adam jentleson
Adam Jentleson has worked in politics for fifteen years, most recently serving as Chief of Staff to Senator John Fetterman. He also served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, where he had a front row seat to history during the administration of President Barack Obama. In 2012, Jentleson was named one of Buzzfeed’s “24 People Who Will Be Running Washington Next Year.” A recognized authority on Senate procedure and politics, he is quoted frequently in most major media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Postand CNN. A frequent commentator on MSNBC, his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico Magazineand GQ.
KILL SWITCH, The Rise of the Modern Senate, was published by Liveright in 2021.
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