Aaron Scherb is a career left-of-center policy advocate and lobbyist. He is the senior director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, an activist group that promotes campaign finance laws and redistricting initiatives that favor Democratic Party politicians. Previously, Scherb was the legislative program manager at Every Voice, another campaign finance regulation advocacy group, which endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Scherb also spent more than three years as a Congressional staffer. ¹ Public records show that Scherb worked for several Democratic lawmakers. ²

Political Views

Aaron Scherb has stated his opposition to election integrity laws, such as the ones implemented in Georgia in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. In an April 2021 interview on C-SPAN, Scherb alleged that Republicans pass these laws to “prevent certain people … from voting.” He also opposed voter identification requirements, claiming that “certain people do not have access” to any form of legal identification. Scherb dismissed concerns about voter fraud, calling it “extremely rare.” ³

Scherb has written articles for Inside Sources, an opinion publishing outlet that claims to have syndication partnerships with local news outlets across the country. He specifically targeted President Donald Trump in several of those pieces, accusing Trump of “never-ending attacks on the rule of law and political norms” as well as “abuses of power and authoritarian behavior. ^{4 5} In another article, he criticized social media platforms for not implementing more restrictive speech policies. Though Scherb described social media as “our new public square,” he criticized social media companies for allowing users to protect their anonymity and thus allegedly face “essentially no consequences or accountability.” ⁶

In October 2021, Scherb was interviewed by the Washington Post for an article which repeated left-progressive activist claims that “American democracy is under threat.” In his statement, Scherb claimed that “there’s been a lot of anger and frustration” at the Biden administration for not moving quickly enough to deliver on its promises to pass voting laws favoring Democratic Party candidates. ⁷

Education and Career

Aaron Scherb received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Haverford College and a master’s degree in government from Johns Hopkins University. Scherb started his political career in 2004 as a program assistant for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a lobbying organization associated with the Religious Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers. ⁸ Between 2006 and 2010, he worked on Capitol Hill various administrative and legislative roles for U.S. Representatives Lane Evans (D-IL), Jim Matheson (D-UT), and John Larson (D-CT). Since 2010, he has been a registered lobbyist, according to the political finance watchdog site OpenSecrets. ⁹

Scherb spent three years at Every Voice before joining Common Cause in 2013, first as director and then as senior director of legislative affairs. He claims to have ghost-written more than two dozen op-eds for members of Congress and staffers at Common Cause. He also designed what he calls a “Democracy Scorecard” to use for assessing legislators on their support for left-of-center election administration and voting policies. Scherb worked on bringing Congress’ attention to Common Cause and its work, arranging congressional testimony by the organization’s staffer and speaking at numerous events on Capitol Hill. He was promoted to senior director in 2021. ¹⁰

1. Aaron Scherb. LinkedIn. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronscherb/
2. “Scherb, Aaron.” OpenSecrets. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=76218
3. “Aaron Scherb and Jason Snead on State Election Laws.” C-SPAN. April 1, 2021. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://www.c-span.org/video/?510289-3/washington-journal-aaron-scherb-jason-snead-discuss-state-election-laws
4. “Aaron Scherb.” Inside Sources. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://insidesources.com/author/aaronscherb/
5. Aaron Scherb. “From the Left: We Are Thankful for Our (Imperfect) Democracy.” Inside Sources. November 25, 2020. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://insidesources.com/from-the-left-we-are-thankful-for-our-imperfect-democracy/
6. Aaron Scherb. “Counterpoint: Is President Trump Solely to Blame for the Lack of Civility in Politics?” Inside Sources. February 26, 2020. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://insidesources.com/counterpoint-is-president-trump-solely-to-blame-for-the-lack-of-civility-in-politics-2/
7. Ashley Parker, Tyler Pager, and Amy Gardner. “Advocates worry Biden is letting U.S. democracy erode on his watch.” Washington Post. October 16, 2021. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-democracy-eroding/2021/10/15/2ca8181c-2c55-11ec-92bd-d2ffe8570c7d_story.html
8. Aaron Scherb. LinkedIn. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronscherb/
9. “Scherb, Aaron.” OpenSecrets. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=76218
10. Aaron Scherb. LinkedIn. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronscherb/