Tamara Draut is a left-of-center economic-policy advisor and writer. In her over 20-year career in left-of-center think tanks, she has worked in executive roles directing policy and strategic vision. She has advocated for left-center policies, including increasing the minimum wage and taxpayer-subsidized college tuition at public universities. ^{1  2  3}

Institutions for which Draut has worked include WorkMoney, a left-of-center membership nonprofit; the Wellspring Fund, a left-of-center grantmaker; Amnesty International; the pro-abortion advocacy group Supermajority; and Demos, a left-of-center New York City based think tank. ¹

Career

Tamara Draut has worked in a number of policy roles at left-of-center institutions throughout her career. ¹ As of December of 2025 Draut’s most recent employment according to her LinkedIn profile was the nonprofit WorkMoney, where she was employed from June to December of 2025 as the Chief Impact Officer. WorkMoney is a left-of-center membership nonprofit that helps members save money and apply for government benefits. ¹

From January of 2022 to June of 2025 Draut was the economic justice program director at the Wellspring Fund. She oversaw a grantmaking budget of $24 million focused on transforming the economy and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. She also oversaw the organization’s “economic justice” grant portfolio. ¹

From January of 2020 to December of 2021 Draut was the chief program officer at Amnesty International, where she oversaw the strategic direction and communications for the group. ¹

From July to November of 2019 Draut worked on contract as a senior advisor for the left-of-center Supermajority group, which was focused on empowering and promoting women’s issues through policy and advocacy. ¹

Draut spent most of her career at Demos, a left-of-center New York City based think tank largely focused on economic issues. Draut began working there in 2001 as the director of the economic opportunity program. In 2008 she became the vice president of policy and program strategy, and later in April 2012 became the vice president of policy and research, which she would work until leaving the organization in September 2018 after 18 years at the organization. ¹

Prior to her time at Demos, Draut worked as a policy analyst at Planned Parenthood of New York City. ¹

Political Advocacy

Draut has promoted striking in order to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, promoted the alleged gender pay gap between men and women, and pushed for public college and university tuition to be fully taxpayer-funded at the federal level. When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election she characterized those who voted for him as being privileged white voters. ^{2  4  3  5}

Books

Tamara Draut has authored two books. Her first book, published in 2006, was titled Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead. The book argued that young people at the time were being squeezed by expensive college and housing prices and that further government action was needed to further subsidize college costs, increase the minimum wage, and to provide subsidized childcare, among other policies. ⁶

Draut’s second book was Sleeping Giant: How the New Working Class Will Transform America, which was published in 2016. Draut argued that the contemporary working class in America is more diverse than in previous generations and that it is being ignored and systemically oppressed by both the people and institutions in power. She characterized America as having a “neoliberal economic system that is systematically rotten to the core”. ⁷

Political Contributions

Tamara Draut has made political contributions to exclusively left-of-center groups and candidates, specifically to ActBlue, the left-of-center donation aggregator, and to the presidential campaign of then-Vice President Kamala Harris. ⁸

1. “Tamara Draut.” LinkedIn. Accessed December 29, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamara-draut-b2b58237/. 
2. Draut, Tamara. “Debt-Free College for All.” Demos. September 16, 2015. https://www.demos.org/blog/debt-free-college-all. 
3. Draut, Tamara. “We’ve Waited Long Enough For Equal Pay.” Demos. April 10, 2018. https://www.demos.org/blog/weve-waited-long-enough-equal-pay.
4. Draut, Tamara. “Fight. Strike. Vote.” Demos. November 10, 2015. https://www.demos.org/blog/fight-strike-vote-0. 
5. Draut, Tamara. “This Wasn’t a Working-Class Revolt. It Was a White Revolt.” Demos. November 14, 2016. https://www.demos.org/media/wasnt-working-class-revolt-it-was-white-revolt. 
6. “Strapped.” Kirkus Reviews. November 15, 2005. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/tamara-draut/strapped/. 
7. “Sleeping Giant.” Kirkus Reviews. February 1, 2016. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/tamara-draut/sleeping-giant-new/. 
8. “Browse Individual Contributions: Tamara Draut.” FEC.gov. Accessed December 29, 2025. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Tamara+Draut+&min_date=01%2F01%2F2000&max_date=12%2F31%2F2026.