The National Democratic Training Committee (NDTC) is a 527^[1] political action committee^[2] formed in 2016 to train American Democratic party candidates at all levels of government to run for public office.^[3][4][5]

The NDTC was founded in 2016 by Democratic operative Kelly Dietrich.^[6][7]

In 2018, the group launched online training for NGP VAN's "VoteBuilder", the voter database used by the Democratic Party.^[8]

In 2019, the NDTC launched their Staff Academy program to provide training for Democratic campaign staff. The NDTC trained a group of 60 new Democratic campaign staff through an eight-week training, which featured both in-person and online components. The NDTC partnered with state and national party committees to recruit trainees for the program, which saw more than 600 applicants. The program was developed to provide Democratic campaigns with "high-quality, diverse, and trained staff members" for the 2020 election cycle.^[9][10]

According to its FEC report, the NDTC raised $7.35 million during the 2018 election cycle.^[11]

NDTC offers both on-site trainings and self-paced virtual classes, with students ranging from candidates and their staff to campaign volunteers and activists.^[6][12] Vice noted in 2019 that it was the only major organization providing free in-person trainings to Democratic candidates nationwide.^[6] NDTC partners with state Democratic parties to offer trainings.^[13][14] The organization also partners with other Democratic-leaning groups like Run for Something, The Pipeline Fund, and EMILYs List.^[15][16] NDTC trainings cover topics like campaign finance, canvassing, and communications.^[9][17] It has additional trainings on website strategy and digital content creation, social media strategy for campaigns, AI, and other voter outreach topics.^[17][18]

Starting in 2019, NDTC began offering virtual and in-person staff training for Democratic campaign workers.^[12] The NDTC conducts hundreds of in-person and virtual trainings each year across all 50 states.^[19]

NDTC claims its trainings helped elect more than 170 Democrats in the 2018 United States elections, including three congressional candidates.^[4][20] Notable alumni of the organization include Representative Lauren Underwood and Representative Maxwell Frost, who headlined a candidate cohort training in March 2026.^[21] Underwood also served as an honorary co-chair of NDTC, alongside Katie Porter and Nikema Williams.^[22] The NDTC has also partnered with Sen. Bernie Sanders on training progressive candidates to run for office.^[23] The group has been generally welcomed by state Democratic parties, with former head of the North Dakota Democratic Party Kylie Oversen stating the group has helped state parties encourage potential candidates to run for office.^[3][13] Gov. Tom Wolf and nine other Democratic governors released a statement that announced their support of NDTC's work.^[24] In news profiles, some state legislative candidates, including candidates in Indiana and Pennsylvania, said they used NDTC's training resources during their campaigns and credited it as helpful to their programs.^[6][17][24]

The Washington Post reported that some Democrats have criticized the group's former primary fundraising consultant, Mothership Strategies, for aggressive and sometimes misleading tactics, raising concerns that such fundraising could erode trust among small donors.^[25]