These fired federal workers are starting new roles opposing the Trump administration
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Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Democracy Forward, a progressive legal nonprofit that has frequently sued the Trump administration, is bringing on more than a dozen former federal officials as fellows, part of a program that seeks to look beyond the Trump era.
Why it matters: Fired federal workers are starting to get new roles, and many of them are taking on gigs opposing the Trump administration.
- It's not unusual to see officials from federal agencies taking new jobs, to be sure.
- What's different now is that these are long-time civil servants, some of whom have served for decades no matter who was in the White House.
The big picture: Former federal officials are taking state government jobs, others are going into the private sector, while some are joining groups that oppose the current administration.
- Some are even running for office, like Social Security whistleblower Chuck Borges, who announced a bid for the Maryland state legislature this week.
- Many would never have considered leaving the federal workforce until this year.
Zoom in: Some of the fellows picked up by Democracy Forward include:
- Mary Comans, who has sued the White House over her firing as chief financial officer at FEMA. She joined the civil service in 2004 and describes herself as "apolitical."
- Karen Hacker, forced out of the CDC this summer as part of a wider restructuring. She headed up the agency's chronic disease teams, and started there during the first Trump administration.
- Mark Mittelhauser, a longtime civil servant since the 1990s, who most recently led the Labor Department's Bureau of International Labor Affairs until he was removed in the spring.
The other side: The White House has dismissed Democracy Forward as a liberal group.
- It's "made a habit of filing frivolous lawsuits" and "should not be taken seriously," spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Axios last month, after the group filed a lawsuit over the White House's H-1B visa policy.
Catch up quick: Democracy Forward, founded during the first Trump administration, says it has filed more than 150 various legal actions against the White House this year, including federal lawsuits, amicus briefs at the Supreme Court and complaints at federal agencies.
- The group has deep ties with prominent Democratic party strategists and a multimillion-dollar "war chest" to take on the White House, as the New York Times reported last year. The group used Project 2025 as a blueprint, per the NYT.
State of Play: On Thursday, the group announced that its new project, Democracy Works 250, will be a step toward thinking past the current administration and would "reimagine and build a people-centered government and democracy."
- More than 1,600 people applied to work on the program as fellows, says Rob Shriver, managing director of the group's Civil Service Strong program, which provides resources to federal employees.
- Shriver, who served as acting director and deputy director at the Office of Personnel Management in the Biden administration, compared the interest in this fellowship to the response he'd see inside the government when a big job opened up.
What we're watching: What kind of impact can government insiders have when they're on the outside?
