About Us
Who We Are
Third Way is the leading moderate think-tank of the progressive movement. Our aims: an economic agenda that is focused on growth and middle class success; a culture of shared values; a national security approach that is both tough and smart; and a clean energy revolution. We create high-impact products for use by elected officials, candidates and the Administration.
Our team is comprised of a former White House deputy and agency chief of staff, senior congressional aides, policy experts, nonprofit leaders and campaign veterans. We are governed by a prominent private sector Board of Trustees. We also have a dozen elected officials who serve as honorary co-chairs. Three of our former chairs now serve in the senior ranks of the Obama administration: Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and Under-Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher.
What We Believe
Progressive politics is at its best when it seeks new and modern ways forward. When we are willing to break out of ideological boxes, we get the best governing solutions and foster a big-tent progressivism that attracts the plurality of Americans who call themselves moderates.
With our name, we proudly join the tradition of 20th century leaders who held true to core progressive values but also challenged outdated orthodoxies: Theodore Roosevelt, who tamed the fierce capitalism of the Gilded Age; Franklin Roosevelt, the “Great Experimenter;” Lyndon Johnson, who pushed his own party to embrace social justice; and Bill Clinton, who offered a new covenant with the middle class. And today, we are working with President Obama and Congress to ensure that this tradition continues—that reform and new thinking are essential parts of this next progressive era.
What We Do
We develop and advance fresh ideas and communications strategies. Our products are recognized as unique—concise, timely, politically incisive and easy to use. Our publications include new policy and legislative proposals, reports on pressing issues, and political framing and messaging documents based on our innovative public opinion research. We regularly host Idea Forums to discuss and debate hot policy and political topics. And we also conduct a pioneering style of interactive training and briefings for elected officials, staff and other progressive leaders.
What They Say
Politico labeled Third Way “the moderate voice of the progressive movement,” and both Newsweek and US News have described our work as influential. New York Times columnist David Brooks described Third Way as “creating the ideas that are giving Progressives control of the center.” Other national columnists, like EJ Dionne and David Broder of The Washington Post, and Joe Klein and Amy Sullivan of Time, have cited Third Way’s impact in shaping the national debate.
