After a turn as a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, it was back to Washington. He [Jonathan Cowan] was tapped by Andrew McKelvey, the philanthropist and former head of the job-hunting site Monster.com, to establish Americans for Gun Safety, a centrist gun safety group.
That project eventually morphed into Third Way, as Cowan and co-founders sought to adopt their middle-ground approach on guns to other issues. The think tank has branched out to tackle fiscal matters, energy policy and social issues like gay marriage.
What started out as a four-person staff has ballooned to about 40, with a roughly $8.5 million budget, according to Cowan.
At Third Way, Cowan continues to push a centrist Democratic message, which has sometimes put him at odds with influential voices in the party.
Here is more about a recent op-ed co-authored by Cowan published in The Wall Street Journal that sparked a massive debate within the Democratic Party.
