Our story

The story of VOICE began with the vague, but growing sense that something was wrong. Although each of the founders began their political careers at different times, each of us was troubled by trends we saw within our government and society - rising inequality, inaction on the looming climate crisis, growing backlash against hard-won social progress. For each of us, contributing to the political process was a way to take personal responsibility for these growing problems, and to steer our country in a more productive direction.

Each of us failed.

Working in campaigns, consulting firms and non-profits gave us all immediate direction and objectives -objectives we met more often than not. But as we continued to meet our fundraising goals or field metrics and the problems that initially motivated us continued to worsen, we grew worried about something new. We realized that not only is our political system broken, the traditional mechanisms for fixing it are also broken.

We had to change the game. We needed a new way to do the work we were passionate about without reaffirming the systems that produce stasis, to engage with the machine without being caught in the gears. As we met, we came from different sectors of the political world: long term campaign staffers, non-profits, DC firms, or independent contractors. In each of those environments, the financial pressures and systems of accountability produced the same results time and again: mediocre products, failing upwards, and an overwhelming preference for the status quo above all else.

This is what motivated us to found VOICE. Through the generosity and assistance of friends, family, current & former clients and employers, we were able to assemble this vision of a political cooperative jointly owned and operated not just by seasoned political veterans, but by many of the kinds of people often left out of the DC offices.