FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 20, 2026
Contact: [email protected]
Run for Something’s Pipeline Surpasses 250,000 Potential Candidates on Anniversary of Trump’s Inauguration
NEW YORK — Today, Run for Something announced that its pipeline of potential candidates surpassed 250,000 people, further cementing its place as the largest candidate pipeline in the country on either side of the aisle. This milestone comes exactly nine years after Run for Something first launched on the day of Trump’s inauguration in 2017, and as young leaders raise their hands to run in unprecedented numbers. Since Trump was elected in 2024, nearly 80,000 people have signed up with Run for Something to explore a run — more people than in all four years of Trump’s first term combined.
“We’re proud to have offered more than a quarter million people a path to help channel their frustration into action,” said Run for Something President and Co-Founder Amanda Litman. “Local leadership offers real, meaningful ways to make progress right now—and it’s one of the only spaces we can do that while Trump is in office. The road back to power starts locally, and empowering a new generation of young leaders with the backbone needed to fight back is how we get there.”
Founded in the aftermath of the 2016 election, Run for Something was created to provide Democrats with the infrastructure they need to build a long-term progressive bench. Nine years later, it has become a political force, fueling a movement of down-ballot candidates running for everything from school boards to state legislatures — and winning. RFS candidates have won over 1,600 races across 49 states, redefining what leadership looks like in our country. Today, five RFS alumni are serving in Congress, and dozens more are running for higher offices in 2026.
Looking ahead, Run for Something is ramping up its work to rebuild the Democratic Party from the ground up by recruiting and supporting the next generation of values-aligned leaders to local and state legislative offices. With an eye to the midterms and a shifting political landscape that threatens crucial Electoral College votes in blue-state strongholds, RFS announced a new 5-year, $50 million strategy to expand the map in October. While continuing RFS’s work to recruit, train, and elect candidates across all 50 states, this initiative will scale up work in states across the South, Sun Belt, and other regions key to victories in 2026 and determining the balance of power after 2030. Last year, Run for Something also expanded its endorsement criteria to allow values-aligned candidates running as Independents to apply.
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Run for Something (RFS) recruits and supports young progressive candidates running for state and local offices. Since its founding, RFS has helped elect over 1,600 candidates across the country, including 43 candidates in red-to-blue seats in the 2025 election cycle. Today, RFS has the largest database of any other Democratic organization, with nearly 80,000 people reaching out since last November with interest in running for office.