Adam Jentleson
Adam Jentleson is founder and president of The Searchlight Institute, a Washington think tank. He is a strategist, author, and commentator with twenty years’ experience in the political and nonprofit sectors. Most recently, Jentleson served as Chief of Staff to Senator John Fetterman and was previously Deputy Chief of Staff to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.
Jentleson served in senior positions at the Center for American Progress and Democracy Forward. Jentleson is the author of Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy from Liveright/W.W. Norton, and the forthcoming book Supermajority, also from Norton. A frequent guest on television and podcasts, Jentleson’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Politico Magazine, and GQ.
Supermajority: How Democrats Can Build Lasting Power
A revelatory account of how power is built and a blueprint for Democrats in 2026 and beyond.
Supermajorities used to be the norm in American politics, yet today it seems unimaginable that our nation could break hard for one party or the other. But as Adam Jentleson demonstrates in Supermajority, his follow up to the “truly excellent” (Ezra Klein) Kill Switch, periods of stasis almost always break and give way to dominant one-party rule. For most of the twentieth century, Democrats held overwhelming control of Congress—supermajorities so commanding that Republicans could do little more than mimic Democratic positions. These supermajorities didn’t just enable sweeping legislation, such as Social Security, but also made that legislation stick. Jentleson argues that today’s Democrats let interest groups and activists hold them back from building a supermajority, and that they forget that politicians need to be attentive to public opinion even as they seek to shape it. He shows that the party must learn the correct lessons from the successes of FDR, LBJ, and Barack Obama if they hope to usher in a new liberal realignment and forge lasting change.
Kill Switch : The rise of the modern senate
"In Kill Switch, Adam Jentleson has created both an essential portrait of a Senate―and a political system―in crisis, as well as a crystal-clear analysis of how to save it. Combining prodigious research with the experience of serving at the right hand of Harry Reid, this is a necessary book for understanding why the Senate has become the key impediment to governance in America. Every member of the US Senate should read it, and so should the rest of us." ― Ezra Klein, New York Times bestselling author of Why We’re Polarized
“A startling read that will provoke tough questions about governance, this is highly recommended to all interested in government reform.” ― Library Journal, Starred Review
"Adam Jentleson’s Kill Switch is the most exquisitely timed book I’ve encountered in years. Jentleson’s explanation of the filibuster’s ignominious roots, and of the mendacious arguments made today by its defenders, is careful and thorough and exacting. Every senator should be forced to read it and then reread it." ― Michael Tomasky, New York Review of Books
"[An] excellent, surprising new book . . . Jentleson is knowledgeable and adept, offering an account of increasingly flagrant obstruction that culminates in the age of McConnell." ― Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker
"An impeccably timed book. . . . In Kill Switch, Jentleson explains how ‘the world’s greatest deliberative body’ has come to carry out its work without much greatness or even deliberation, serving instead as a place where ambitious legislation goes to die. . . . [Jentleson’s] intimacy with the Senate turns out to be his book’s greatest strength. Jentleson understands the inner workings of the institution, down to the most granular details, showing precisely how arcane procedural rules can be leveraged to dramatic effect." ― Jennifer Szalai, New York Times
"[L]eading Democrats, including Reid and former president Barack Obama, are pressing for a sweeping rehab of the “home” Biden has found so comfortable. Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy, a new book by Adam Jentleson, makes for a powerful brief on their behalf… a compelling read." ― Kathy Kiely, Washington Post
"[A]n important new book… Adam Jentleson offers a harrowing portrait of how anti-majoritarian dysfunction has paralyzed the U.S. Senate… he writes with an insider’s knowledge… As the Senate has deviated further and further from majoritarian norms, the House and the state legislatures have followed. Among the great merits of Jentleson’s Kill Switch is that it reminds us how recent this trend is." ― David Frum, The Atlantic
"A provocative portrait of a dysfunctional―by design, it seems―U.S. Senate.... The Senate has been in a long state of decline, writes Jentleson, public affairs director at Democracy Forward and former deputy chief of staff to Sen. Harry Reid.... An astute and maddening account of a broken institution and, in turn, a broken democracy." ― Kirkus Reviews
“Jentleson skillfully clarifies many arcane legislative procedures and brings a wide range of historical episodes to vivid life. Readers will be galvanized to make the issue of Senate reform a priority.” ― Publisher’s Weekly