Not to be confused with Majority Forward, another Democratic-aligned PAC

Forward Majority Action is a super PAC established in 2017 to elect Democrats to state legislatures. It has multiple state spinoffs. ¹ Forward Majority Action is the explicitly political arm of Fair Democracy, a “social welfare” lobbying and advocacy nonprofit. ²

David Cohen and Vicky Hausman co-founded Forward Majority Action. ³

Background

Forward Majority Action is a political action group that supports flipping Republican-controlled state legislatures to Democratic control.  ² It has had numerous state spinoffs.  ¹

Forward Majority Action is the political arm Fair Democracy, a “social welfare” lobbying and advocacy nonprofit. ² Forward Majority Action and the Forward Majority Action Super PAC were the only recipients of millions in donations made by Fair Democracy in the elections of 2018 through 2024, according to OpenSecrets. ⁴

Upon its 2017 launch, Forward Majority Action said its goal was to “Turn resistance into power.”  The group said it aimed to “take control and protect our democracy by winning back state legislatures.”  ⁵

In 2017 and 2018, the organization set out to spend $100 million to flip as many as 12 state legislatures from Republican to Democratic control. ^{5  3} Forward Majority Action spent $45 million on legislative races in 2024. ⁶

Personnel

Trent Armitage is the executive director of Forward Majority Action. He previously worked for House Majority PAC and was a legislative aide for Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates. He has been a political operative for Democratic-aligned organizations and candidates. He is a graduate of Longwood University. ⁷

The honorary co-chairs of Forward Majority are U.S. Reps. Nanette Barragan (D-CA); Sharice Davids (D-KS); Steven Horsford (D-NV); Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA); Seth Moulton (D-MA); former Reps. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) and Colin Allred (D-TX); Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D); and U.S. Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ.) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO.). ⁸

David Cohen and Vicky Hausman co-founded Forward Majority Action. ³ The two remain board members.  ⁹

Cohen was a staffer who managed the national mail program for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) 2008 presidential campaign.  ³ Cohen was previously the executive director of Forward Majority Action. ⁵

Hausman is a veteran Democratic strategist who previously worked for Dalberg, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm.  ³ Hausman became the organization’s chief operating officer.  ⁵ Hausman is also the treasurer of the board for Forward Majority Action. ¹⁰

Donors

The Sixteen Thirty Fund gave $4.1 million to Forward Majority.  ¹

Karla Jurvetson, a doctor and Democratic Party donor, contributed $10 million to Forward Majority Action.  ⁹

Marsha Laufer contributed $1 million to Forward Majority Action. ⁹

Campaigns

Forward Majority focuses on helping Democrats win state legislative contests around the country.  ¹¹ The organization takes credit for helping to flip 76 legislative seats to Democrats in Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, Virginia, and Nevada. ¹²

The organization further takes credit for Democrats taking control of both legislative chambers in Virginia in 2019 and for taking control of the state House of Representatives in both Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2022.  ¹²

The organization says it has registered 200,000 voters.  ¹²

Main Street Sentinel Controversy

In 2022, Forward Majority Action sent voter guide mailers out about legislative candidate voting records in Michigan. Most of the citations to the candidate voting records were from “Main Street Sentinel,” which was a partisan quasi-news site that spent about $1.4 million on social media platforms to rapidly gain audience. ¹

In the 2022 election cycle, 38 Forward Majority Action mailers made 69 references to Main Street Sentinel content. Of those, 57 references were in 26 mailers covering just six legislative races, according to an analysis published in the Columbia Journalism Review. However, the CJR article said it was not clear if there was a formal connection between Forward Majority Action and the Main Street Sentinel.  ¹

1. Brown, Pete. “One super-PAC’s curious reliance on a short-lived, lavishly funded quasi–news site.” Columbia Journalism Review. August 16, 2024. Accessed December 10, 2025. https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/one-super-pacs-curious-reliance-on-a-short-lived-lavishly-funded-quasi-news-site.php 
2. Clouteier, Jimmy. “About $2M in ‘dark money’ poured into Virginia campaigns.” Virginia Public Media. September 18, 2023. Accessed December 10, 2025. https://www.vpm.org/news/2023-09-18/dark-money-virginia-election-campaign 
3. Debenedetti, Gabriel. “Democrats launch super PAC to win back statehouses.” Politico. September 6, 2017. Accessed December 10, 2025. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/06/democrats-launch-super-pac-to-win-back-statehouses-242330 
4. “Fair Democracy.” Open Secrets. Accessed December 11, 2025. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/fair-democracy/recipients?candscycle=2024&id=D000091871&toprecipscycle=2024&candscycle=2024 
5. “Forward Majority Action.” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 10, 2025. https://ballotpedia.org/Forward_Majority_Action_PAC 
6. Crampton, Liz and Fernandez, Madison. “Democrats find hope in state legislative races.” Politico. November 22, 2024. Accessed December 9, 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/22/democrat-state-legislature-races-00191073 
7. “Trent Armitage.” LinkedIn. Accessed December 10, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/trentarmitage/ 
8. “About.” Forward Majority. Accessed December 9, 2025. https://forwardmajority.org/about/ 
9. “Forward Majority Action.” ProPublica. Accessed December 9, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/527-explorer/orgs/830611104 
10. “Forward Majority Action.” Federal Election Commission. Accessed December 9, 2025. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00631556/?tab=about-committee 
11. Press Release. “Forward Majority Wins Big to Build Historic VA House Majority.” Forward Majority. November 5, 2025. Accessed December 9, 2025. https://forwardmajority.org/news/forward-majority-wins-big-to-build-historic-va-house-majority/ 
12. “Leading the Fight Back to Power.” Forward Majority. Accessed December 9, 2025. https://forwardmajority.org/