Overview: The Moderate Power Project
Building centrist infrastructure to fight back against America’s extremes.
Modern American politics is a battle of extremes. MAGA and the hyper-conservative new right control the GOP and the federal government. Across the aisle, radical voices wield an outsized megaphone, dragging the Democratic party brand further and further left. Both extremes have multi-million-dollar organizational infrastructures to enhance their influence in the national debate, but moderates do not, leaving a power gap that elevates radical voices over those of the pragmatic center.
Third Way launched the Moderate Power Project (MPP) to correct this imbalance. MPP is an ambitious, strategic initiative to build advocacy infrastructure on the center left. It will serve as a sustainably funded counterweight to the political extremes, housing a series of mutually reinforcing programs to amplify moderate views and expand the political and policy power of the vital center.
MPP is structured for impact. Third Way plans to stand up six complementary programs within the Moderate Power Project, listed below. Each meets a critical need in the greater moderate infrastructure. Those with asterisks (*) launched during the 2024 MPP pilot phase.
- Communications Center*: To raise the salience, stickiness, and reach of moderate ideas and viewpoints throughout traditional and new media;
- Venture Fund*: To grant seed funding to entrepreneurial projects that fill key gaps in the center-left ecosystem;
- Talent Pipeline*: To recruit and place moderate staffers in congressional offices, Democratic administrations, government affairs positions, nonprofits, and on campaigns;
- Leadership Platform: To provide critical training and career advice to the next generation of national, state, and local electeds and organizational leaders;
- Data Hub: To produce and market persuasive qualitative and quantitative public opinion research and statistical analysis to advocates, leaders, strategists and the media; and
- Grassroots Pilot: To experiment with educating and engaging moderates in a key swing district.
Collectively, the work in these programs will promote moderate values across a wide array of venues, including Democratic administrations, Hill offices, campaigns, college campuses, nonprofits, traditional and social media platforms, and state and local communities, among others.
The moment is now. We must act boldly and urgently to empower the vital center in order to: 1) prevent the far left from doing irreparable damage to the Democratic party brand, 2) make and sustain mainstream policy progress, and 3) protect our democracy from decades of control by the populist radical right. To drive our country in a new direction, we must move upstream from elections and invest in building a robust, adaptable, durable institutional foundation for moderate power.
Contact
Rachel Fersh, Senior Advisor to MPP
[email protected].