Hi GAIN Power Fam!
Another week of exciting primaries this week, and closer to the real battles in November.
I don’t often ask for this, but it’s been a challenging year, and if GAIN Power has meant something to you — through the Career Center, Roots Camp, a training, or just this newsletter — I’d genuinely appreciate your support.
And if you can’t afford to donate right now, we always appreciate a testimonial — a line or two about what GAIN Power has meant to you means more than you know.
And if giving isn’t where you’re at right now, we’re also rebuilding our platforms and would love your voice in shaping what comes next. Take five minutes for our Program Survey and tell us what’s working and what should change.
Congratulations to everyone — both those who won and those who lost. There were some amazing victories and some real surprises this month, including wins for Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan and Amy Klobuchar in Minnesota, and Luke Bronin in Connecticut (special - congrats to my former partner at Deliver Strategies, Adnaan - I see you). Congratulations, too, to everyone who worked on or supported campaigns across the country this primary season — win or lose, that work matters. I’m here for all the Democrats, win, lose, or draw. I’m tired of the infighting in our party. We’ve got serious enemies to fight, and I have no patience right now for a “left versus moderate” framing. As far as I’m concerned, we’re all against MAGA and Trump and the harm they’re inflicting on this country. Trump isn’t on the ballot, but plenty of the people he’s endorsed are — and they all need to be defeated. I don’t care who our nominees are at this point; I care that they win in November.
My hot takes: progressives had a genuinely good August, but it wasn’t a clean ideological wave — El-Sayed and Flanagan are major wins, while Hong’s and Bush’s losses complicate that story. The more interesting thread might be change versus status quo: younger candidates and those running against entrenched institutions or emphasizing affordability did well, regardless of ideology. Connecticut captures it best — voters replaced Larson but kept Gov. Lamont in the same cycle.
From a GAIN Power lens, this is exactly why we’re paying attention: we’re watching a real changing of the guard in Democratic campaign talent, and that’s going to matter a lot heading into 2026 and 2028. More on that soon — it might be worth its own piece rather than a topper aside.
A personal update: I’ve shared bits of this slowly, but I’m excited to say more. A lot of people assume GAIN Power is my full-time job — and I hope it will be one day — but it’s still very much my proverbial side hustle. Most of my energy right now is going into my direct mail firm, Amplify Power, which just formed a strategic alliance with Agency Strategies. One of its founding partners, Josh Grossfeld, was literally the first person I ever hired at Democratic GAIN — GAIN Power’s precursor — back in 2004. Getting to join forces with him, along with Emily Parcell, Amanda Brown Lierman, and their full team, means a lot to me.
I also wrote a piece this week you may have missed:
Powerful Idea Awards — Today is the last day to vote (we extended it a few times!): powerfulidea.gainpower.org. Winners will be celebrated at Roots Camp. We haven’t locked a date yet for announcing them publicly, but expect it within a few weeks.
Roots Camp — We’re exploring bringing Roots Camp to a few local markets. Our app is coming soon. Stay tuned on the Roots Camp Substack for more.
A quick note on tech — You may have noticed the Career Center and our main site were both down for a day this week — our slowest week on the site for exactly that reason. Apologies for the hiccup; everything’s repaired now. We’re in the middle of a broader tech overhaul (full rollout likely won’t land until after the election), and we’re genuinely excited about the consultant marketplace we’re building as part of it.
New website testing — We’d love your help testing the new site as we roll it out. Take our Program Survey to weigh in, and join our waitlist to be part of the beta if you want early access.
Meet the employers hiring now — We posted a rundown of who’s hiring and how to connect with them ahead of our upcoming career fairs: Meet with Employers Hiring Now. [I wasn’t able to pull the page to summarize it — want to give me a line on what’s in it, or should I leave it as a bare link?]
Virtual Career Fair August 27 Register
Virtual Career Fair September 24 Register
The Career Center is back up and running after this week’s outage — head over for the latest listings:
Blue by 2032 — the final DNC post-2024 after-action report is out, and it’s a full, unsparing look at what went wrong: fundraising and spending inefficiencies, late and under-scaled organizing, a messaging ecosystem that let Trump off the hook, and a strategist pool the report says needs to be broader and held more accountable. Worth the full read if you have the time — it’s dense.
Sizing Up the 2028 Democratic Presidential Contenders (Washington Post) — The 2028 Democratic field is still wide open and unsettled, with no clear front-runner among the mix of former candidates, governors, senators, House members, and even a few celebrities. Given everything above about the changing of the guard in Democratic talent, this is a good one to read alongside it — the same tension between institutional and insurgent power is playing out at the top of the ticket, not just down-ballot.
AOC’s Instagram post on freezing her eggs — a genuinely personal moment from a public figure who rarely does personal like this. She’s been open about the process and the reasoning, and it’s sparked a real conversation about reproductive choices and how women in office get to show up as full people. We’re here for it.
“I found every single one of my jobs through GAIN Power.”
That’s what came out of a call I had today with two longtime community members — both of whom told me how much they’ve relied on GAIN Power over the years. Moments like that are exactly why we do this.
Got a tip, a correction, a job to share, or thoughts on this newsletter? Reply to this email — we read everything.
Between the primaries, the tech hiccups, and a very exciting personal announcement, it’s been a full week. Thanks for sticking with us through the slow site — and for showing up to vote in the Powerful Idea Awards before the clock runs out today.
— Amy Pritchard, ❌👑 & the GAIN Power team
Big Tech is rushing to insert AI into our everyday lives, threatening our economic security while pocketing all the profits for themselves. We’re coming to East Las Vegas, the heart of Las Vegas’s working-class and Latino communities, for a town hall about AI, automation, and the fight for our share of the American Dream.
The DNC Talent Bank is an effort to help state parties, campaigns, and other progressive organizations find the best applicants for a wide range of positions from field organizers to digital directors and communications staff.
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