Ethan Rome is a left-of-center campaign director who is known for his activism surrounding taxation, healthcare, and labor unions. He is as of May 2022 chief of strategy and program at Issue One, a cross-partisan organization seeking to affirm views that the 2020 U.S. Presidential elections were “the most secure in history.” ^{1 2} Rome is also a member of the National Task Force On Election Crises, a nonpartisan task force founded specifically to combat those who question the validity of the 2020 elections. ³

Education and Early Career

Rome attended Wesleyan University from 1982 to 1985, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Radical Democracy. ⁴ He became an organizer for the eastern Connecticut chapter of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, which advocates for left-of-center causes such as health care for unauthorized migrants. ⁵ Before departing in 1992, Rome was legislative and political director, leading the organization’s communications and political campaigns to “help grassroots leaders build progressive power.” ⁶

In 1992, Rome cofounded and directed the Taxpayers Alliance to Serve Connecticut (TASC) in their two-year tax reform campaign, which won the enaction of a new state income tax in Connecticut. TASC was a coalition created to respond to a state budget crisis caused by overspending and over-reliance on high sales and property taxes, which had backfired during the 1989 New England recession. ^{7 8}

Shortly after, Rome joined the Connecticut Office of the Speaker of the House as policy and communications director, where he provided “comprehensive services” to Democratic state house campaigns. ⁹

American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees

Rome spent a decade as director of public affairs at the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), where he coordinated communications, campaigns, and branding, and acted as union spokesperson. ¹⁰ AFSCME is a national union of government workers and a major donor to left-of-center campaigns, having contributed more than $62 million to the Democratic Party since 1990. ¹¹ The union promotes left-of-center causes quite openly, having advocated in favor of the Affordable Care Act, and recently supported President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. ^{12 13}

Health Care for America Now

In 2009, Rome left AFSCME for Health Care for America Now (HCAN), a left-of-center coalition that advocated for passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and then defended it from repeal. ¹⁴ As executive director, Rome led the $60 million campaign to “define the [ACA] debate as a battle between the insurance industry and the right of everyone in America to quality, affordable health care.” ¹⁵ Rome expounded on this viewpoint in a 2017 op-ed for HuffPost in which he argued that Republicans wanted to slash expanded healthcare and hand the average American over to the mercy of insurance companies. ¹⁶

Issue One

In 2018, Rome became chief of strategy and program at Issue One, a left-leaning but nominally cross-partisan coalition to “protect U.S. elections, lessen political polarization, limit the influence of big money over politics, and improve the ability of Congress to solve problems.” ¹⁷ Issue One has asserted that the 2020 elections were secure and fairly conducted, ¹⁸ characterized the January 6, 2021 protests at the U.S. Capitol as “a violent insurrection” against fair elections, and criticized former President Donald Trump for questioning the 2020 presidential election results. ^{19 20}

At Issue One, Rome oversees communications and branding campaigns. During the aftermath of the 2020 presidential elections, Rome led the Count Every Vote campaign, a $15 million effort to prove and defend the validity of the election. Later, according to his LinkedIn page, Rome was instrumental in creating the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, a committee intended to investigate what it refers to as a “domestic terrorist attack.” ^{21 22}

1. Team. “Ethan Rome.” Issue One. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://issueone.org/team/ethan-rome/
2. Elections and Voting. “2020 Election.” Issue One. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://issueone.org/issues/elections-voting/2020-election/
3. “Members.” National Task Force on Election Crises. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/members
4. Ethan Rome. LinkedIn. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-rome-b07b9188
5. “Health Care.” Connecticut Citizen Action Group. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.ccag.net/health-care.html
6. Ethan Rome. LinkedIn. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-rome-b07b9188
7. Louis Uchitelle. “Tough Choices for Connecticut as Boom Ends.” New York Times. December 13, 1990. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/13/nyregion/tough-choices-for-connecticut-as-boom-ends.html
8. Miles Rapoport. “Winning With Tax Reform: The Connecticut Story.” The American Prospect. December 19, 2001. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://prospect.org/infrastructure/winning-tax-reform-connecticut-story/
9. Ethan Rome. LinkedIn. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-rome-b07b9188
10. Ethan Rome. LinkedIn. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-rome-b07b9188
11. “American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees.” Open Secrets. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/american-fedn-of-state-county-municipal-employees/totals?id=D000000061&totalsaffilcycle=A
12. “Our Issues.” American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.afscme.org/priorities/issues
13. Natalia Perez Sanchos. “Saunders: Jackson confirmation a ‘joyous day’ and ‘watershed moment.’” American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.afscme.org/press/releases/2022/saunders-jackson-confirmation-a-joyous-day-and-watershed-moment
14. “About HCAN.” Healthcare For America Now. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.healthcareforamericanow.org/about/about-hcan/
15. Ethan Rome. LinkedIn. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-rome-b07b9188
16. Ethan Rome. “Club for Growth Hits Airwaves to Make a Bad Health Care Bill Worse.” HuffPost. April 18, 2017. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/club-for-growth-hits-airwaves-to-make-a-bad-health_b_58f692ffe4b071c2617f00a5
17. “About Us.” Issue One. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://issueone.org/about-us/
18. “Imagining a New Path Forward.” Issue One. Accessed April 22, 2022. http://issueone.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Issue-One-2021-Agenda.pdf
19. “2020 Election.” Issue One. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://issueone.org/issues/elections-voting/2020-election/
20. Amisa Ratliff. “60% of President Donald Trump’s post-election tweets sought to undermine legitimacy of presidential race.” Issue One. February 9, 2021. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://issueone.org/articles/60-of-president-donald-trumps-post-election-tweets-sought-to-undermine-legitimacy-of-presidential-race/
21. Ethan Rome. LinkedIn. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-rome-b07b9188
22. “About.” Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://january6th.house.gov/about