Jonathan Cowan has co-founded and run three high-impact national advocacy organizations, served as Chief of Staff of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and worked as a Democratic press secretary and legislative aide in Congress. For nearly two decades, he has led Third Way and built it into a prominent voice in center-left debates, with Prospect Magazine naming Third Way the 2013 North American Think Tank of the Year and The Washington Post dubbing it “the best source of new ideas in public policy.”

Previously, he co-founded and ran America’s then-largest Generation X advocacy group, Lead…or Leave and battled the NRA for sensible gun policy as the head of Americans for Gun Safety, which The Atlantic said was responsible for “fundamentally changing the debate” on firearm policy. Additionally, Cowan has served as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, authored a book titled Revolution X, and is frequently cited as a policy and political expert in national outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and NPR.