About
Who’s Behind Every State Blue
Every State Blue, formerly known as It Starts Today, was founded after the 2016 election by Jonathan Zucker, former COO and CEO of ActBlue. Convinced that the power of the Democrats’ grassroots community coupled with small-dollar recurring donations could change fundraising forever, he got to work creating groundbreaking national and state-based programs.
In 2017, Michele Hornish co-founded Blue Missouri with Jonathan, launching ESB’s first state-based project. Together with ESB board member, accomplished author, and former Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper, ESB launched Blue Ohio in 2022. Blue Tennessee followed in 2024.
Through its various projects, Every State Blue has raised and distributed over $2 million to Democratic nominees at the state and federal level since 2016.
Michele Hornish
Michele Hornish is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Every State Blue. Since co-founding Blue Missouri with Jonathan Zucker in 2017, she has spearheaded the growth of ESB’s state-based projects and led the development of the First in Line Challenge, ESB’s 50-state initiative to fund Democratic state legislative nominees running in the reddest, most overlooked districts in the country.
Michele is a lawyer, communications consultant, and strategist. She founded Small Deeds Done, a political action newsletter featured in the NYT bestseller Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister.
Jonathan Zucker
Jonathan Zucker is a political technology entrepreneur and campaign finance attorney. He was the first COO and second CEO of ActBlue.
He has also served at the DNC as National Director of Operations for Finance.
More recently, he has founded or advised several political tech start-ups, including Democracy Engine, It Starts Today, ruck.us, Rep’d and Crowdpac.
David Pepper
David is a lawyer, accomplished author, political activist, and former elected official. He also teaches election law and voting rights.
He served as the Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party between 2015 and 2021.
His highly-acclaimed book Laboratories of Autocracy details the risk anti-democratic statehouses pose to our democracy.