In January, we launched the Higher Ground Institute with a clear goal: to build a hub for early innovation, experimentation, and technological adoption across the Democratic and progressive space. That same day, we kicked off our 2024 Election Tech Debrief in Phoenix, a gathering co-hosted by over two dozen organizations that brought hundreds of practitioners and technologists together to assess where we stand as a movement.
The timing revealed a striking paradox: Progressive technology has come a long way since 2016 – our systems are more sophisticated, our data is more complete, and our tools are easier to use than ever. Yet we’re facing bigger challenges in reaching, understanding, and engaging communities. The ways people connect with causes and consume information have transformed, and we’re struggling to keep up.
Throughout the Debrief, we heard repeatedly that our movement has built exceptional technology…for strategies that no longer work as well as they once did. We need to revise our playbook for how we engage with people more fundamentally. The ways people receive information and engage with causes has changed. Voter behavior has changed dramatically, and we haven’t done enough experimentation to understand how to reach people in this new landscape. Better tools alone won’t solve this – we need to evolve how we connect and mobilize.
This isn’t just a tactical problem – it’s a threat to progressive organizing. It’s urgent we address it.
For both of us, this mission is personal. Together, we have over two decades of combined experience across Democratic campaigns, movement organizations, and political technology. We’ve seen firsthand how resource constraints and pressure to deliver push teams toward playing it safe instead of innovating.
What we need is thoughtful, organized experimentation. We can’t wait for innovation to happen by chance. The Higher Ground Institute offers a new approach – a dedicated space where practitioners, technologists, and experts alike can come together to try new things, learn from each other, and help others adopt what works.
Our work starts now with a clear focus on three critical areas: transforming how we engage communities through media innovation, strengthening our movement’s preparedness for the challenges we’re already facing in a new Trump administration, and helping organizations harness emerging technologies like AI.
But we know we can’t do this alone – this transformation requires the collective wisdom and experience of practitioners across our movement. We want to hear your perspective: What do we need to do to break out of our old ways of doing things and drive meaningful innovation? Reach out to us at institute@highergroundlabs.com with your thoughts.
The tools we’ve built over the past decade have given us incredible capabilities. Now it’s time to reimagine how we use them. It’s time to evolve beyond optimizing old strategies and truly transform how we engage communities – the future of progressive organizing depends on meeting this moment together.
Together,
Jose Cornejo
Executive Director, Higher Ground Institute
Oluwakemi Oso
Chief Program Officer, Higher Ground Institute
