Trust Brigade is a year-round voter engagement and deep-canvassing organization based in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District (CD8). We are organized as an independent-expenditure committee (or “PAC”). We train volunteers to have empathetic, nonjudgmental conversations with voters, particularly those who feel disengaged, distrustful, or overlooked.

Our mission is simple: flip CD8 Blue in 2026. We are rebuilding trust in the democratic process by showing up consistently, listening well, and forming real human connections that move the needle.

Unlike traditional campaigns, we operate every month, every year, not just in election season. That stability allows us to train volunteers deeply, maintain momentum, and build community relationships that last beyond any one race.

Deep canvassing was born from a moment of profound reflection following the passage of Proposition 8 in California in 2008, which revoked the right for same-sex couples to marry. After that unexpected defeat, organizers like Dave Fleischer and the team at the Los Angeles LGBT Center realized that traditional, script-heavy canvassing wasn’t changing hearts; it was just identifying supporters.

They spent the next several years conducting over 10,000 conversations, eventually developing a model based on non-judgmental listening and the exchange of personal stories. This "deep" approach was found to be significantly more effective at reducing prejudice and shifting long-held political stances than any other method.

Watch Dave Fleischer’s TED Talk on the origins of this work.

Or, check out their article in Nature.

In 2024, we piloted a targeted canvassing program in partnership with the Colorado Democratic Party and Attorney General Phil Weiser. Our team engaged 2,645 voters through high-intensity, personal conversations. By comparing our results to a control group of similar voters who were not canvassed, we found that those we reached turned out at a rate 14% higher than their peers.

Read the full one-pager here.

Our overarching goal is to flip Congressional District 8 in 2026. We are doing that by…

1. Completing 7,500 deep canvassing conversations with voters

2. Engaging at least 1,000 volunteers with the program

3. Organizing at least fifty canvass launches across CD8.

We coordinate, but we do not duplicate. We are the only local, grassroots, deep-canvassing group in Congressional District 8. We are thrilled to work with other groups where we can, but we know that what we do cannot be replicated by a national or nonpartisan organization.