How One Progressive Group is Trying to Retain Talent Between Elections

A progressive group that backed some of the most prominent abortion access ballot measure campaigns in 2024 will keep a core group of campaigners on the ground in red and purple states ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The Fairness Project, which supported abortion ballot measures in five states last cycle, is launching a talent-retention program in hopes of remaining on the offensive in 2025. The goal, the group’s executive director said, is to keep campaign leaders active in the off-year and avoid the brain drain among ballot measure campaigners that often follows election years.

“This ballot measure leadership corp programming helps us keep people who have proved to be very talented at doing the long-phase campaign work and organizing work in the field,” Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness Project, told C&E. “When we see people who have done this specific thing very well, we really want to do everything we can to keep them active and engaged.” 

The Fairness Project’s initial leadership class includes six ballot measure campaign veterans from four different states ranging from Arizona to Nebraska to Florida. 

“It opens the map up much more. It also opens the timeline up much more, because ballot measures have so many phases where voters have to pay attention,” Hall said. “There’s a real opportunity in odd-numbered years to do door-to-door organizing; to keep campaign staff around to have these conversations.”

Creating a More-Consistent Infrastructure

Lauren Brenzel is among the ballot measure campaigners tapped to join the Fairness Project’s new program. She previously served as the campaign manager for Floridians Protecting Freedom, the main group behind a 2024 abortion access ballot measure in the Sunshine State, dubbed Amendment 4. 

While the proposed amendment ultimately failed to win the 60 percent of the vote needed to pass last, Brenzel said the Fairness Project’s Ballot Measure Leadership Corps marks a step toward a more-permanent campaign infrastructure that’s rare in the world of ballot initiatives. 

“Political work is incredibly cyclical, which means in an off year, we see a lot of displacement,” Brenzel said. “A retention program like this is incredibly beneficial because it provides some stability after an election to a hardcore group of staffers.”

Lucy Sedgwick, who served as a senior adviser to Floridians Protecting Freedom and is also part of the leadership corps, said that it gives ballot initiative veterans an opportunity to share lessons learned with other campaigners and help would-be organizers as they prepare for the 2026 midterms.

“In the last few months of a campaign, you’re not really able to pick your head up and talk to your peers about what worked and what didn’t work,” Sedgwick told C&E. “The opposition takes the time to have those conversations.”