass criminalization, zero climate emissions, Equal Rights Amendment, let me vote – count my vote, stop global warming, economic and social justice, end corporate rule, healthcare human right, and end wars and occupations. ⁷

Mail-in Voting Petition

Women’s March created a petition supporting expanded mail-in voting for the November 2020 elections. The group has distributed its petition across the internet on various websites to gain more signatures and attention. ^{8 9} People Demanding Action is one of the 26 left-progressive organizations listed among the various groups. ¹⁰

Online Presence

People Demanding Action uses its Twitter¹¹ page to promote an online publication where it compiles left-leaning progressive news articles from other media organizations called the People Demand Action Daily. ¹² The online publication is connected to Twitter and the People Demand Action Daily “publishes” articles on its online newspaper other Twitter users have shared. The articles that are “published” are ideologically left-progressive and support the Democratic Party and its beliefs. ¹³

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

People Demanding Action 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.” ¹⁴

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. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶

Leadership

Andrea Miller is the co-executive director and information technology director¹⁷ of People Demanding Action; however, on her personal LinkedIn page she lists herself as the group’s founder. ¹⁸ Prior to starting People Demanding Action, she worked for Progressive Democrats of America for nearly five years. She was the Democratic nominee for the House of Representatives in Virginia’s 4^th district in 2008, where she was endorsed by the Progressive Democrats of America, California Nurses Association labor union, and the Sierra Club. Miller was part of then-left-wing U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) Presidential campaign and prior to that was MoveOn’s regional coordinator for the central, southwest, and Hampton Roads areas of Virginia and West Virginia. ¹⁹

1. About – Vision Statement. People Demanding Action. Accessed May 1, 2020. http://69.175.80.59/about/mission
2. About – Vision Statement. People Demanding Action. Accessed May 1, 2020. http://69.175.80.59/about/mission
3. Home. Progressive Democrats of America. Accessed May 1, 2020. https://pda.nationbuilder.com/
4. Progressive Vote AKA Progressive Democrats of America. Reports Image Index for Committee ID: C00402800. Federal Election Commission. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00402800
5. Donate. People Demanding Action. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/pdac?amount=25.00
6. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed July 27, 2023. https://www.earthworks.org/publications/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/
7. Home. People Demanding Action. Accessed May 6, 2020. https://mail.peopledemandingaction.org/
8. “Protect the November 2020 Election by Offering Vote-By-Mail in all 50 States.” Change.org. Accessed May 5, 2020. https://www.change.org/p/legislators-and-secretaries-of-state-protect-the-november-2020-election-by-offering-vote-by-mail-in-all-50-states
9. “Sign the Petition to Your State Election Officials: Vote by Mail Must Be Available to All Voters.” The Action Network. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-petition-to-your-state-election-officials-vote-by-mail-must-be-available-to-all-voters?nowrapper=true
10. “Sign the Petition to Your State Election Officials: Vote by Mail Must Be Available to All Voters.” The Action Network. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-petition-to-your-state-election-officials-vote-by-mail-must-be-available-to-all-voters?nowrapper=true
11. People Demand Action. Twitter. Accessed May 9, 2020. https://twitter.com/pdaction?lang=en
12. Homepage. The People Demand Action Daily. Accessed May 9, 2020. https://paper.li/PDAction/1453330928?edition_id=ec14b690-8e5b-11ea-8c96-0cc47a0d1605#/
13. Politics. The People Demand Action Daily. May 8, 2020. Accessed May 9, 2020. https://paper.li/PDAction/1453330928#/politics
14. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed July 27, 2023. https://www.earthworks.org/publications/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/
15. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
16. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
17. About – Vision Statement. People Demanding Action. Accessed May 1, 2020. http://69.175.80.59/about/mission
18. Andrea Miller. LinkedIn. Accessed May 1, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-miller-081505a/
19. About – Vision Statement. People Demanding Action. Accessed May 1, 2020. http://69.175.80.59/about/mission