Today, Vice President Kamala Harris and People For the American Way announced the revival and rebrand of the KamalaHQ accounts as a new project: Headquarters.
KamalaHQ played a critical role in the 2024 presidential campaign as the accounts helped to move key messages like Project 2025 from the “left bubble” and into the mainstream. Now, the Vice President is partnering with People For the American Way – one of the most storied membership organizations in the country – to build an effort to mobilize pro-justice, pro-fairness, pro-democracy young people against far-right extremism. This combination of these large social media accounts and an organization that has for decades been at the nexus of culture and politics will help power the progressive movement for another generation.
Conservatives build permanent organizing infrastructure. Progressives have historically built machines that dismantle after Election Day. Headquarters is the end of that cycle.
Harris will be the Chair Emerita of Headquarters, and many of the staff behind KamalaHQ will be reuniting. The project will be advised by Rob Flaherty, former Deputy Campaign Manager for the Harris campaign and Parker Butler and Lauren Kapp, the leaders of the KamalaHQ team from 2024. Arlie Shugaar, who also worked with the KamalaHQ team, will join the People For the American Way staff as Director of Platforms for the accounts.
In a video, launched today on the account, Harris said: “I have good news: Kamala HQ is turning into Headquarters. It's where you can go online to get the latest of what's going on, and also to meet and revisit with some of our great and courageous leaders — be they elected leaders, community leaders, civic leaders, faith leaders, young leaders. I'm really excited about it. Stay engaged, and I'll see you out there.”
Svante Myrick, President of People For the American Way, said: “Vice President Harris has spent her entire career fighting for the voices of young people – we’re thrilled to take the baton to build KamalaHQ into a youth mobilization organization that can withstand the test of time. This work was built into People For’s DNA: leveraging culture to change our politics. We’re excited to work with her on this next chapter.”
People For The American Way was founded in 1984 by television producer Norman Lear to challenge the far right agenda of the Moral Majority and has grown to a network of more than a million members and supporters. In the years since, People For has been one of the nation’s leading incubators for Democracy: housing projects like Right Wing Watch, a leading platform holding far right extremists accountable, and using its connection to artists and cultural icons to inspire and empower progressive leaders nationwide.
Additional Background Information:
- Harris will join People For the American Way as the Chair Emerita of Headquarters, an honorary role.
- Kirsten Allen, the Vice President’s senior advisor, will join People For as a member of the Board of Directors.
- Harris’ role is ex-officio, and she will not maintain editorial oversight of the project. All programmatic decisions will be made by Headquarters and the leadership of People For
- The program will operate the original HQ accounts, but will also expand to YouTube, Substack, and other platforms.
- As part of the program, HQ will be used to funnel young people into both online and offline action for progressive values, leveraging People For’s existing resources.
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About People For the American Way:
People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. For more than four decades, we have been dedicated to making the promise of American ideals real for everyone and have worked toward a vision of a vibrant America where basic rights and freedoms are upheld for all, not just the wealthy and the powerful. Learn more at peoplefor.org.