Center for Popular Democracy

The Center for Popular Democracy is a progressive advocacy network founded in 2012 that works across labour rights, voting access, racial and economic Justice, and immigration policy. It operates as a hub for more than 50 affiliated local organising groups across the United States, linking neighbourhood-level organisations into a national lobbying and campaign infrastructure. Co-executive director Ana María Archila Mejia is one of its most prominent public figures, known for a 2018 Capitol Hill confrontation with Senator Jeff Flake during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation.

In the 2026 midterm context, CPD affiliates are active in voter registration and turnout operations targeting low-income communities and communities of colour — populations that skew Democratic and whose mobilisation is central to competitive House and Senate races. The organisation's Make it Work campaign focuses on economic messaging around wages, healthcare costs, and housing, which overlaps with the DCCC's 2026 tariff attack strategy.

CPD is not an electoral committee and does not make direct campaign contributions; it operates as a c(3)/c(4) structure. Its influence comes through organising density in key urban and suburban districts that appear on competitive race lists, and through its ability to frame economic issues in terms that resonate with the working-class voters Democrats need to move.