Nancy Jacobson

Jacobson's first foray into political organizing occurred when she was a student at Syracuse University, where she organized a fundraising event to support then Senator Gary Hart’s 1984 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.[4] She supported Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 1988,[5] and on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1991, and was the finance director of the 1992 Presidential Inaugural Committee.[6] She later served as finance chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC).[4] From 1995 through 2010, she was the national finance director for Sen. Evan Bayh. She oversaw his political and fundraising strategy during his 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.[7]

Jacobson founded No Labels in 2010 to promote bipartisanship.[8] The organization has put forth ideas that it believes will "put problem solving above politics".[9] via its booklets entitled Make the Presidency Work! [10], Make Government Work!,  Policy Playbook for America's Next President [11], and The Speaker Project.[12] A number of proposals from these booklets, including “No Budget, No Pay”, “Healthcare for Heroes,” and “Break the Gridlock” have been signed into law.[13][14][15]

To foster bipartisanship, No Labels began to encourage House members to meet each other to discuss issues together on a regular basis, ultimately inspiring the creation of the Problem Solvers Caucus. [16][17] This Caucus is a bloc of House members composed of Democrats and Republicans who by belonging to the group commit to finding bipartisan solutions.[13] During the 2017-2018 Congress, the Caucus grew to include 48 members. The Caucus has released bipartisan proposals on healthcare, [18] gun safety, infrastructure,[19] immigration[20] border security, [21] and COVID-19 relief. [22] The Caucus helped pass the bipartisan USMCA trade deal,[23] significant House rules reforms,[15] and major criminal justice and conservation bills.[24] No Labels is building a similar bipartisan working group in the Senate, pairing up Democratic and Republican lawmakers in both chambers to work out deals on some of the most intractable issues of recent years. [25]

Jacobson was born in Miami and graduated from Syracuse University.[7] She is married to Mark Penn, President and Managing Partner of The Stagwell Group, former Democratic pollster and executive for Microsoft Corporation and Burson-Marsteller.[26] The couple met in 1996 when Evan Bayh, then governor of Indiana, introduced them at a Democratic Leadership Council event. They married in 1999. They have a daughter together and three children from Penn's previous marriage.[7]

• Appearances on C-SPAN