Private Equity Is Destroying Democrats' Campaign Tech

A Democratic campaign tech monopoly cut more than 200 people, the second round of deep layoffs this year.

The company in charge of the Democratic Party’s prized campaign technology tools announced its second round of layoffs in just under a year on September 6, slashing a total of nearly 350 jobs this year just as the 2024 elections ramp up.

In recent years, the privately owned monopoly over the Democratic Party’s voter data has changed hands from one for-profit company to another. Apax Partners, a global private equity firm, currently owns EveryAction and NGP VAN, the firms that house the Democrats’ suite of voter file, compliance, and organizing tools. Apax acquired them from another private equity firm in 2021, creating a new merged entity called Bonterra.

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Last month, according to current and former employees, Bonterra cut at least 20 percent of its staff, more than 200 employees. Staff members across EveryAction and NGP VAN, which hold the Democratic Party’s most sensitive data, were cut. At least a quarter of the people laid off belonged to the union, 51 of them unit members from EveryAction and NGP VAN. At least half of the developers at ActionKit, a fundraising and customer relations management software acquired by EveryAction in 2019, lost their jobs. (Bonterra did not respond to a request for comment.)