Primaries Matter: Reclaiming the Democratic Party
Grassroots activists worked to elect Democratic majorities in 2006 and 2008 by supporting Democrats across the political spectrum—from conservatives to progressive and everything in between. Now that Democrats have majorities in both Houses of Congress and the White House, the grassroots that brought the Democratic Party back to power are working to elect not just more Democrats, but better Democrats. This is a panel discussion from the progressive leaders supporting better Democrats across the country and in Congress.
Stephanie Taylor is co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), a 750,000-member grassroots organization dedicated to electing bold progressives to Congress and advocating for progressive policy.
Stephanie has been organizing in the field and online for over a decade. For a number of years, she was a labor organizer in the Midwest and Appalachia for SEIU District 1199, a health-care and social service workers’ union, and later worked in online organizing at the AFL-CIO, Democratic National Committee, MoveOn.org, and Lawrence Lessig's Change Congress.
As Arkansas’ 14th Lieutenant Governor, Bill Halter is focused on education and jobs.
The Lieutenant Governor led the successful campaign to establish a state lottery with all net proceeds devoted to college scholarships for Arkansas students. Tens of thousands of graduating high school seniors and nontraditional adult students in Arkansas will now have an opportunity for a higher education.
Bill Halter previously served as an economic adviser to President Clinton and to the U.S. Senate, led the Social Security Administration, advised Fortune 500 companies, and served on the boards of information technology and life sciences companies. He is a Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of Stanford University.
Bill, his wife, Shanti, and daughters, Lauren and Julia, live in North Little Rock, where they attend Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.
A.J. is the Campaign Manager for Elaine Marshall for U.S. Senate.
A Northern California native, he got his start in campaign politics in 2002 working as a field organizer on a state senate race in Texas. He has since worked on campaigns around the county and in the fall of 2005, was recruited through the blog, Say No to Pombo to build the team that achieved a historic upset win for Congressman Jerry McNerney over Richard Pombo. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is founder and publisher of Daily Kos, the largest progressive community blog in the United States. Named "the single most successful entrepreneur of the progressive movement" by NY Times magazine writer and author Matt Bai, Moulitsas is also co-author of the critically acclaimed book Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics, author of Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era, a contributing columnist to Newsweek Magazine and a weekly columnist at The Hill newspaper. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the world by People en Español, clocked in at third in Forbe's Web Celeb 25 rankings, and was listed 26th in PC World's list of the "Most Important People on the Web."
