Scoop: "Abundance" movement launches lawmaker group
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
More than 120 local politicians from across the U.S. have united to launch a group touting the "Abundance" movement ahead of a conference in D.C. this week.
Why it matters: The Abundance Elected Network aims to give momentum to the movement that was ignited by a bestselling book, and now is the focus of a debate over the future of the Democratic Party heading into the 2026 and 2028 elections.
- Abundance — which generally focuses on removing regulation and red tape in government to build more housing, energy projects and more — has been hailed by some Democrats as way for the party to win back many of the working-class voters who've drifted to Republicans in recent elections.
- But many in the party's left wing believe it's merely an effort by moderates to rebrand the corporate-friendly wing of the party that many believe led workers to leave.
State of play: The new lawmakers' group is being launched by the Abundance Network, one of the leading organizations behind the movement.
- It includes mayors from cities such as Scranton, Pa., Lansing, Mich., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Boulder, Colo., along with city council members and county supervisors across 31 states.
Corey Woods, the mayor of Tempe, Ariz., and a member of the group, told Axios that if Democrats "are going to be the party of government, we have to prove to our constituents that the government can deliver."
- "At many times, there have been some rules that Democrats have advocated for that are well-intentioned, but are now being used outside their origins," he said.
Zoom in: Abundance Network also is launching an 18-month fellowship for lawmakers who want to learn how to govern with an Abundance mindset.
- Former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who designed the fellowship, said that "the Abundance movement gave us a word for something we always felt. Mayors are in the real-real, so to speak, and need to be outcomes-obsessed."
- Schaaf and many members of the group are Democrats, but they say it's open to Republican lawmakers as well.
- The fellowship is funded by Arnold Ventures, a philanthropic fund that supports a variety of policy initiatives and center-left ideas that have been criticized by the left wing of the party.
Zoom out: Other groups, think tanks, political donors and lawmakers have been embracing Abundance-esque ideas in recent months.
- More than 30 U.S. House Democrats have joined the recently created "Build America Caucus" focused on such ideas.
- In June, California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X that he's "urgently embracing an Abundance agenda" after signing a bill to scale back environmental rules to make it easier to build more housing.
- Billionaire Reid Hoffman, one of the most prolific donors in the Democratic Party, also has been an Abundance booster.
- The center-left think tank Third Way recently released a housing plan that has Abundance elements.
