Amanda Litman

Amanda Litman is the co-founder and co-executive director of Run for Something, which recruits and supports young, diverse progressives running for down-ballot office. Since launching in 2017, RFS has identified more than 120,000 young people who want to run, endorsed 2,000 and elected more than 1000 leaders across nearly all 50 states, mostly women and people of color.

Shortly after launching Run for Something, Amanda wrote a book, Run for Something: A Real-Talk Guide to Fixing the System Yourself, published by Atria in 2017. Barack Obama called it "wonderful" and Hillary Clinton said "I wish I'd had it years ago."

Politico named Run for Something (and Amanda!) one of the 50 ideas driving politics in 2018. Bloomberg called her one of the people to watch in 2019. Fortune named her to their annual 40 under 40 list in 2020.

In 2022, Amanda was one of the Time NEXT 100, a list of 100 rising stars from around the world. She was also a 2022 Dial Fellow at the Emerson Collective.

Amanda previously hosted the Run for Something podcast, which spotlighted young leaders across the country, and did a stint hosting “Battleground” on the Recount. She appears on other podcasts regularly - you may have heard her on the Ezra Klein Show.

Over the years, Amanda has written for Elle, Buzzfeed, The Nation, Vanity Fair, Fast Company, Women's Health, Teen Vogue, O Magazine, MTV, CNN.com, Crooked Media, Cosmopolitan, and other outlets.

Amanda regularly appears on TV across all kinds of shows, including the Chris Hayes show, The Rachel Maddow Show, HLN, CBS News, Cheddar, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and Late Night with Seth Meyers in October 2018. She’s done commentary for platforms like HuffPost and NowThis.

Amanda frequently speaks at conferences, colleges and other events on topics including why folks should run for office, ending the gerontocracy, the future of the Democratic party, and women in politics.

Before launching Run for Something, Amanda worked as a digital strategist — she served as Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, the digital director for Charlie Crist's 2014 Florida gubernatorial campaign, the deputy email director for Organizing for Action, and an email writer for Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

She graduated from Northwestern University in 2012 with a B.A. in American Studies. Amanda now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter, and their rescue mutt, Sadie.

You can reach Amanda at: amanda at runforsomething dot net.