Nancy Pelosi spent decades navigating Washington politics. Last June, she found herself navigating something entirely different: the door at HiLot, a Lower East Side bar known for its long lines and sequin-clad crowd. The 86-year-old former Speaker of the House wasn’t there for the cocktails, waterbed or thumping disco music, though. She was there for Juno.
A private members club for young Democratic women, Juno was founded in 2024 by friends and former colleagues Ellyn Guttman and Lily Patricof. Members pay between $2,500 and $5,000 a year, with all the funds directed to local and state politicians at the start of their careers. Rather than spending their money on a Soho House membership or SoulCycle classes, the sixty members of Juno have access to monthly dinners with elected officials, candidates or speakers. Some, of course, still do both.
Guttman, 36, and Patricof, 30, believe Democrats have overlooked a generation of young women eager to engage politically but who feel alienated by both the party establishment and the growing influence of democratic socialism in New York. The idea is that financing a new cohort of largely unknown candidates will also reshape the Democratic party down the line, producing a more moderate class of leaders.
“This is a group of people who are not far left and mostly feel politically homeless,” Guttman said. “They see the mayor’s office and they don’t really identify as that Democrat,” she added, referring to New York City’s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
Patricof studied classics at Dartmouth and named the organisation after Juno, the Roman goddess who was the supreme patroness of women and also served as a guardian and protector for the safety of the empire. In many ways, she embodies the role they envision for themselves.
“Money is in politics and it’s unfortunate and kind of gross and we wish it wasn’t,” said Guttman. But they’ve decided to accept reality. “Old men move money,” she added, but “women have money and they’ve never been asked to wield it in a way that is strategic and impactful and that they feel invited into these rooms.”
Guttman paused, and then added with a smile. “This is our proverbial golf course, right?” When it was founded in 1982, the Democratic Socialists of America was seen as a fringe anti-capitalist group that was totally unelectable. But in recent years, an affordability crisis and wealth inequality has helped rally voters to its cause. In 2018, the DSA had its first national breakthrough when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then just 29, was elected to Congress. Then in 2024, more than one million NYC voters chose Mamdani, 34, to run the biggest city in the nation. More DSA candidates are now winning Democratic primaries across America, proving the left-wing flank of the party is no longer just having a moment. It’s turning into a movement.
But many of Juno’s young members told me they don’t identify with it.
“I think the Democratic Party, especially more in recent years, has been thought of as serious, not fun, and like almost overly woke,” Margot Adams, 28, told me. A Parsons graduate who lives in Greenwich Village, Adams and her mother co-founded Luxeire, a fashion brand aimed at working women where a button-down sells for around $250. She contributes about $3,000 a year to Juno.
“We’re seeing a lot of more far-left candidates come into office, and I would like to see someone a little more in the middle,” she added.
Usually Guttman and Patricof host Juno supper clubs at buzzy, sought-after New York restaurants every month. But on a recent Thursday evening, the group gathered at The Bench, a co-working space for creatives and the politically engaged that feels more Italian boutique hotel than WeWork. Ballet flats and kitten heels clattered up the stairs of a fifth floor walk-up in Chinatown, opening onto a sprawling loft with mid-century sofas and dining tables laid for 30.
From 6.30pm, Saint Laurent leather bags and laptops were set aside for glasses of white wine. The walls were dotted with Democratic memorabilia: fraying “Kennedy for President” flyers from 1960 and condoms stamped with “F*** Project 2025”. Guests eased into conversations as David Shor, the influential political pollster and head of data science at Blue Rose Research, prepared his PowerPoint that would anchor the evening’s conversations. He was wearing white linen and Birkenstocks.
Among Juno’s members is Allegra Citak, 32, the niece of Antony Blinken, who served as secretary of state under Joe Biden. “Everything started getting so polarising that I felt a little more scared,” she told me. “Juno feels like a safe place to discuss your beliefs and understand what’s happening.”
Citak, who goes by Blinken Citak on LinkedIn, described growing up in a family steeped in Democratic history, where discussing politics was a fixture on vacations in Sun Valley, Idaho, where the family have a house. This particular evening, she wore a top “from Paris”, a Cartier bracelet and trousers from Love Shack Fancy. Asked where she spends time in New York, she reeled off The Odeon, The Carlyle Hotel and Monkey Bar, but said she no longer belonged to any traditional members’ clubs.
“I used to be, but I’m not anymore,” she said, swaying her long brown silky hair. “This is my type of membership club and I’m doing something more impactful.”
The case for centrism
By 7.30pm, the women had taken their seats. Bowls of coconut red lentil dips were passed alongside sesame focaccia and fattoush salad. “We really are in a very populist moment,” Shor said, as diamond-set fingers shot up to ask questions. “If the 2028 election was today, we would probably lose.”
A group of young Democratic women at a supper club, with one woman raising her hand.
Shor noted that when Biden left office, he had a worse approval rating than Donald Trump did after the January 6 riot on the Capitol. “If someone is supporting Trump, what gets them to change their mind?” asked one woman wearing heels, a minidress and carrying a red leather clutch. Shor made it sound, at least from the presentation, that the Democrats didn’t have many viable candidates.
But for many of the young women I spoke to, the solution is younger and more centrist candidates.
Ashley Spivey, a 41-year-old political activist, influencer and former contestant on The Bachelor, said one future politician she was hopeful about was Mattie Daughtry, who is running for re-election to the Maine state senate.
“She owns a lot of bars and has implemented paid family leave,” Spivey said. “They’re doing things that help the average American and doing it in a way that doesn’t seem like far-left progressive and they’re still one of the people.”
Juno’s donations so far have been directed towards emerging candidates like Rebecca Bennett (running for Congress in New Jersey), Rebecca Cook (running for Congress in Wisconsin) and Kate Connolly (running for Congress in New York) rather than national figures. But more established Democrats, like Pelosi, have featured at their events.
And while Juno’s founders say they have no plans to back a presidential candidate in 2028, they agree that Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, would fail to win a general election. They prefer Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Pete Buttigieg, the former secretary of transportation.
For now, they are keeping the club focused on New York, where they have built a strong network and an engaged membership. The biggest question for Juno, Guttman told me, is “how do we focus and be really strategic about where we can come together and find something that’s unifying? The party is doing such damage to itself right now by forcing candidates into these boxes of ‘moderate’ or ‘far left’ or ‘progressive’. We’re not trying to be like, ‘oh, this is where all the moderates should be.’ ”‘We’re not here toremovedand moan’
The founders also want to inject some energy, fun and glamour back into the party. Guttman came from the world of conferences and live events, having worked at TED and Summit Series, while Patricof spent time on the Hill and various campaigns. Politics also runs in her family: her grandfather Alan Patricof was an investor and significant Democratic fundraiser, acting as the national finance chairman for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 New York Senate race.
They have noticed how the Maga movement has become adept at turning politics into a social scene, hosting parties and events filled with unabashed young conservatives in glitzy dress. A viral example of this was captured, right after Trump’s second election, by a New York magazine cover entitled “The Cruel Kids Table.”
But when I asked how young people on the left could attract that kind of cultural visibility, Spivey was dismissive. “I think all of us here are very confident and we don’t have to promote ourselves as being at those types of parties,” she told me. “
But when I asked how young people on the left could attract that kind of cultural visibility, Spivey was dismissive. “I think all of us here are very confident and we don’t have to promote ourselves as being at those types of parties,” she told me. “That’s the difference between old money and new money, you know what I mean?”
Grace Rifkin, a 30-year-old tech worker sitting to Spivey’s right, chimed in: “We’re not here to gather and drink wine andremovedand moan and give our money. It’s more to have sessions like this and meet candidates and see what the actual possible roadmap is like in the long game of the Democratic Party.”
Naming my playgroup after the goddess whose husband / brother is constantly cheating on her and who responds by punishing his girlfriends by transforming them into animals, excellent.
A Parsons graduate who lives in Greenwich Village, Adams and her mother co-founded Luxeire, a fashion brand aimed at working women where a button-down sells for around $250.
Which working women can afford clothes at these prices?
Among Juno’s members is Allegra Citak, 32, the niece of Antony Blinken, who served as secretary of state under Joe Biden. “Everything started getting so polarising that I felt a little more scared,” she told me.
I guess seeing protestors splash red liquid on your uncle’s motorcade whenever he leaves his house might do that.
Shor noted that when Biden left office, he had a worse approval rating than Donald Trump did after the January 6 riot on the Capitol.
lol that is so pathetic, imagine doing worse than the guy who had the hog riot.
“She owns a lot of bars and has implemented paid family leave,” Spivey said. “They’re doing things that help the average American and doing it in a way that doesn’t seem like far-left progressive and they’re still one of the people.”
Nothing says you’re one of the people like owning a bunch of bars.
They prefer Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Pete Buttigieg, the former secretary of transportation.
I feel like this is proof that hatred of boomers is really just a misplaced hatred of the bourgeoisie, because these relatively young women think like boomers, and it’s their money that makes them think this way.
Also: Jon Ossoff is like, what if instead of being cartoonishly evil, Pete Buttigieg was incredibly boring?
named the organisation after Juno, the Roman goddess who was the supreme patroness of women and also served as a guardian and protector for the safety of the empire. In many ways, she embodies the role they envision for themselves
a co-working space for creatives and the politically engaged feels more Italian boutique hotel than WeWork.
she said, swaying her long brown silky hair.
I fucking hate this failed novelist “”““journalism””“” with the rage of a thousand suns. It’s like the author thinks name-dropping celebrities makes them sound hip and cool. Except they don’t actually know any celebrities, so they name-drop designer brands and adjectives.
Just fuck off. There’s a reason you write news slop for the NYC bourgeois and not NYT bestsellers. If you can’t swim, keep your ass out of the pool.
The prose in these articles about, I don’t know, this quirky thing or this new development, is just so insufferable. You literally write for a paper that was Hitlerite circa 1935. And you paid big money tuition to go to journo school to learn how to make atrocity propaganda/flatter elites
Rifkin told me she earns just under $200,000 a year and contributes $5,000 annually to Juno. Last year, her fiancé matched the donation, she said, because he knew how much the club meant to her. “I don’t have ‘f***-around’ money,” she said, speaking of her decision to spend her additional income on the group. “Like, I do to a certain extent, of course, but I’m planning a wedding and I’m very, very budget-conscious.”
As the sun started setting in the Chinatown loft, the room was hit by a warm amber light. Small groups lingered over the last of the wine while presenter Shor remained deep in conversation with a cluster of attendees.
“One thing we can do is try to elevate candidates who understand this desire that the country clearly has right now for candidates who don’t feel elitist, don’t feel like they’re ignoring the plight of people who can’t afford their daily lives,” Patricof said. “We can show there are people doing that who aren’t scary to the more centrists.”
Guttman nodded. “We want next-gen people to support the next-gen candidates,” she said. “And I think that’s where we can move the needle, giving rise to the pragmatic fighters who are going to do great work.”
Jesus Fucking Christ read at your own peril
Nancy Pelosi spent decades navigating Washington politics. Last June, she found herself navigating something entirely different: the door at HiLot, a Lower East Side bar known for its long lines and sequin-clad crowd. The 86-year-old former Speaker of the House wasn’t there for the cocktails, waterbed or thumping disco music, though. She was there for Juno. A private members club for young Democratic women, Juno was founded in 2024 by friends and former colleagues Ellyn Guttman and Lily Patricof. Members pay between $2,500 and $5,000 a year, with all the funds directed to local and state politicians at the start of their careers. Rather than spending their money on a Soho House membership or SoulCycle classes, the sixty members of Juno have access to monthly dinners with elected officials, candidates or speakers. Some, of course, still do both.
Guttman, 36, and Patricof, 30, believe Democrats have overlooked a generation of young women eager to engage politically but who feel alienated by both the party establishment and the growing influence of democratic socialism in New York. The idea is that financing a new cohort of largely unknown candidates will also reshape the Democratic party down the line, producing a more moderate class of leaders.
“This is a group of people who are not far left and mostly feel politically homeless,” Guttman said. “They see the mayor’s office and they don’t really identify as that Democrat,” she added, referring to New York City’s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Patricof studied classics at Dartmouth and named the organisation after Juno, the Roman goddess who was the supreme patroness of women and also served as a guardian and protector for the safety of the empire. In many ways, she embodies the role they envision for themselves. “Money is in politics and it’s unfortunate and kind of gross and we wish it wasn’t,” said Guttman. But they’ve decided to accept reality. “Old men move money,” she added, but “women have money and they’ve never been asked to wield it in a way that is strategic and impactful and that they feel invited into these rooms.”
Guttman paused, and then added with a smile. “This is our proverbial golf course, right?” When it was founded in 1982, the Democratic Socialists of America was seen as a fringe anti-capitalist group that was totally unelectable. But in recent years, an affordability crisis and wealth inequality has helped rally voters to its cause. In 2018, the DSA had its first national breakthrough when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then just 29, was elected to Congress. Then in 2024, more than one million NYC voters chose Mamdani, 34, to run the biggest city in the nation. More DSA candidates are now winning Democratic primaries across America, proving the left-wing flank of the party is no longer just having a moment. It’s turning into a movement.
But many of Juno’s young members told me they don’t identify with it.
“I think the Democratic Party, especially more in recent years, has been thought of as serious, not fun, and like almost overly woke,” Margot Adams, 28, told me. A Parsons graduate who lives in Greenwich Village, Adams and her mother co-founded Luxeire, a fashion brand aimed at working women where a button-down sells for around $250. She contributes about $3,000 a year to Juno.
“We’re seeing a lot of more far-left candidates come into office, and I would like to see someone a little more in the middle,” she added.
Usually Guttman and Patricof host Juno supper clubs at buzzy, sought-after New York restaurants every month. But on a recent Thursday evening, the group gathered at The Bench, a co-working space for creatives and the politically engaged that feels more Italian boutique hotel than WeWork. Ballet flats and kitten heels clattered up the stairs of a fifth floor walk-up in Chinatown, opening onto a sprawling loft with mid-century sofas and dining tables laid for 30.
From 6.30pm, Saint Laurent leather bags and laptops were set aside for glasses of white wine. The walls were dotted with Democratic memorabilia: fraying “Kennedy for President” flyers from 1960 and condoms stamped with “F*** Project 2025”. Guests eased into conversations as David Shor, the influential political pollster and head of data science at Blue Rose Research, prepared his PowerPoint that would anchor the evening’s conversations. He was wearing white linen and Birkenstocks.
Among Juno’s members is Allegra Citak, 32, the niece of Antony Blinken, who served as secretary of state under Joe Biden. “Everything started getting so polarising that I felt a little more scared,” she told me. “Juno feels like a safe place to discuss your beliefs and understand what’s happening.” Citak, who goes by Blinken Citak on LinkedIn, described growing up in a family steeped in Democratic history, where discussing politics was a fixture on vacations in Sun Valley, Idaho, where the family have a house. This particular evening, she wore a top “from Paris”, a Cartier bracelet and trousers from Love Shack Fancy. Asked where she spends time in New York, she reeled off The Odeon, The Carlyle Hotel and Monkey Bar, but said she no longer belonged to any traditional members’ clubs. “I used to be, but I’m not anymore,” she said, swaying her long brown silky hair. “This is my type of membership club and I’m doing something more impactful.”
The case for centrism By 7.30pm, the women had taken their seats. Bowls of coconut red lentil dips were passed alongside sesame focaccia and fattoush salad. “We really are in a very populist moment,” Shor said, as diamond-set fingers shot up to ask questions. “If the 2028 election was today, we would probably lose.” A group of young Democratic women at a supper club, with one woman raising her hand.
Shor noted that when Biden left office, he had a worse approval rating than Donald Trump did after the January 6 riot on the Capitol. “If someone is supporting Trump, what gets them to change their mind?” asked one woman wearing heels, a minidress and carrying a red leather clutch. Shor made it sound, at least from the presentation, that the Democrats didn’t have many viable candidates.
But for many of the young women I spoke to, the solution is younger and more centrist candidates. Ashley Spivey, a 41-year-old political activist, influencer and former contestant on The Bachelor, said one future politician she was hopeful about was Mattie Daughtry, who is running for re-election to the Maine state senate.
“She owns a lot of bars and has implemented paid family leave,” Spivey said. “They’re doing things that help the average American and doing it in a way that doesn’t seem like far-left progressive and they’re still one of the people.”
Juno’s donations so far have been directed towards emerging candidates like Rebecca Bennett (running for Congress in New Jersey), Rebecca Cook (running for Congress in Wisconsin) and Kate Connolly (running for Congress in New York) rather than national figures. But more established Democrats, like Pelosi, have featured at their events. And while Juno’s founders say they have no plans to back a presidential candidate in 2028, they agree that Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, would fail to win a general election. They prefer Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Pete Buttigieg, the former secretary of transportation. For now, they are keeping the club focused on New York, where they have built a strong network and an engaged membership. The biggest question for Juno, Guttman told me, is “how do we focus and be really strategic about where we can come together and find something that’s unifying? The party is doing such damage to itself right now by forcing candidates into these boxes of ‘moderate’ or ‘far left’ or ‘progressive’. We’re not trying to be like, ‘oh, this is where all the moderates should be.’ ”‘We’re not here toremovedand moan’
The founders also want to inject some energy, fun and glamour back into the party. Guttman came from the world of conferences and live events, having worked at TED and Summit Series, while Patricof spent time on the Hill and various campaigns. Politics also runs in her family: her grandfather Alan Patricof was an investor and significant Democratic fundraiser, acting as the national finance chairman for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 New York Senate race.
They have noticed how the Maga movement has become adept at turning politics into a social scene, hosting parties and events filled with unabashed young conservatives in glitzy dress. A viral example of this was captured, right after Trump’s second election, by a New York magazine cover entitled “The Cruel Kids Table.” But when I asked how young people on the left could attract that kind of cultural visibility, Spivey was dismissive. “I think all of us here are very confident and we don’t have to promote ourselves as being at those types of parties,” she told me. “
But when I asked how young people on the left could attract that kind of cultural visibility, Spivey was dismissive. “I think all of us here are very confident and we don’t have to promote ourselves as being at those types of parties,” she told me. “That’s the difference between old money and new money, you know what I mean?” Grace Rifkin, a 30-year-old tech worker sitting to Spivey’s right, chimed in: “We’re not here to gather and drink wine andremovedand moan and give our money. It’s more to have sessions like this and meet candidates and see what the actual possible roadmap is like in the long game of the Democratic Party.”
Naming my playgroup after the goddess whose husband / brother is constantly cheating on her and who responds by punishing his girlfriends by transforming them into animals, excellent.
Which working women can afford clothes at these prices?
I guess seeing protestors splash red liquid on your uncle’s motorcade whenever he leaves his house might do that.
lol that is so pathetic, imagine doing worse than the guy who had the hog riot.
Nothing says you’re one of the people like owning a bunch of bars.
I feel like this is proof that hatred of boomers is really just a misplaced hatred of the bourgeoisie, because these relatively young women think like boomers, and it’s their money that makes them think this way.
Also: Jon Ossoff is like, what if instead of being cartoonishly evil, Pete Buttigieg was incredibly boring?
checks out
I fucking hate this failed novelist “”““journalism””“” with the rage of a thousand suns. It’s like the author thinks name-dropping celebrities makes them sound hip and cool. Except they don’t actually know any celebrities, so they name-drop designer brands and adjectives.
Just fuck off. There’s a reason you write news slop for the NYC bourgeois and not NYT bestsellers. If you can’t swim, keep your ass out of the pool.
The prose in these articles about, I don’t know, this quirky thing or this new development, is just so insufferable. You literally write for a paper that was Hitlerite circa 1935. And you paid big money tuition to go to journo school to learn how to make atrocity propaganda/flatter elites
I’m probably giving the author undue credit but it sort of feels like they are presenting the club in a bad light without getting fired.
Maybe they also just out of touch and don’t realize how it sounds.
Yeah I haven’t read something that made me oscillate between loathing and wanting to flip a table for a while.
The members highlighted in the article:
Also fucking LMAO
as their #3 pick is fucking hilarious.
Opens spoiler, reads random sentence
I’ve read enough. I am now in pain.
spoiler
Rifkin told me she earns just under $200,000 a year and contributes $5,000 annually to Juno. Last year, her fiancé matched the donation, she said, because he knew how much the club meant to her. “I don’t have ‘f***-around’ money,” she said, speaking of her decision to spend her additional income on the group. “Like, I do to a certain extent, of course, but I’m planning a wedding and I’m very, very budget-conscious.”
As the sun started setting in the Chinatown loft, the room was hit by a warm amber light. Small groups lingered over the last of the wine while presenter Shor remained deep in conversation with a cluster of attendees.
“One thing we can do is try to elevate candidates who understand this desire that the country clearly has right now for candidates who don’t feel elitist, don’t feel like they’re ignoring the plight of people who can’t afford their daily lives,” Patricof said. “We can show there are people doing that who aren’t scary to the more centrists.” Guttman nodded. “We want next-gen people to support the next-gen candidates,” she said. “And I think that’s where we can move the needle, giving rise to the pragmatic fighters who are going to do great work.”
Household income of four hundred thousand dollars per year and they’re saying they don’t have fuck-around money. Fuck them.
Amber.
fuck this, i’m out
Mamdani the candidate for the old monied men.