What Are Your Ideas for the Future of the Democratic Party?

Meeting the Moment 

Since our devastating losses in 2024, Democrats have been on a winning streak. We have an opportunity to sweep the midterms and win a trifecta in 2028. But despite recent overperformances, in poll after poll, the American people tell us that they do not like the Democratic Party. Voters do not see the Democratic Party as a compelling vehicle for their anger, hopes, or desires for a government that has their back, even as they turn away from Trump. 

We need your ideas to change that!

As MVP, we’ve traditionally focused on funding community-based, “outside-game” organizing. But the outside game can only get so far if the inside game is broken. That’s why we’re stepping up to spark generative thinking and movement-wide collaboration to reimagine the future of the Democratic Party. Fixing it isn’t “someone else’s job” — it’s our collective responsibility. 

The reality is that the Democratic Party remains the most realistic way to stop Trump’s Republican Party from consolidating power. At its best, the Democratic Party can deliver positive change to hundreds of millions of people — here and abroad. 

For all intents and purposes, the Democratic Party isn’t one “thing.” It’s a web of committees, candidates, consultants, PACs, plus a wider ecosystem of independent but more-or-less aligned 501(c)(4)s, labor unions, and other outside organizations — and people like you. Love it or hate it, it’s ours. 

Over the past few months, our team has interviewed more than 75 leaders across the ecosystem — state and county party chairs, labor and community organizers, donor advisors, campaign professionals, tech and data experts, pollsters, executive leaders, elected party leaders, consultants, operatives, digital creators, and progressive standard bearers, as well as more moderate members of the coalition. 

Across the board, people say the same thing: our rules, incentives, structures, and culture are stifling innovation and trust. Yet there are bright spots — reforms, leaders, ideas, and experiments that could add up to a different future if we choose to back them at scale.

Now we want your ideas.

What do we need to change in order to do better? What efforts to fix the Democratic Party are you aware of? Who is getting it right? No suggestion is too small, too specific, or too bold!

MVP’s goal is to gather and amplify these ideas, spark solution‑oriented conversations, and support emerging efforts that can make real strategic change.

From spammy fundraising, to commission‑driven media strategies, to suboptimal tech, to fear of big donors and bold ideas, to state parties and grassroots organizers starved of support, to rural and working-class areas left for dead … too much of our ecosystem is optimized around short‑term transactions instead of building long‑term trust and power. 

The good news is that these are choices — and we can change what we choose.

Actionable Insights: Kicking Off The Conversation Everyone Wants to Have

From a growing list of over 150 ideas, we’ve started to curate a set of high‑leverage propositions from the themes that keep bubbling up — here is a quick teaser of some of the ideas we’re hearing:

1. Rebuild the Party from the Ground Up

The party structure is antiquated, confusing, and full of rules written for a different era that is long gone. We must modernize and truly prioritize participation. 

• Modernize/revolutionize party rules and bylaws. The current structure is dominated by insiders, many operating with the wrong incentives. Our party should be welcoming, not exclusionary.
• Make party leadership more attractive and more accountable. Pay state party chairs as the professional, always-on leaders we need them to be. We currently invest in the recruitment and development of candidates and consultants; we need to do the same for the next generation of party leaders. 

2. Actually Help People — and Build Real Feedback Loops With Community (Not Just Consultants!) 

Democrats need to demonstrate that we can deliver — and we need to hear directly, in real time, from the people we represent about what’s not working. This simple shift in attention and feedback focus will help correct many of our problems. 

• Prioritize constituent and community service and provide material help. Help communities navigate government resources and stand up visible mutual aid efforts as part of office and campaign side work. From buying down medical or school lunch debt, to back-to-school backpack drives, to mutual aid after a disaster, to legal resources to protect people from ICE, these are the ways the American people see what we actually stand for. 
• Create structured feedback loops so elected officials hear from constituents, not just lobbyists, donors, and consultants. We need more regular, two-way communication — outside of the existing status quo “bubble” of influence. We must democratize message development and message testing so ordinary people actually shape both the language and the priorities.

3. Win the Narrative — and Go on Offense

To win, we must give working people something concrete to vote for, not just against. We cannot be the party trying to restore the pre-Trump status quo. We need a bold, legible vision for what comes after — and we need the infrastructure to deliver it.

• Invest upstream of culture. Democrats must prioritize shaping how people think and feel over time, and building trust with constituents — not just renting attention with ads distributing messages in the last few weeks. 
• Develop a Democratic “Contract with America”. We need a clear, plain-language policy platform ahead of 2028. Our platform must go beyond vague "affordability” to offer a real economic vision: free childcare, free community college, capped utility costs, taking on monopolies, and challenging the concentration of corporate power with AI, Oil, Wall Street — and a real plan for how we get there and deliver it. 

4. Deal With Our Gerontocracy Problem: Treat Gen Z as Must-Win Voters

Young voters — especially non-college youth — are now swing voters. This requires a serious, multi-year commitment to hearing and meeting their needs, rather than treating an entire generation as a cycle-by-cycle afterthought. 

• Create an age mandate for DNC officer roles. E.g., if the chair is over 50, the vice chair must be under 50. Seriously consider term limits and retirement age standards for party and elected leadership.
• Invest in young people like our lives depend on it. If we can’t win back and consolidate support with Gen Z, we are lost forever. We can recover, but only with intention, dedication, and sustained investment. This means letting emerging leaders lead and guide strategies with real budgets committed. From supporting legacy orgs like College Dems to investing in emerging creator networks, campus debate tours, and innovative organizing hubs, we need to think big and kitchen sink, not small scraps.

5. End Corruption in Democratic Politics and the Consultant Class

Donor money is being wasted, consultants are extracting value rather than creating it, and dark money is distorting Democratic primaries. This comes from the top, and it needs to stop.

• Set “high-road” standards for the political consulting industry. Limit ad-buy markups, require fee transparency, prohibit private-equity owned firms, require RFP processes for major vendor selection by Party committees, call out corruption, and name names.
• Take on spam and scam fundraising. Reform vendor practices and go after bad actors that have made Democratic email and text universally despised.
• Stop AIPAC, crypto, gambling, AI, and GOP-aligned PACs from pouring dark money into Democratic primaries. The resolutions at state parties and the DNC are a good step forward. But we need to impose real consequences for the consultants who profit from this and misuse our money. Remember the DCCC blacklist of 2019? We could bring it back, but for consultants working for these dark-money primary PACs.

6. Reinvent the Ground Game and Own the Tech Stack

Most voter contact programs are broken. Our tech is a decade behind. And AI is already reshaping what organizing, advertising, and communications are. We have to find ways not just to catch up, but actually get ahead. 

• Develop a serious AI strategy. Explore how AI can help the party have better conversations with the right people, at scale, without losing authenticity. (We also need to couple this with an advocacy strategy to regulate AI and data centers — see above.)
• Run bold experiments in 2026. Disburse grants for groups to test and scale creative ideas in the areas of field, relational, digital, deep canvass, and more, and then measure, document, and disseminate results. Test unconventional approaches in tier-two Senate races, and explore direct-democracy tools that give people ways to weigh in on real policy questions between election cycles, building the habit of participation year-round. 

7. Drain the Swamp for Real: Structural and Electoral Reform

Democrats must lead on the democracy reforms that will define the next era — and offer a genuine contrast to Republican efforts to silence our voices and disenfranchise our communities. 

• Go bigger than Trump on systemic change: Court expansion, D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood, anti-corruption legislation, and banning congressional stock trading. Push for automatic voter registration nationwide and fight every effort at voter suppression. Expand fusion voting into more states — and support the Working Families Party as a complementary (non-spoiler) third party that brings fresh energy into the Democratic Party. Champion Electoral College reform. Term limits. Abolish Citizens United. Flood the zone. 

These are not the only ideas on the table … No kidding, we have 150 more. But they illustrate the kind of specific, actionable reforms and experiments people are already leading, which we are hoping to surface by sparking this conversation.

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

Speaking of action: Dedicated supporters of MVP might be reading this memo and thinking, “We’ve been talking about fixing the Democratic Party since the 2024 elections! When is this going to move from words to action?! And how much is MVP actually going to invest in this crucial area of work?”

Frankly, how much MVP can do as an organization to help transform the Democratic Party will depend on how much donors want to invest in this work. There are minimalist and maximalist versions of how this could take shape: from scouting and seed-funding the most promising and innovative projects, to making this body of work an entire, ongoing vertical on our org chart. 

We want to underpromise and overdeliver, and we’re eager to hear from you: To what extent do you want to invest in the work to change the Democratic Party?

We’d Love to Hear Your Ideas!

This memo is an invitation to join this conversation at the ground floor! Over the coming months, we will be gathering ideas and sharing more detailed recommendations organized around five strategic levers: 

1. Rules and incentives
2. Capacity and skills
3. Infrastructure and platforms
4. Programmatic campaigns and experiments
5. Policy and governing agenda

How You Can Join In

• Share your perspective. Fill out this short survey about what is and is not working where you sit. If you have deeper thoughts, raise your hand (via the survey) for a one‑on‑one conversation with our team.
• Add your work to the map. Tell us what you or your organization are already doing (or projects that you know about) on party reform, tech, talent, narrative, governance, and more, so we can connect with and support existing efforts, instead of duplicating them.
• Become a thought and/or implementation partner. Do you want to work on this? Help pressure‑test ideas, co‑design pilots, and — crucially — champion implementation in your state, network, or institution. Stay in touch! We can’t promise to be all things to all people, but we’ll do our best to collaborate with others who are working toward the same goals. 

There is a version of the next decade where we keep managing decline: more attrition from young and working-class voters, more brittle campaigns, a smaller coalition, and more disillusioned operatives and leaders leaving our ranks. There is another version where we use this moment of volatility to rebuild the Democratic Party into a welcoming, effective vehicle for multiracial democracy.

We do not pretend to have all the answers. What this project offers is a structured way to listen, synthesize, and act — together with people like you who see both the risks and the possibilities. 

Again, the first step: If you are interested in shaping the “Future of the Democratic Party” project, please fill out this survey, and we’ll stay in touch with invitations to upcoming conversations and opportunities to help move the most promising ideas from the page to reality.