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The Grand Bargain Project was created in response to a report commissioned by the Center for Collaborative Democracy in 2023, and authored by 13 former federal officials and think tank leaders. The report identified six deeply interconnected objectives — economic mobility, education, healthcare, clean energy, national debt, and tax reform — that must be addressed together if the country is to achieve long-term, structural progress.
The project was founded to take that insight to the public. While the report provided a starting point, the Grand Bargain Project is focused on building a national movement that unites citizens, policymakers, and stakeholders to help shape a practical, broadly supported framework for reform through a strategically pragmatic approach. The goal is not to erase disagreement but to find combinations of policy that can earn wide support across divides and lead to real, lasting outcomes. The initiative crosses party lines and is transpartisan in nature.
Our mission is to shift the political conversation away from tribal loyalty and toward practical, structural reform across the six interdependent areas outlined in the original report. The Grand Bargain Project doesn’t push left or right. It pushes forward.
We define success not by ideological wins but by whether we can help foster policies that are stable, effective, and widely supported enough to last across administrations. That means:
One of the clearest signs that this approach is connecting with people comes from how audiences have responded when we put the Grand Bargain Framework in front of them. Of the diverse groups we’ve tested it with, we’ve seen a consistent pattern: on average, over 90 percent of people say they prefer our proposals over the country’s current direction, including 97% of attendees at our Braver Angels workshop in June of last year.
That level of agreement reinforces what we suspected from the beginning — that the problem isn’t a lack of public will. It’s the lack of a coherent, actionable framework that people can actually say yes to. This has been the case as we’ve interviewed diverse organizations such as the AARP, American Petroleum Institute, Sierra Club, Rural Assembly and American Hospital Association.
We are also starting to see strong interest in our workshops, where participants are invited to discuss, propose, and vote on specific policy ideas tied to the six objectives. Feedback from these sessions will be incorporated into the evolving Grand Bargain proposal and help inform future advocacy and organizing efforts aimed at improving the overall package.
Independent voters are not a niche. They are the fastest-growing political identity as the two-party systems fail everyday Americans. But independent voters are also one of the most overlooked constituencies, partly because most efforts to reach them fall into two traps: treating them like moderates or pretending they do not care about systemic issues.
The real opportunity is to treat independent voters as what they are — people who care deeply but are done with the game-playing. They want to see structural fixes that can outlast whoever is in power at present. If the independent movement can shift from being defined by what it is not to being defined by what it is — focused on durable, practical outcomes — its power could be transformative.
The Independent Center is focused on elevating the voice and influence of independent voters, a constituency that increasingly decides elections but is too often ignored in policymaking. That complements our work by creating pressure from the outside while we build structural solutions on the inside.
Where the Independent Center works to organize and spotlight the common ground that already exists, we focus on creating a concrete, actionable framework that turns that common ground into durable policy. Their research, outreach, and accountability efforts help ensure that independents are not just seen during campaigns but taken seriously in governing. That alignment creates real potential for long-term impact.
If the independent movement stays reactive and simply rejects partisanship, it will likely remain fragmented. Independent voters have chosen to stand outside the existing system. But if a movement becomes focused on design and delivery, it could become the most powerful political force in the country. Not a swing vote. Not a protest vote. But a constructive, outcomes-driven force that holds both parties accountable to something deeper than short-term wins.
Over the next few years , we expect to see more infrastructure emerge to support that shift — civic platforms, media spaces, candidate pipelines, and frameworks like ours that help people focus on what works rather than who wins.
Visit GrandBargainProject.org to explore the framework and learn how to host or participate in a local workshop. You can also follow us on social media - X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or reach out directly if you’re looking to partner, fund, or test the framework with your community or organization.
