Garry Tan launched Garry's List in February 2026 as a curated membership community to turn SF's improvised recall-and-elect wins into repeatable civic infrastructure across California — and by May it had already shipped a voter guide and civic awards program ahead of the June 2 primary, testing whether informed-citizen organizing can outrun the next election cycle.
Read Top Post →Three months after launch, Garry’s List pivoted from building the community to crowdsourcing its taste. The Civic Impact Awards, timed to the June 2 primary, ask members to nominate California’s political micro-influencers — newsletter writers, short-form explainers, ballot-measure translators. The judges are the community itself, turning the membership base into a signal-boosting network for trusted voices ahead of the general election.
May 11, 2026 · 7 min
Same day, same message, but with a deadline: March 4 in Mountain View. The invite-only launch party doubled as a recruiting event targeting South Bay “radical centrists” — a deliberate expansion beyond SF’s borders. With November 2026 as the explicit horizon, Tan framed the party not as a celebration but as an organizing push to lock in members before the next election cycle begins in earnest.
Feb 11, 2026 · 3 min
Garry Tan announced Garry’s List on February 11 — a curated, real-names membership community built to replace the ad hoc door-knocking and signature-gathering that barely got SF’s DA recall and school board recalls over the finish line. The pitch: sourced explainers, working groups, and accountability tracking so civic reformers stop rebuilding from scratch every cycle. Built with Claude Code on nights and weekends, starting in California.
Feb 11, 2026 · 2 min
