WASHINGTON ― The backlash to Donald Trump’s second time period has been coming in massive waves. Democrats’ sweep in final week’s elections. The 7 million individuals who turned out nationwide for final month’s “No Kings” protests.
However there’s been one other, much less apparent type of blowback enjoying out all yr, too: a large surge in younger progressives signing as much as run for workplace.
Within the yr since Trump received reelection, almost 75,000 individuals have signed as much as run for native or state workplace by means of Run for One thing, a grassroots political group that recruits younger progressives in down-ballot races throughout all 50 states.
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For context, about 67,000 individuals signed up with the group in Trump’s first time period ― over the whole lot of these 4 years.
There’s a distinct power driving younger individuals to think about bids for public workplace this yr, says Amanda Litman, the group’s co-founder and government director.
“You’re hearing people pretty explicitly saying, ‘I’m not waiting my turn,’” she instructed HuffPost in a current interview. “‘I didn’t want to run for office. But I feel like I have to.’”
Run For One thing, which launched in 2017 in response to Trump’s first presidential win, recruits people who find themselves underneath 40, who’re typically left-of-center Democrats and who align with the group’s acknowledged values. These values embrace issues like supporting abortion rights, LGBTQ+ equality, local weather protections and ending gun violence. Past that, it’s as much as every candidate to determine mirror these values of their campaigns.
The group had an excellent night time in final week’s elections. It was backing 222 candidates usually elections, and of the 193 of these races which were referred to as, 129 of its candidates received in state and native races throughout 23 states. They embrace 36 candidates who flipped Republican-held seats to Democrats. That’s a 66% win price thus far, the group’s highest ever.
“We now know, as we saw earlier this week, that we can win,” Litman stated on a name final week with reporters. “Local candidates can be some of the best messengers of the party right now.”
The election itself spurred extra individuals to enroll with Run for One thing. Within the week after Democrats swept on the polls, one other 5,000 individuals signed as much as run. And there was a spike inside that spike: Practically 1,200 of them signed up inside 24 hours of average Senate Democrats caving Sunday of their celebration’s battle to guard well being care subsidies for hundreds of thousands of individuals in alternate for reopening the federal government.
“This shit is why people don’t trust the Democratic Party,” Litman quipped Sunday night time on social media, in response to the Democrats giving in.
Moments later, she related the dots for anybody who had missed it: “Primaries are good, healthy, and useful. It’s not too late to get started for 2026.”
The waves of sign-ups at Run for One thing are occurring at a time when younger individuals have purpose to really feel disillusioned about their path forward.
Trump has been decimating the federal workforce and canceling federal grants that assist nonprofits all around the nation, forcing a whole lot of 1000’s of civic-minded individuals out of jobs. Gen Zers, or individuals born between 1997 and 2012, are coming into the workforce with excessive nervousness about their monetary future, as many battle to seek out jobs or afford a spot to stay. Millennials, individuals born between 1981 and 1996, are struggling, too, as many are saddled with excessive pupil mortgage debt and unable to afford shopping for houses.
Add to the combination a wildly unstable political local weather and AI more and more stealing jobs from people, and it’s not arduous to see why younger individuals would possibly really feel compelled to attempt to sort out the larger issues holding them again in life. What higher manner to try this than by altering the insurance policies that put them on this grim place within the first place?
“They are over it,” Litman stated. And seeing so many flip despair into motion “is a really exciting feeling.”
Justice Horn, 27, is a kind of individuals. He was managing Vitality Division initiatives for a Missouri nonprofit when his federal grant was abruptly terminated earlier this yr as a part of Trump’s sweeping cuts. Packing up his workplace in a haze of anger and disappointment, Horn received to excited about operating for native workplace as one other technique to see by means of the sorts of workforce improvement initiatives he’d been engaged on in his job.
“I’m like, OK, if I’m gonna have all this free time, I’m on unemployment, I’m gonna commit fully to this,” Horn stated. Citing the motto of the late civil rights icon John Lewis, he added, “Because when we have a lot of free time, you can get in some trouble. Some good trouble.”
He’d heard about Run for One thing by means of pals in progressive politics and stuffed out the group’s questionnaire, which screens potential candidates on why they wish to run for workplace, how they plan to interact with voters of their group, and how much “heart and hustle” they’ll convey to a marketing campaign. Not everybody who applies will get the group’s endorsement, but when they do, they inherit a wealth of sources, together with a marketing campaign advisor, an alumni advisor, and entry to trainings and guides for a profitable run.
Horn checked all of the group’s bins. In late Might, he introduced his bid for an at-large seat within the Jackson County Legislature, which represents Kansas Metropolis. If he wins this election, which is occurring in August 2026, he’d be the primary Gen Z resident ever elected to a place within the Jackson County authorities.
Horn has spent months door-knocking in his group, assembly numerous people who find themselves unemployed and who, like him, misplaced their jobs at nonprofits or in metropolis authorities as a result of federal funding was reduce. He talks to them about his precedence points, like launching a assured jobs program and tackling the inexpensive housing disaster.
Younger individuals uniquely perceive the “urgency” of these items, Horn stated, as a result of they’re instantly affected. Like lots of his friends, he’s getting by on bank cards and loans.
“We’re all unemployed. We know how it feels to navigate these bureaucracies,” he stated, referring to federal meals help and unemployment advantages. “That anger ― I just like that people are using it to do better and change things, you know?”
Horn added, “Because a lot of people are down, you know?”
Prior to last week’s elections, Litman said there were four distinct moments in the past year when waves of people signed up with Run for Something: right after Trump won reelection in November 2024; when Trump carried out his first big wave of federal firings in February through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency; when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) infuriated progressives in March by voting for a GOP bill to avert a government shutdown; and when New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary in July. (Mamdani won the general election last week, too.)
The post-Mamdani surge was the biggest. Litman speculated his primary win resonated with young people partly because of his focus on affordable housing, an issue that keeps coming up with Run for Something prospects. But Mamdani, 34, also showed that a young progressive can take on the political establishment and, against the odds, win.
“They’ve seen proof points that it is possible,” she said. “A lot of people are gonna try, and not do it. But it is possible, and that it is possible is inspiring.”
To be sure, Litman’s group isn’t the only left-leaning organization supporting young people in bids for local and state office. This is core to the Democratic Party’s efforts, too, through its state chapters and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. The difference is Run for Something is recruiting people to the left of the establishment, and is uniquely focused on building a pipeline of young, diverse progressives who can launch careers in public office.
Some of its alums have made their way into Congress, like Reps. Jasmine Crockett (Texas) and Sarah McBride (Del.). Some are running for Senate in 2026, like Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Iowa state Sen. Zach Walls. More than 20 Democrats under the age of 40 are currently running for Congress, and nearly half are Run for Something alumni.
They are all among the more than 230,000 people in the Run for Something pipeline. To date, the group has backed more than 3,500 candidates and elected more than 1,600 people across 48 states to state legislatures, city councils, school boards and mayorships.
In its appeals to prospective new candidates, Run for Something dunks on the current crop of Democratic leaders in office as old and out of touch.
“Politics is stuck on repeat. The same older generation calls the shots, and the people making the rules don’t look like the people living under them,” reads the group’s website. “Ready to change that? Run for Something manages the biggest candidate pipeline in Democratic politics, filled with young, diverse progressives who truly represent the people.”
There are times when Run for Something candidates have directly challenged incumbents backed by the Democratic Party. That intraparty friction is fine by Litman.
“It’s like, if the incumbent’s doing a good job, they’re going to win,” she said. “If they’re not, then you’re going to get a better Democrat.”
In some cases, people have signed up with Run for Something and then hit pause. That still works for the group, as it keeps a lifetime pipeline of potential future candidates.
Theora Tiffney lost their job in April as a federal contractor at the National Institutes for Health after Trump’s cuts to federal funding. Tiffney, who is gender nonbinary and in their 30s, had always planned for a career in public health policy, and they see a natural connection between the work they’d been doing and elected office.
“There’s a really powerful spirit of service for anyone who goes into federal employment,” they said. “You’re usually earning 30% less than the private industry. There are supremely intrusive background checks. Ethics stipulations. You really get into this if you want to make the world a better place.”
Tiffney signed up with Run for Something last spring, but there isn’t an obvious seat to run for in their community in Montgomery County, Maryland. In the meantime, they were selected for a two-month residency at Brocher Foundation, a group that studies the impact of medical development on society. It’s not paid, but it’s a prestigious post and will take them to Geneva, Switzerland, next summer to continue their health research.
They’ve put their political ambitions on hold for now, but have an eye on elected office in the future. The fulfillment Tiffney gets from being in public service is something they think young people are naturally drawn to ― and something the current president will never understand.
“One of the reasons the Trump administration is attacking the civil service the way it is is that it’s entirely alien to them,” they observed. “They want it to go back to being a tool of reinforcing power structures, instead of a tool for helping people.”
“My ‘progressive’ is different from yours, because my area’s ‘progressive’ is different than yours.”
Andrew Harbaugh, 31, would agree. He lives in a tight-knit community in deep red Clarion County, Pennsylvania, and used to be a Republican. But last week, he won a seat on the Clarion Borough Council as a proud Democrat.
He fully embraces Run for Something’s philosophy that the concept of “progressive” means something different to every candidate and the community they come from.
“My ‘progressive’ is different from yours, because my area’s ‘progressive’ is different than yours,” Harbaugh said. “If Google Maps is trying to get you somewhere, it gives you four different ways. But you still end up getting from point A to point B.”
He said conservatives in his community have been willing to look past his party affiliation because they see he’s genuinely invested in them and in delivering results for them. That was the message that inspired him to run for office in the first place, when he first heard it from former Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz at last year’s party convention.
“It was one of those moments when something clicks inside of you,” Harbaugh said. “I totally understand being a Democrat in a red area. You have to work extra hard for it. And Walz’s whole thing was like, we’re not all going to love the same, we’re not all going to think the same, we’re not all going to pray the same. But at the end of the day, we’re all neighbors.”
His approach seems to be resonating. As the dad of a fourth-grade son with autism, Harbaugh said he’s connected with people in his community about how he’s been personally hurt by Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid and federal education funding. He’s heard their worries about health care costs rising and how to navigate local budget challenges.
He’s even convinced some of his Republican friends to consider signing up with Run for Something. That may sound counterintuitive, Harbaugh said, but they care about their community, too, and have real potential to help lead it. And despite being Republicans, they recognize that when Trump is doing things like sending ICE into communities to terrorize families or driving up costs on Americans with his tariffs, “none of this is right.”
“It reminds you that good ideas are still possible and can still be listened to instead of all this inflammatory bullshit,” Harbaugh said.
“I think we showed [in last week’s elections] that ideas don’t have to have letters next to your name, they have results in mind,” he added. “That was good enough here. I think that was good enough everywhere.”
