Nancy Jacobson

Jacobson was born in Miami and graduated from Syracuse University.[3] 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.[3] In 2007, Jacobson was named one of the 50 Most Powerful People in D.C. by GQ Magazine.[7]

Jacobson founded No Labels in 2010 with the stated goal of promoting bipartisanship.[8] The organization has put forth ideas that it believes will "put problem solving above politics",[9] and supports centrist, moderate social and economic policies. The No Labels group has been instrumental in the creation of the Problem Solvers Caucus,[10][11] which has played a role in passing legislation since its inception.[12] A number of proposals supported by the group, including “No Budget, No Pay”, “Healthcare for Heroes,” and “Break the Gridlock” have been signed into law.[13][14][15]

As CEO and President of the Board of No Labels, she has written op-eds and opinion pieces supporting the controversial idea of running a third-party ticket for president in the 2024 United States presidential election,[16] which has alarmed No Labels co-founder William Galston (along with many Democrats) that it will throw the election in favor of Donald Trump.[17] The organization once praised Donald Trump as a problem-solver and defended him by tweeting that the January 6th hearings were "a partisan exercise."[18]

Jacobson was born in Miami and graduated from Syracuse University.[3] She is married to Mark Penn, President and Managing Partner of The Stagwell Group, former Democratic pollster and executive for Microsoft and Burson-Marsteller.[19] 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.[3] As of March 22, 2023, her husband Mark Penn owns $79.5 million worth of stock in the company helped create, even after selling $81 million worth of stock in 2023, putting their net worth in the hundreds of millions.[20]

• Appearances on C-SPAN