GAIN Power & MPX Offer NEW Revolutionary Services for Campaigns and Political Organizations

A New Partnership and Service to Support Progressive Professionals and Employers

GAIN Power is formally launching a partnership with MPX — Management Personnel Xchange — to build the workforce infrastructure our movement has always needed but never had. MPX is, I believe, the first PEO built specifically for the progressive space. This partnership enables W-2 employment options, portable benefits, and continuous healthcare between cycles, providing real structural stability for campaign staff. By connecting talent to opportunity and ensuring professionals have coverage, we’re allowing staff to stay in the movement longer, giving employers greater access to experienced people, and helping organizations retain top talent rather than losing them to systemic instability.

I started what is now GAIN Power in 2003 — after the 2002 elections, right as McCain-Feingold was reshaping the landscape. Frustration fueled me then, and honestly, it hasn’t let up since.

Not about our work and impact. I’m proud of the thousands of people we’ve trained, the thousands of employers we’ve helped, and the careers we’ve supported over two decades. That part has been everything.

What’s frustrated me is that nothing has fundamentally changed how our party campaigns or the broader progressive ecosystem treats people.

Yesterday was National Run for Office Day, created by our friends at Run for Something Civic. And we love seeing the groups the Pipeline Fund supports focused on recruiting progressive candidates in states across the country. It is exciting to see so many organizations dedicated to recruiting candidates, but too few focus on the staff needed to run these campaigns and the ecosystem of organizations that support them.

The boom and bust cycle. The lost healthcare between cycles. Talented organizers leave after one or two cycles because they simply cannot afford to stay. We’ve known about this, written about it, talked about it, convened around it. And yet the system has remained essentially the same.

Since November 2024, I’ve studied post-mortems and reports. One clear trend: the landscape of campaigns, technology, and outreach is changing rapidly.

I worry that even with these changes, the treatment of people in our field will stay the same.

That makes today important to me.

This solution is ready now, and it’s the step I’ve wanted to launch.

Joe Lestingi, MPX’s founder, and I co-wrote a longer piece today. We lay out the full case for why this matters and what we’re building together. You can read it here. If you’re an employer, a campaign professional, or someone who cares about the long-term health of this movement, I’d love for you to read it and reach out. There is much more to do to make this work. We’re going to need the buy-in of establishment leaders to make this successful.

There’s more coming from GAIN Power — we’re rebuilding our entire platform and programs, and we have a lot to say as the midterm cycle heats up. But this is where we start.

After over twenty years of supporting talent—the people behind our democracy—I believe we are finally addressing the root problem.