Senate Circle members invest time, money, influence, and our collective lifetimes of experience into holding the Senate. We are a grassroots group focused exclusively on building a durable Senate majority that will prevent MAGA-Republicans from determining our country’s judges, legislation, and moral standing.

This We Believe

  1. The greatest danger to our values is a victory by Trump and his allies. We celebrate the Independents, Democrats, and traditional Republicans who made up the coalition that narrowly won in 2018 and 2020; we recognize that our differences are small compared to the threat of empowering Trump and his acolytes. Our mission is to hold the coalition.

  2. We prioritize politics in our actions. The threats to our values are political, so our responses must be political. No other investment can change trillions of dollars in taxes and spending, change the laws governing our public and private lives, and change the moral standing of our country.   

  3. We make investments, not predictions. Our goal is to change the outcome of elections.  

  4. We are motivated to focus on the US Senate because of its outsized role in the judiciary. We never forget that narrow Democratic Senate losses in 2010 and 2014 allowed the far-right to gain control of the courts. 

  5. We are building momentum and infrastructure for 2026 Senate races in Alaska, Kansas, North Carolina, and Montana.

  6. We back candidates who we believe can win in their states and who share our democratic, humane values. Full stop.

  7. We respect your time and money. We send out two or three emails a month. We work hard to find the races and organizations where your money will help change who governs. We hold monthly Zoom events together to build a virtual community and make a difference in our lives and country.

Who We Are

Core Circle

David Henry, Massachusetts
David is currently a full-time father of three young kids. He previously worked at Industrial Economics, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the intersection of public policy, economics, and the environment. In politics, he worked as a field organizer for Barack Obama’s primary campaign and a regional field director for Jeanne Shaheen’s 2008 U.S. Senate campaign. He has a master’s degree in Environmental Science from Yale University and undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Haverford College.

Pat Semple, Massachusetts
Pat Semple was most recently the Director of Libraries at Bullis School in Potomac, MD. Prior to that she was a research and instruction librarian at Montgomery County Community College (MD), the assistant editor of MultiMedia Schools, and a researcher at the American Institutes for Research. She started her career on Capitol Hill as a congressional intern and then moved to the White House as a member of Vice President Walter Mondale’s staff. She has a BA in Political Science from Barnard College and a master’s degree in Library & Information Science from the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland.

Monique Gabriela Curnen, New York
Monique is an actor and producer who has been in a string of critical and commercial successes including Ryan Fleck’s Half Nelson, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Steven Soderbergh's Contagion; and Joshua Marston's Maria Full of Grace. She has produced several short films and is currently attached to produce the feature Sheila and the Punk Rock. Her current focus is creating stories that address social issues through characters who illustrate the richness and complexity of our times.

Steering Committee

Catherine Lerza, California
Cathy has spent five decades as a grant-maker, advocate, organizer, and writer. She has worked with a range of NGOs and foundations on a range of progressive issues. She directed Defining Sustainable Communities, which culminated in a major national conference in 1994, and for nearly a decade she was a senior philanthropic advisor at Tides Foundation. She is now a consultant working with progressive philanthropists and nonprofits, including the Groundswell Action Fund and the Alki Fund.  She is the author or editor of several books and has written dozens of reports and studies. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Alliance for Youth Organizing and the steering committee of the Faith, Rights, and Democracy donor collaborative. Cathy has a BS in Conservation of Natural Resources from UC Berkeley and did work toward an M.Ed in Dance at the George Washington University. She’s also a professional actor, working regularly in film and video and on stage in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Paul Strasburg, Colorado
After a career in public affairs, which included work at the Ford Foundation, at the Vera Institute of Justice, and as Commissioner of the Department of Juvenile Justice in NYC, Paul spent seven years as executive director of Volunteers in Asia (VIA) and as board chairman of VIA and of International Rivers. He was founder and board chairman of International Development Exchange (IDEX, now known as Thousand Currents), a nonprofit organization providing support to local community development projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Paul received his BA in History from Stanford University, spent two years with the US Peace Corps in Thailand, attended Yale Law School, and received a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University. 

Alissa Keny-Guyer, New Mexico
Alissa has spent decades working to promote social justice and environmental sustainability through nonprofits, foundations, and the public sector in Indonesia, Hawaii, California, Oregon and now New Mexico. Between 2011-2021, Alissa represented House District 46 (NE/SE Portland) in the Oregon Legislature. In 2021, Alissa and her husband moved to Santa Fe, NM, where she continues to advocate for affordable housing, the environment, and other pressing issues through national, state, and local organizations, including as vice chair of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. Alissa has a BA from Stanford and an MPH from the University of Hawaii.

Elliott Hahn, California
Elliott is an attorney in the Los Angeles area where he is outside general counsel to many U.S. businesses, including U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies. In that role, he regularly advises them on U.S. corporate law, employment law, licensing of technology, real estate, and international business issues. He has served in leadership positions on several associations of international lawyers; lectured at law schools nationally and internationally; and been on the faculties of U.S.C., Southwestern, and Pepperdine Law Schools. He is rated by Martindale-Hubbell as a preeminent lawyer and he has been named by American Lawyer Media as a Top Rated Lawyer in Labor and Employment Law. He earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and his L.L.M. from Columbia Law School.

Jeff Malachowsky, West Virginia
Jeff is a long-time organizer and strategist supporting social change organizations and leaders. He directed the Civil Society Program of Wellspring Advisors and was the founding co-director of Oregon Voice (affiliate of State Voices). In addition, he was co-founder and co-director of the National Institute on Money in Politics and of the Western States Center, which provide training and resources to grassroots leaders in eight western states. He has been a consultant to foundations and donors; managed projects on nonpartisan, community-based civic engagement strategies; led a statewide community organizing program in Oregon; and served in leadership positions in several statewide and national electoral campaigns. Jeff currently works as senior advisor to the progressive donor alliance in West Virginia, coaches organizers in Wisconsin, and serves on the Board of OpenSecrets and the Penney Family Fund.

Advisory Circle

Karie Brown, California

Robert Dimmick, Massachusetts

Clare McCamy, California

Dale Smith, Massachusetts