Collaborating with Leaders in Congress
Progressive leaders regularly use Data for Progress’ polling and policy analysis to help advance key legislation. As the New York Times described in their profile of us, “President Biden mentions it in private calls. The White House reads its work. And Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, teams up with its leaders for news conferences, blog posts and legislation."
Our polling helps members of Congress build momentum around ambitious policy and demonstrate that progressive legislation will help Democrats win elections. Data for Progress is also the go-to forum for Democratic lawmakers to share their ideas — and prove that they’re politically popular.
Senator Bernie Sanders cited our polling on the Senate floor. Ahead of the 2021 Georgia Runoffs, our polling on the overwhelming popularity of stimulus checks showed Democrats that running on popular progressive policies helps them win. Our polling on stimulus checks was repeatedly cited by national media, and helped keep progressive ideas at the forefront of the election. Our poll finding 78 percent of Americans supported $2,000 stimulus checks helped Democrats make the case for ambitious stimulus — including Sen. Sanders, who cited our polling in a speech on the Senate floor.
We’ve partnered extensively with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to move the Senate agenda in a progressive direction. We pushed Schumer to go big on the child tax credit, and in February 2021, we teamed up with him and Senators Ron Wyden, Sherrod Brown, Michael Bennet, and Cory Booker to emphasize why we needed to include an expanded child tax credit in the American Rescue Plan (an effort that was ultimately successful). We’ve also worked with Sen. Schumer to push for bold climate policies, including at a NYC press conference where our political director Marcela Mulholland joined Sen. Schumer to speak about the importance of leveraging the federal government’s purchasing power and centering frontline communities in our climate response.
We’ve gotten some of the biggest names in politics on our blog, from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explaining the importance of the Census to Senator Elizabeth Warren advocating for federal climate investment. We’ve also gotten Sen. Ed Markey, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Cori Bush, and dozens of other national political figures to write for our site. We’re proud to be the go-to place where leading progressives make the case for key legislation.
We’ve measured the popularity and impacts of the progressive agenda and shown it works. In June 2021, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal co-wrote for the Data for Progress blog on the popularity and importance of expanding Medicare to cover hearing, vision, and dental care. But our analysis isn’t limited to polling — in March 2021, our economic impact analysis found that Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Build Green Act would save 4,200 lives, reduce health spending by $100 billion, and create approximately 960,000 jobs. We also partnered with the Justice Collaborative to break down why we need to pass Representative Ayanna Pressley’s People’s Justice Guarantee and to show it’s highly popular.