The Shadow Campaign:
The Stars of the Roster

The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That “Saved the 2020 Election”: Where Are They Now?
The Stars of the Roster | The AFL-CIO and Chamber of Commerce
Norm Eisen and the Voter Protection Program | Voter Participation Center

Summary: In February 2021, Molly Ball of Time magazine published an article titled “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election” that took both sides of the aisle by storm. Depending on the reader’s perspective, the story was a tell-all confession or a story of epic heroism about a massive, multi-faceted, and secret campaign to “save” the 2020 election by helping President Joseph Biden win and defend his win from legal challenges by President Donald Trump and his allies. Now, as the 2024 election seems destined to be something like a rematch, it’s time to revisit the old article and see what the conspirators—or heroes, depending on one’s view—are doing now.

In February 2021, as the Biden Administration began, the nation was still grappling with the results of the 2020 election and the ensuing disputes and theories surrounding it. During that time journalist Molly Ball of Time magazine published an article titled “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election” that took both sides of the aisle by storm. Depending on the reader’s perspective, the story was a tell-all confession or a story of epic heroism about a massive, multi-faceted, and secret campaign to “save” the 2020 election by helping President Joseph Biden win and defend his win from legal challenges by President Donald Trump and his allies. Ms. Ball, undoubtedly aware of the opposite ways readers might interpret her article, concluded the introduction with the following lines:

That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream—a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.

The last two sentences became infamous within days. Many on the Right viewed them as the paper-thin rationalizations of a guilty conscience and as proof of suspicions that the 2020 election and the narratives surrounding it were being unfairly manipulated by powerful and organized forces on the Left and in the media and government. Many on the Left viewed them as a heroic mission statement and as a harrowing reminder that Donald Trump was a dangerous man who had to be stopped at all costs.

Now, as the 2024 election seems destined to be something like a rematch, it’s time to revisit the old article and see what the conspirators—or heroes, depending on one’s view—are doing now

The Stars of the Roster

Witnessing the controversy the article created at the time, the Capital Research Center published a list of the people and organizations named in the article, providing useful commentary and context for each, in an attempt to explain the funding and forces at work behind the “shadow campaign” in 2020. Reviewing that list today and observing where its major players stand now paints an interesting picture of the state of the “shadow campaign” in 2024, showing where the Left’s power has accumulated and where power vacuums have emerged that will be filled by new leaders and groups.

“The Architect”

The Time article leaves no room for interpretation regarding the ringleader of the “shadow campaign” to “save” 2020. Ball named Michael Podhorzer, senior advisor to the president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor union, as the leader and mentioned him 27 times throughout the article. She calls Podhorzer “The Architect” and recounts how the veteran Democrat strategist studied the 2016 election hard, gathered an army about himself, and launched the whole operation with a memo titled “Threats to the 2020 Election,” which laid out a strategy to beat Donald Trump and accurately predicted that he would cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election if he did not win. Podhorzer created both the Analyst Institute, which uses data to measure the impact of and assist left-wing campaigns in the PAC and nonprofit worlds, and Catalist, which remains the largest of most powerful database of left-leaning voter information in the world.

Today, after a long career, Podhorzer has taken a step back from his leadership roles. Most significantly, Podhorzer is no longer working at the AFL-CIO and is not listed as a co-chair of the board of managers at Catalist. While stepping into retirement, or something close to it, Podhorzer has taken to writing a substack and working as a senior fellow for advocacy and outreach at the Center for American Progress, the Left’s most well-known think tank. Even though he is no longer working at the AFL-CIO, most of Podhorzer’s work still focuses on helping Democrats win elections.

In the wake of President Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election, Podhorzer published “Election 2024: The Path Forward” a full-spectrum article laying out his ideas for the Democratic Party and how it could win the 2024 elections. Podhorzer seems to agree that Biden’s withdrawal was necessary, admitting that his polling numbers were abysmal and calling the choice “the right and patriotic choice” that would improve the Democrat’s chances of beating Trump. In the article, Porhorzer claims that if voters think of the election as a referendum on “normal” things like the economy and crime rates then Democrats will lose, but if they go to the ballot box thinking of it as a referendum on “MAGA,” then Democrats will win. Specifically, Podhorzer says that it will become a winnable “MAGA Election” if voters are reflecting on “what Trump will do if he is returned to the White House, and how his MAGA allies on the Supreme Court and Project 2025 will help him do it.”

It seems unlikely to be a coincidence that, since this article was published, the Democratic campaign messaging strategy has revolved almost entirely around attacking the Supreme Court and Project 2025 and trying to draw a line between “weird” “MAGA Republicans” and ordinary people. Mr. Podhorzer, “the architect,” might not be as retired as many people think.

In the next installment, Protect Democracy prepares to “protect the 2024 election.”