ANALYSIS: Majority of taxpayer-funded Truman Scholars alumni have jobs that advance Democratic or leftist causes

The federally funded Truman Scholarship has essentially become a way for progressive-minded government gatekeepers and left-leaning professors to help bankroll the launch of liberal and Democratic careers at the taxpayer’s expense, new research by The College Fix has found.

Most of the former winners from 2015 to 2020 — 226 out of 357– have obtained jobs and careers directly tied to or advancing left-wing beliefs or the Democratic platform. In contrast, only four Truman alumni could be found to have worked in GOP politics or conservative causes.

The jobs of the 127 remaining alumni from 2015 to 2020 could not be ascertained based on their online footprint. 

The $30,000 scholarship, which is supposed to be bipartisan, is awarded to around 55 students annually, selected from a pool of more than 800 applicants. Awardees promise to spend three of their first seven years after finishing graduate school in public service.

Reviewing the jobs and careers of the 2015 to 2020 cohorts reveals what the Truman beneficiaries are up to now, in real life, having benefited from the U.S. taxpayer bankrolling their postgraduate education.

To determine the results, The Fix reviewed the 357 winners’ online footprints — primarily LinkedIn, as well as their job histories and profiles on company websites, personal online bios, and social media profiles. 

Truman scholarships spawn 35 Democratic jobs for every 1 GOP job

The biggest difference The Fix found is among those who went into the political arena after grad school. 

There are 70 Truman alumni in the 2015-2020 timeframe who have obtained jobs within Democratic circles. Most of them are either presently employed or have had jobs working for Democratic politicians as congressional aides or legislative policy advisors and analysts.

A few have gone on to be press secretaries for Democratic politicians. Some have worked for the Barack Obama Foundation or the Kamala Harris for President campaign, or Hillary for America. 

One worked as a financial advisor for Democrat politician Lori Lightfoot, others have regional jobs for Democratic politicians in places such as Manhattan, New Mexico, Georgia, and Washington state. 

One Truman alumnus in particular — Mussab Ali, who was given a Truman scholarship in 2017 — is currently running for mayor of Jersey City. Over the weekend Ali was joined by Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who threw her support behind the candidate.

In another example, University of Notre Dame alumnus Prathm Juneja, a 2019 Truman fellow, worked for “Pete for America,” Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign, as a data engineer. 

One 2020 winner, Juan Bibiloni-Rivera, an alumnus of Iowa State University, served as a Michael S. Dukakis Fellow in the Executive Office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Michigan Democrat.

Several Truman fellows interned for Democratic politicians, while many others were employed as campaign managers for Democratic candidates.

For instance, Nik Marda, a 2020 Truman fellow and a Stanford University grad, is currently working as a campaign manager for the “Jake Johnson for Congress” effort. Johnson seeks to flip Minnesota’s 1st District to blue, running against Republican incumbent Rep. Brad Finstad.

In contrast, only four Truman alumni from 2015 to 2020 have worked in GOP politics or conservative causes, the research found. Two are working for Congressional Republicans, one is a conservative journalist, and the fourth worked for a South Carolina attorney general.

Truman scholars’ careers advance leftwing beliefs

The College Fix analysis found that for four consecutive years — 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 — not one Truman alumnus could be identified as having a job in GOP politics or conservative causes. 

Meanwhile, in addition to working for Democratic politicians and campaigns, many Truman scholars also obtained jobs that advance leftwing causes. The second-largest cohort of careers from 2015 to 2020 alumni centered on social justice causes, the research found.

For example, they work at nonprofits such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Medical Justice in Advocacy, the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, the Refugee Studies Centre, and the Civil Rights Corps. 

One 2017 Truman alumnus, Chelsea Jackson-Sandati of Emory University, is founder and managing director of Equity Architecture. She states on LinkedIn that her company’s “patent-pending approach combines activist approaches, social entrepreneurship, academic methodologies and change management to improve performance and reputation by embedding DE&I, Sustainability, CSR, and ESG into every aspect of the organisation.” 

A 2018 Truman recipient, Kieran Minor of Oberlin College, runs “Project Hozho,” described on LinkedIn as a “collaborative arts and environmental education program for local youth on the Navajo Reservation, advancing environmental justice through the arts.”

Ángel Ortiz-Siberón, a 2019 Truman winner from the University of Pennsylvania, works in the housing sector “to support the creation of sustainable institutions that equitably serve the needs of Black and Brown people,” his LinkedIn states. 

And Max Klapow, a 2020 Truman winner from the University of Washington, served in 2023 as the editor-in-chief of the Graduate Inequality Review, which “works to provide a venue for debate and discussion on the growing issue of inequality,” his LinkedIn states.

In addition to Democratic politics and social justice causes, the research found some Truman fellows working at the ACLU, or at liberal-aligned law firms focused on topics such as immigrant or LGBTQ rights, or at well-known Democratic stronghold firms such as Perkins Coie or Tonkon Torp.

One 2015 Truman alumnus, Harmann Singh of Columbia University, is an attorney who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and who won an award for his work defending the state of Kentucky’s COVID-era restrictions, according to his online bio.

Many others have worked to advance causes such as climate change, LGBTQ, feminism, and abortion.

Army of Democratic and leftist careerists

Although The College Fix could not determine the employment records of 127 Truman alumni from 2015 to 2020 based on their online footprint, there is plenty of evidence that most of them are leftists based on their undergraduate internships, social media posts, and LinkedIn profiles. 

This is no surprise, as The College Fix published in August data showing that roughly 80 percent of the 2017 and 2018 Truman Scholars promote or are engaged in leftist policies today, and data published in June that 75 percent of Truman Scholars from the 2015 and 2016 cohorts continue to do so as well. 

The imbalance shows that those nominating and selecting the winners of the prestigious taxpayer-funded scholarship favor leftwing, Democratic and progressive causes over conservative and Republican ones.

The results mirror a decade’s worth of research conducted by The College Fix looking at winners’ political leanings in general — prior to their careers.

Of the 653 winners reviewed from 2015 to 2025, only 29 conservatives have been identified compared to 397 liberals, based on their public bios, LinkedIn profiles, and social media accounts. The rest, 227, could not be determined based on available information online.

The Truman winners are nominated from all 50 states by campus faculty advisors representing thousands of colleges and universities nationwide.

A parade of research into professor party affiliations and political campaign contributions has firmly established scholars in the U.S. are overwhelmingly progressive Democrats, so it’s no surprise they advance nominees with their preferred causes.

The College Fix research shows the Truman Scholarships have funded an army of Democratic and leftist careerists.

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