Cross Tabs Paid Leave is What Power is For, with Dawn Huckelbridge of Paid Leave for All
It's likely that Democrats will retake the House this fall. But the most important question for a new majority is this: what will they use the power for?
This conversation is part of an ongoing series of interviews and explorations I plan to do this year trying to answer a slightly modified version of that question - what should the power be for?
One answer to that question is paid leave for all. In 1993, the Clinton Administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress passed FMLA - the Family and Medical Leave Act, protecting workers with unpaid family leave. Since then, paid leave has become steadily more and more popular, and very nearly passed during the Biden Administration.
Our guest this week is Dawn Huckelbridge, the founding director of Paid Leave for All and founder of Paid Leave PAC. With a career spanning gender policy, political organizing, and communications, she has successfully built and led campaigns to advance paid leave and gender equity across the country.
We discussed what's at stake, their approach to getting The Family Act passed, what they've learned in their polling about support for paid family leave from across the socioeconomic spectrum, how states are leading, and what the movement is up against.
Our Guest
Dawn Huckelbridge is the founding director of Paid Leave for All, a position she has held since 2019. With a career spanning gender policy, political organizing, and communications, she has successfully built and led campaigns to advance paid leave and gender equity across the country.
Previously, Dawn served as Communications Director for Supermajority during its launch and Senior Director of the Women’s Rights Initiative at American Bridge. During the 2016 election cycle, she served as Coordinated Program Director for Community Outreach Group at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, where she directed a team to execute the organization’s largest coordinated campaigns in battleground states. Dawn has also held senior roles with People For the American Way, the Center for Women Policy Studies, and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation and Political Office.
She holds a master’s degree in gender and social policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from Northwestern University. Her background in political and issue communications includes work with GMMB and various political and public interest projects. Dawn founded the Paid Leave PAC in 2022 and has served on the boards of several organizations, including Emerge Massachusetts, Family Values @ Work Action, and the DC Abortion Fund.
Dawn’s expertise and leadership have earned her publications in outlets such as Newsweek, The Hill, The Nation, Glamour, and Marie Claire, and she has appeared on radio and network and cable TV.
Further Reading
"Americans Widely Support Paid Family and Medical Leave, but Differ Over Specific Policies" via Pew Research, March 2017
"New Poll Finds Strong Small Business Support for Paid Family and Medical Leave Policies" via National Partnership for Women & Families and Lake Research, October 2024
- More poll findings here: https://nationalpartnership.org/report/small-businesses-support-national-paid-family-medical-leave-program/
"Creating a Nationwide Paid Leave Program and Bolstering Medicare’s Negotiating Power are Overwhelmingly Popular" via Navigator Research, September 2024
"Dads & Bonding Leave in State Paid Leave Programs", research via Paid Leave for All, June 2025
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