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Donate to the Political Revolution
2016–2026
What we’ve accomplished
Slide from the night r/SandersForPresident closed to the maps that still put protests and candidates in front of millions. This is the volunteer line from Bernie’s first campaign to r/Political_Revolution, a decade of AMAs, and the 50501 infrastructure we stood up in 2025.
From the campaign to the movement
SandersForPresident mods keep going
July 2016
r/SandersForPresident launched in December 2013 — months before Bernie announced. Volunteer moderators grew it into one of Reddit’s largest campaign hubs, coordinated event turnout with the official digital staff, and helped pack rallies like Madison. After the primary, the subreddit was archived on July 29, 2016 with about 225,000 subscribers. Those same organizers steered the community into r/Political_Revolution and founded Political Revolution as an all-volunteer PAC — a separate project from Our Revolution, the 501(c)(4) that launched that August.
AMAs become infrastructure
Candidates meet the Reddit army
2016–2017
The SFP team had already treated Reddit as a campaign tool, not a comment section. After the archive, Political Revolution kept that muscle: connecting challengers to constituents through Ask Me Anythings on r/Political_Revolution. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a Brand New Congress challenger and former Sanders organizer — sat for a live AMA here. That thread was the emphatic one: pointed questions, a national room. The same stretch brought former NAACP president Ben Jealous, running for governor of Maryland, and Randy Bryce, the union ironworker challenging Speaker Paul Ryan. The AMA was never a stunt. It was how this network vetted people and gave them a national audience.
Down-ballot machine
Votes, transparency reports, and weekly AMAs
2018 midterms
By the 2018 cycle, r/Political_Revolution ran a public process: moderators and active members voted weekly on candidates, published transparency reports at the top of the subreddit, researched platforms, and hosted AMAs so the community could hear a candidate before an endorsement. AOC won NY-14 after taking questions here. Ben Jealous won Maryland’s Democratic gubernatorial primary. Randy Bryce came back for another AMA as the national face of the race to replace Paul Ryan. Political Revolution worked alongside Our Revolution, Justice Democrats, and thousands of volunteers — but the Reddit AMA desk was ours.
Not me. Us.
No second presidential pick — more AMAs
April 2020
When Bernie left the 2020 primary, the r/Political_Revolution mod team posted the line that still defines the org: the revolution is down-ballot. They would not endorse another presidential candidate. They asked for more mods, writers, coders, and AMA coordinators so congressional and local races could still get a national audience. The Squad wins of 2018 were the proof of concept. The work after 2020 was to do it again, and again.
The desk stays open
Six years of candidate AMAs
2022
The AMA program did not fade when the presidential cycle ended. Candidates still apply through pol-rev.com/run to schedule a Reddit AMA. The same desk that hosted AOC, Ben Jealous, and Randy Bryce kept putting challengers in front of this community through midterm slates and special elections.
Inside the party
A mission to overhaul the Democrats
November 2024
After the 2024 election, Political Revolution restated the long game: fill open seats in local Democratic Party chapters, challenge corporate incumbents, and partner with Justice Democrats and Run For Office. Small-dollar donations and volunteer hours — not a paid staff — still run the PAC and the sister 501(c)(4), Political Revolution Flight Path.
50501 infrastructure
A Reddit protest finds a map
February 5, 2025
50501 — “50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement” — started as a Reddit post in January 2025 and held its first nationwide day of action on February 5. That same day Political Revolution and 50501 issued a joint statement. 50501 stayed an independent, unincorporated collective. What we supplied was the thing this network has always built: digital infrastructure. Political Revolution stood up a live event list and Mobilizon map of 50501 actions so local organizers could find each other instead of hunting across Discord and group chats.
Streets, then more streets
Hands Off and No Kings
April–October 2025
The April 5 Hands Off protests drew an estimated 5.2 million people at about 1,200 locations. Political Revolution covered it as the largest day of action we had helped surface. 50501 then helped organize May Day, the June 14 No Kings protests (organizers estimated about 5 million at 2,000+ sites), and the October 18 No Kings day (organizers estimated nearly 7 million at 2,700+ sites). We were one group in a much larger coalition. Our piece was the same as 2016: keep the list accurate, keep the map live, keep volunteers pointed at the next race and the next street.
Ten years on
The same desk, a bigger map
2026
Ten years after SFP went dark, r/Political_Revolution still hosts candidate AMAs — the same desk that put AOC, Ben Jealous, and Randy Bryce in front of this community. The campaign map, volunteer teams, and 50501 event tools are the grown-up version of the 2013 subreddit: unpaid people, national reach, down-ballot first. Donate if you want that infrastructure to stay online for the next decade.