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Person

Dan Garon

Dan Garon is a left-of-center attorney and activist who currently works as chief of staff for Marc Pincus, founder of the left-progressive organization Win the Future (WTF). [1] Prior to working for Pincus, Garon worked for a number of left-of-center organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Movement Labs. [2] [3]

Garon has made several donations to left-of-center politicians and organizations, including ActBlue and former U.S. House of Representatives candidate Antone Melton-Meaux (D-MN). [4]

Career

Dan Garon began his career in law. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in business and receiving his law degree from the University of Iowa, Garon held several positions as a legal intern. While in law school, Garon worked as a legal clerk in private practice at Parker Rosen and at Oppenheimer, Wolf and Donnelly. Garon was also a senior editor at the Journal of Corporation Law and a research intern for law professor Christina Bohannan. [5]

After law school, Garon began his career in left-of-center activism. Garon previously worked as a legal intern for the left-of-center Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit organization which promotes free expression on the internet, decreased surveillance by law enforcement, and tighter regulations on technology companies. [6] [7]

Garon then joined Zynga, a game development company led by Marc Pincus, as a product management intern before becoming personal chief of staff to Pincus. In 2017, Pincus founded Win the Future (WTF), along with LinkedIn founder and left-of-center donor Reid Hoffman. WTF seeks to place the Democratic Party under the control of left-of-center voters by allowing supporters to establish their own party planks by voting for positions online, challenging the Democratic establishment by channeling populist energy. The party has even proposed running its own candidates, known as “WTF Democrats,” who adhere to positions voted on by WTF supporters, rather than Democratic Party platforms. [8]

Aside from supporting WTF, Garon is also a member of the advisory board for the left-of-center  Movement Labs,[9] a nonprofit organization that uses peer-to-peer texting to facilitate grassroots organizing, recruit candidates, and assist candidates in campaigns. [10]

Political Donations

In 2020, Dan Garon made a handful of small donations to left-of-center organizations and politicians, such as $150 to the left-of-center PAC ActBlue and $500 to Democratic candidate Antone Melton-Meaux. [11][12] Melton-Meaux is an attorney who ran against far-left U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in the Democratic primary election in August 2020. [13] He was defeated by Rep. Omar, receiving 38.51% of the votes against Rep. Omar’s 58.18%. [14]

References

  1. “Advisors.” Movement Labs. Accessed June 15, 2021. https://movementlabs.com/advisors/. ^
  2. “Dan Garon.” Electronic Frontier Foundation. Last modified April 14, 2014. https://www.eff.org/about/staff/dan-garon. ^
  3. “Advisors.” Movement Labs. Accessed June 15, 2021. https://movementlabs.com/advisors/. ^
  4. “Browse Individual Contributions.” FEC.gov. Accessed June 18, 2021. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual- ^
  5. “About EFF.” Electronic Frontier Foundation. Last modified June 3, 2019. https://www.eff.org/about. ^
  6. “Dan Garon.” Electronic Frontier Foundation. Last modified April 14, 2014. https://www.eff.org/about/staff/dan-garon. ^
  7. “About EFF.” Electronic Frontier Foundation. Last modified June 3, 2019. https://www.eff.org/about. ^
  8. Romm, Tony. “Mark Pincus and Reid Hoffman Are Launching a New Group to Rethink the Democratic Party.” Vox. Vox, July 4, 2017. https://www.vox.com/2017/7/3/15904484/pincus-hoffman-linkedin-zynga-clinton-win-the-future-democrats-dnc-trump.     ^
  9. “Advisors.” Movement Labs. Accessed June 15, 2021. https://movementlabs.com/advisors/. ^
  10. “About.” Movement Labs. Accessed June 18, 2021. https://movementlabs.com/about/. ^
  11. “Browse Individual Contributions.” FEC.gov. Accessed June 18, 2021. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Dan+Garon&contributor_employer=Zynga. ^
  12. “ActBlue — About.” ActBlue — Billions Raised Online Since 2004. Accessed June 18, 2021. https://secure.actblue.com/about. ^
  13. McFarlane, Al. “Antone Melton-Meaux Seeks to Unseat Ilhan Omar in CD5.” Insight News. Last modified July 13, 2020. https://www.insightnews.com/news/metro/antone-melton-meaux-seeks-to-unseat-ilhan-omar-in-cd5/article_2c1b05b6-c56e-11ea-b2f7-a3ce74912276.html. ^
  14. “LIVE Election Results from MPR News.” MPR News | Live Results. Accessed June 18, 2021. https://elections.mpr.org/2020-08-11. ^

Connected Organizations

  1. Rapid Resist Action (Non-profit)
    Advisory Board Member
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