Jason Gross serves as Executive Director of the USGLC, tapping over 20 years of public policy, Capitol Hill and Presidential campaign experience to oversee day-to-day operations of the nationwide coalition. Prior to rejoining the USGLC, Gross served nine years as Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Joe Courtney of Connecticut. Gross launched Courtney’s office in the House and led the office from a razor-thin 83 vote victory in 2006 to four strong reelections and Courtney being named Congress’s 8th highest over-performing Democrat by the Cook Political Report in 2014. Previously, Gross became the USGLC’s first full-time employee in 2001 and contributed to the organization’s growth from nascent coalition to established organization in six years as Managing Director. Earlier, Gross served as a Senior Professional Staff Member for European Affairs on the House International Relations Committee for Ranking Member Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut after having served on the foreign policy team of the Clinton-Gore 1996 Campaign. Gross earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and holds a B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University. He lives with his wife, Connie Pendleton, a media lawyer, in Washington D.C. with their two sons.
As the candidates and voters gather for tonight’s seventh Democratic presidential debate, a new poll has put foreign policy in a dead heat with health care as the most important issue for Iowa caucusgoers. The most recent Des Moines Register poll – which many consider to be the gold-standard for Iowa – asked likely Democratic caucusgoers how important certain issues were when deciding which candidate to support. The survey found that more than 9 in 10 voters ranked foreign policy as “extremely important” or “important” – exactly on par with health care, an issue that has been central on the Democratic campaign trail.