How we checked this: DataRepublican built each video from recordings of private Zoom calls. We transcribed the audio of all four videos and read every on-screen caption. Every quote below is in the speaker's own words from the recording. Where a point comes only from her written posts, we say so, which keeps her reporting airtight against critics looking for a gap. Times are Mountain.

The plan, in their own words:

1. Get organized before November. In March, Danielle Reiff said they had to get "super, super organized in the next seven months," a plan that needs to be "on steroids." By fall the groups had "red lines" with "indicators and metrics," a "war room" feeding real-time information to the "movement of movements," outreach to elected officials, tabletop exercises, poll observers, legal hotlines, lawsuits and "pre-bunking."
2. Wait for, and use, a crisis of legitimacy. Reiff said she is "foreseeing a crisis of legitimacy around the November election." She called a midterm "meltdown" a "window of opportunity" to declare that "some red lines have been crossed," and in August called the breakdown a chance for a "refounding moment." The triggers NSL4A trained for are President Trump invoking the Insurrection Act during unrest, which they suggest ICE might "provoke," or sending troops to secure voting machines after a foreign-hacking warning.
3. Declare the federal government illegitimate and hand power to the governors. In August, Paul Zeitz said that once red lines are crossed and the federal government is "deemed to be illegitimate," the governors "become the leading governing authority." RAD wrote an options memo to prepare governors for that. John Mongan said governors would need plans to take over federal functions, coordinate with each other, reach out to foreign governments, and "wall off these illegitimate individuals." His reassurance: "this is not a concept for a secession." The movement would line up foreign governments too: Zeitz wants "other governments to support our, you know, quest for renewal of American democracy when the s*** hits the fan," and a September RAD paper wants "allied governments" to "know what a legitimate result looks like before one is disputed."
4. Re-found the country outside the Constitution. (Their lawful track runs alongside it: a "Fulcrum Caucus" of independents elected to hold the balance in Congress and "arm-twist" for reforms, with an Article V convention that RAD's own draft calls the "Moderate Strategy." See Part 11.) In March, Reiff laid out the path "if we need to go extra-constitutional": a convening "like a third Continental Congress" to declare the red lines, possibly a "national dialogue," then a constitutional convention once the timing is right. On the same call, DSA Marxist Unity Group member Luke Pickrell said "we have to be the ones" to build an organization that is "explicitly anti-constitution." His caucus wants a new constitution with a one-house legislature, which would do away with the Senate as we know it.

How they describe themselves: NSL4A calls its work a defense against military "interference" in the midterms, with "a commitment to nonviolence" and a goal of "protecting the process." DataRepublican's point is that each group only has to play its own part, and the parts add up to one plan. She calls this "shared epistemology."

The players.

The timeline.

• 2020 — The "Hold the Line" guide ("Each Of Us Can Play a Role") tells officials that "obedience to unlawful orders could mean facing the risk of accountability soon under the new administration." DataRepublican's Part 15 marks this as the start of a throughline: make obeying "unlawful orders" risky so people stop obeying.
• 2020 — The Transition Integrity Project "war-gamed a disputed election with 67 players, including career federal employees," and concluded "this may well be a street fight, not a legal battle"; in one game "the Biden team encouraged California, Oregon, and Washington to secede from the Union unless Republicans agreed to structural reforms." Judicial Watch published the report. DataRepublican surfaces it in her Nov. 8 Special Edition as the written template for "crossing the Rubicon."
• 2023 — The USAID democracy office's largest single award, No. 7200AA23GR00053, goes to a PartnersGlobal-led coalition that includes CANVAS (per her Oct. 22 source cards).
• Mar. 20, 2025 — Generate Democracy forum. Former USAID contractor Van Credle: OTI, USAID's crisis-transition office, "pre-organized" because "they had organized during the previous Trump administration." Reiff: "We were worried. We started organizing." Credle: the group had "moved" its chats "away from the USAID main systems into Signal."
• June 30 and Aug. 12, 2025 — Former USAID staff on tape: "now that I no longer have a job, I can use it for whatever I want" (Marcia Mundt); "we're using the USA democracy assessment framework that we have used in countries around the world for decades" (Reiff).
• June 30, 2025 — On a Renew to Thrive post-conference call (Part 15), a facilitator describes the breakout he ran: "fraternization with the enemy… trying to build relationships with actual police officers, ICE agents, National Guardsmen" who could be "persuaded through those relationships to down their arms, to stop actually… following the orders of… an authoritarian regime."
• Fall 2025 — RAD's own draft: "Drive a wedge between ICE and the National Guard."
• Nov. 2025 — RAD's first strategy draft calls for "organizing public workers who may be asked to execute such orders" and "training them in noncompliance," and says: "Seed non-compliance by federal employees in dangerous and illegal activities."
• Nov. 18, 2025 — Sen. Mark Kelly and five other Democratic members of Congress post a video telling service members they can refuse "illegal orders." President Trump calls them "traitors," Secretary Hegseth calls them the "Seditious Six," the Pentagon opens an investigation into Kelly and moves to cut his retirement rank, and the FBI opens an inquiry into the other five (NBC). DataRepublican's Part 15 shows the movement filing this video "as a tactic."
• Dec. 2, 2025 — In a RAD forum chat, Jeremy Zitomer, executive director of the Federal Workers Alliance for Democracy (FWAD, formerly "Federal Workers Against DOGE"): "we support federal workers who are refusing dangerous, illegal orders. Very excited to contribute to the 'block' pillar of this strategy."
• Dec. 5, 2025 — The heads of Democracy Fund and Freedom Together and an Open Society managing director tell fellow funders, in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, to back "the independent authority of state and local governments," "Delegitimization of executive overreach" and "noncooperation."
• Jan. 15, 2026 — RAD Forum on its three "emergency scenarios" (militarization, election meltdown, "acute Constitutional crisis"). All 11 breakout rooms get the same question: how would those scenarios affect "your strategic objective?" Groups present include NSL4A, Indivisible, Braver Angels, Team Democracy and Beautiful Trouble. One room reports "not a clear possible transfer of power at the national level from the right to the left … unless things change dramatically."
• Feb. 2026 — RAD's working-groups chart puts "Steve W. (NSL4A)" over Sub-WG 4, "Political Violence Scenario."
• Mar. 2026 — RAD's "Constitution Emergency Response" draft: "federal employee noncompliance frameworks," and outreach to the military, ICE, the National Guard and police to "seed noncompliance with illegal orders." A Mar. 20 concept note for RAD's Nationwide Deliberation Campaign (founding partners: UCLA's CDLS, DRG and FWAD) lists "Constitutional amendments" with "state ratification strategies" as one path.
• Mar. 25, 2026 — Democratic Constitution Forum call. Reiff lays out a seven-month organizing push aimed at November.
• Apr. 9, 2026 — Smith: NSL4A stops recording meetings because they "could all be required for a subpoena."
• Apr. 14 and 30, 2026 — Zeitz and Reiff name FWAD among the "initiators" of the Nationwide Deliberation Campaign, which aims at "a national People's Proposal of structural reforms" by January 2028. On Apr. 30, Reiff says the FWAD side has "been doing a little more blocking."
• Apr. 27, 2026 — On Zeitz's podcast, Scot Nakagawa of the 22nd Century Initiative says No Kings is "right up around" Chenoweth's 3.5% threshold for movements "to topple dictators," and that if "formal organized labor gets robustly involved … the chances can go up over 80%."
• Apr. 2026 — An organizing document circulated this month (shown in her Nov. 8 Special Edition) carries a section headed, "in their words," "when the Rubicon is crossed." Its triggers: "if duly elected leaders are not seated" and "if certification is suspended through delay." Its response: "occupations of capitols, general strikes, the daily order of things suspended," "permits for January 3rd and 4th in DC," "governors and mayors who have already decided what they will do," and "a strategy that has to run through February and March of 2027." The same month, Bill Kristol wrote in The Bulwark (Apr. 20) that "early in 2027, Congress should take responsibility and remove him from office."
• May 18, 2026 — Seed the Vote publishes its "Fight, Win, Prove, and Enforce" plan: a "parallel vote counting infrastructure, separate from the government," then "mass noncooperation."
• May 22, 2026 — RAD core-team huddle: Zeitz reports the Big Tent's Insurrection Act working group, headed by NSL4A's Mike Smith, and says the UDA will launch "in September pre-emptively before the midterm elections," uniting the groups "holding the line with lawsuits and protests."
• June 3, 2026 — A closed-door roundtable in Europe on "resistance to Trump and MAGA" before the U.S. midterms, which the agenda says ran with "financial support of the European Parliament." European Parliament Vice-President Katarina Barley convened it; the Foundation for European Progressive Studies and Germany's Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung organized it; University of Georgia professor Cas Mudde gave the keynote. It examined where Democratic, activist and NGO resistance was working and how European progressives could learn from it. Reported by Natalie Winters on Oct. 29 (below).
• June 4, 2026 — UDA organizer's chat lists No Kings, Indivisible, MoveOn and 50501. Reiff calls UDA "Erica Chenoweth's project." Zeitz says it will "launch in September as like a preemptive" step "going into the midterm elections." Reiff: "They are not public." A chat note: "things that are more on the DL for now like it seems the UDA might be."
• June 23, 2026 — DRG's "Turning Our Tools on Ourselves": "the same framework we had applied for decades in dozens of countries."
• July 2, 2026 — Zeitz on a Synergy Huddle: "we need other governments to support our, you know, quest for renewal of American democracy," to "help create that global echo chamber."
• July 9, 2026 — "Lessons from the Frontlines": foreign activists coach U.S. organizers. In the chat, Brazil's Sami Sternberg (Pacto pela Democracia) describes asking foreign governments in advance "to swiftly recognize election results … *regardless of who wins*."
• July 16, 2026 — RAD Forum: Senate candidate Brian Bengs (independent, South Dakota) says the "Fulcrum Caucus" will put them "in a position to do some arm-twisting to get the reforms that we need." On Aug. 4, South Dakota's Democratic nominee, Julian Beaudion, quits the race (South Dakota Searchlight).
• Aug. 5–6, 2026 — Reiff relays Smith: "you guys have the day after tomorrow plan." RAD's plan puts NSL4A "active in" the UDA's Insurrection Act working group. On Aug. 6, Zeitz says the UDA has "identified four red lines for mobilization" and that if one is crossed, "governors then become the lead anchor for political power." In the same call's chat, DRG's Eric Manton writes that they are "starting to consult federal workers on how to do some blocking inside the govt agencies during emergency situations - but please do not put that on the form." R2T's comms pack for the call is marked "DRAFT, INTERNAL HOLD." Zeitz names "possibly FWAD" for an election-meltdown tabletop exercise. Manton says Brazilians told them "international solidarity" gave them "some kind of cover from an internal attack," and Reiff hopes to "get foreign governments to support us as a movement."
• Aug. 13, 2026 — RAD call: red lines, a war room, and the governors memo. Ro Tucci, asked whether the UDA has planned past Jan. 3, 2027: "There's a lot of red lines … And then they've got all these groups that would activate behind it."
• Aug. 19 – Sept. 3, 2026 — Reiff: a tabletop exercise "in the pipeline for the Federal Workers Alliance for Democracy"; "we're working with Federal Workers Alliance for Democracy on some scenario planning." DataRepublican found no record that it ran.
• Aug. 31, 2026 — Reiff: Big Tent people will run a tabletop exercise "on the Insurrection Act," and the UDA is "keeping that very hush-hush."
• Sept. 1, 2026 — NSL4A's in-person tabletop exercise in Washington, D.C.
• Sept. 8, 2026 — Reiff pitches "transitional leadership" by "a cross-partisan group of governors" or former Presidents Bush and Obama to a Washington state forum. Washington's Secretary of State, Steve Hobbs, says he had "these very same conversations" with German and Japanese officials about the AfD and right-wing nationalists.
• Sept. 2026 — The red-lines working paper for governors (Sept. 23) and RAD's "Meeting the Moment" proposal: what comes after is "already built, tested, and ready to activate." A Sept. 23 RAD paper also proposes a governors' "Federal Service Protection Compact" that "would provide cover for career federal workers to engage in nonviolent non-cooperation."
• Sept. 9, 2026 — RAD's "Meeting the Moment" proposal ($250,000) budgets $40,000 for "International Solidarity" (Manton and Zeitz): "private diplomatic outreach" to the UN, "Heads of State" and the EU so they are "ready to recognize" a "legitimate, peaceful renewal process." Its own Sept. 28 notes: "conditional development work, not funded implementation."
• Sept. 9, 2026 — "Emergency Scenarios Briefing for Independent Voices," a private, invitation-only Zoom under the Chatham House Rule, convened by Independent Voice and RAD for "independent candidates and campaign operatives": Mike Smith on the Insurrection Act, Eric Manton on "Election Meltdown," Reiff on a "Threat to the Constitutional Order." Not recorded. Zeitz says Bengs attended.
• Sept. 11, 2026 — Renew to Thrive's pre-convention call for the Independent National Convention: Bengs says he, Osborn, Achilles and Bodnar are "all kind of coordinated," and "we don't need to get 50 or 51 to change things"; Reiff asks the independents which constitutional amendments they would want.
• Sept. 15, 2026 — Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduces eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and reads the 34-page resolution on the House floor (resolution text; PBS). Six of the eight charge Hegseth with carrying out "unlawful orders"; Article I charges waging the Iran war in violation of the War Powers Resolution. The same month, per Part 15, a RAD working paper ("Vehicles for Democratic Renewal") calls for "a public reference point for refusing an unlawful order: the line has already been named by elected officials of both parties."
• Sept. 23, 2026 — The OSCE says Washington did not invite its observers to the midterms, the first U.S. federal election without an invitation since it began observing here in 2002. RAD's working paper the same day wants "allied governments" ready to "apply pressure on the executive."
• Sept. 25, 2026 — Indivisible's Ezra Levin calls Chenoweth "the intellectual foundation for a lot of the strategy of the last 20 months."
• Oct. 7, 2026 — Reiff says many of the campaign's volunteers come from FWAD: "They are primarily a massive blocking organization."
• Oct. 14, 2026 — NSL4A and Horizons Project toolkit session: war room and nine focus states. NSL4A posted it as an unlisted YouTube video.
• Oct. 16, 2026 — Christopher Life's United Independents Campaign Fund reports independent expenditures for four independent Senate candidates: Osborn $34,506, Bengs $16,000, Achilles $14,800 and Bill Hill (Alaska) $13,994 (FEC).
• Oct. 19, 2026 — The U.S. Conference of Mayors posts NSL4A's "Toolkit for Elected Officials: Managing Potential Military Intervention in the Midterm Elections" on its election-security page (upload date per DataRepublican's Part 9; the posting checked by us Oct. 26).
• Oct. 19–24, 2026 — DataRepublican releases the Democracy Files (Parts 1–8, the WaPo reply, the Oct. 22 primer and an Oct. 23 "Interlude"). Part 7 (Oct. 23) is on the UDA. Part 8 (Oct. 24) is on FWAD and the federal workers. In the Interlude she tells readers angry enough to "cross a Rubicon" that "the time is not now": pray, educate friends, and "vote straight Republican." She now has 312 GB of material.
• Oct. 23, 2026 — Enrique Roig, a former State Department democracy official and a contributor to RAD's strategy, meets Catalonia's foreign minister, Jaume Duch, in Barcelona to discuss "the scenarios that are opening up" before the midterms (Catalan government agenda; Duch's post).
• Oct. 25, 2026, 10:04 PM — Part 9, "No Conductor": the foundations, the published strategy, the "Hands Off Our Vote" word list and the people in many rooms. She finds no hidden network and calls it "lawful federalism," but says "The worst is still to come."
• Oct. 26, 2026, 6:26 PM — Part 10, "The role of foreign states." Their foreign-outreach track was written and budgeted but, by their own notes, unfunded; the Catalonia meeting is on the public record, and nothing in the files ties it to RAD.
• Oct. 27, 2026 — Enrique and Julia Roig billed to speak at Catalonia's Esquerra Republicana party, "Escac a Trump" ("Check on Trump").
• Oct. 27, 2026, 9:34 PM — Part 11, "The Fulcrum": the independent-candidate track. The recordings tie Osborn's 2024 field director and South Dakota's Bengs to RAD's circle; they show nothing tying Osborn himself to the emergency scenarios.
• Oct. 29, 2026 — Natalie Winters reports Seed the Vote's parallel-count plan and the Freedom Trainers "international recognition" scenario; DataRepublican replies that a parallel count "is a common tool in color revolutions." The same day, Winters also reports that European Parliament money helped fund the June 3 anti-MAGA roundtable (above); DataRepublican endorses it the next day as "plugging a lot of holes in the Democracy Files from a different direction."
• Oct. 31, 2026 — Natalie Winters reports that Pace e Bene, a nonviolence-training group, has published a "shutdown checklist" urging supporters to stockpile five to ten days of food and to prepare coordinated walkouts from work, school and shopping if the midterm results are "sabotaged or ignored," treating No Kings as a "trial run" in February and, by an Oct. 6 message, naming Georgia, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Arizona and D.C. and addressing election officials, attorneys general and judges. DataRepublican reposted the thread. The group is not shown in her releases or tied to RAD/UDA.
• Oct. 31, 2026, 3:51 PM — Part 12, "Is Norm Eisen calling the shots?": her theory, stated as inference, that the "go" runs through ESRN's strategy table.
• Nov. 1, 2026, 9:34 PM — Part 13, "The New Founding": PolicyLink's "Governing for All" blueprint and Renew to Thrive's overlap with it. The language points to "the next administration" and 2029, not to taking power outside an election.
• Nov. 2, 2026, 9:54 PM — Part 14, "Trust-Engineering," her last drop before the vote: the network's own words on keeping support out of sight ("in stealth"), moving people "into despair and then to hope," and a press rehearsal that went from "Nobody" funds it to "over 200 networks." She says all of it is legal.
• Nov. 3, 2026 — Midterm election: the "meltdown" window the March call was aiming at. It did not come. Democrats won the House and are projected to take the Senate, and all four independents in Part 11 lost.
• Nov. 4, 2026 — President Trump says he is "absolutely willing to accept those results." Schumer promises "investigations" and "legislative razor wire." The plan moves from the emergency track to the accountability and "re-founding" tracks (After the election).
• Nov. 7, 2026, 7:25 PM — Part 16, "Too Big to Rig," her first release not about the illegitimacy plan but about how the 2026 midterms were won: the mostly-legal NGO, union and foundation turnout machine ("178 entries," "every kind of legal vehicle") that called itself the donors' "supply line." She says "most of it is legal," the story is "the scale," and that this, not fraud, is what her early-vote data shows produced the result. See Who and After the election.
• Nov. 5, 2026 — DataRepublican releases Part 15, "The Trojan Horse." Rep. Massie says he will force a House vote to impeach Hegseth when Congress returns (expected the week of Nov. 9) and will reintroduce the articles unless Hegseth resigns; GOP sources tell CNN they expect it to pass (KPTV/CNN). The incoming House Armed Services chair, Rep. Adam Smith (D), backs impeaching both Hegseth and Trump and says Hegseth has "a bigger chance of getting a stronger bipartisan vote" (TIME).
• Nov. 8, 2026 — A thread by @Andreafreedom76, reposted by DataRepublican, ties PolicyLink to Howard University's 14th Amendment Center (launched March 2025 by Sherrilyn Ifill, a $1.5 million Packard Foundation grant, and an October Baltimore symposium) and reports Ifill arguing the Supreme Court's size is "not talismanic." See Who.
• Nov. 8, 2026, 6:19 PM — Special Edition, "On Crossing the Rubicon." As calls spread on X to refuse to certify or to not seat the new Congress, DataRepublican warns her own side that this is the one move the other side has "planned for, in writing" (the Transition Integrity Project, Indivisible's toolkit, the April 2026 "when the Rubicon is crossed" document), checks the five top "fraud" claims and finds none proves what it claims, and says the real problems "should be litigated fully in court" even though they "almost never win" there. See After the election.
• Nov. 10, 2026 — The House votes 211–204 to send Massie's eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee instead of a floor vote, killing the push for the rest of this Congress; Massie is the only Republican who votes against tabling it. See After the election.
• Jan. 3, 2027 — The new Congress is sworn in and Democrats take the committee gavels; Slotkin: "that's what you'll see basically in January." The April 2026 document's trigger ("if duly elected leaders are not seated") turns on this date.
• Nov. 13, 2026 — A thread by @Andreafreedom76, reposted by DataRepublican with her own words ("This series is still going on"), reports that the Nationwide Deliberation Campaign's public kickoff — AllSides's "What Comes Next?" roundtables, Nov. 16–20 — is run by the same RAD/Renew to Thrive leadership (Zeitz, Reiff, Walt Roberts) under new partners (NCDD, Mediators Foundation, Better Together America, Peacebuilders). We confirmed the campaign, dates and partner list independently. See Who.
• Nov. 13, 2026 — CNN's KFILE reports a previously unknown super PAC, Our Heritage Matters, registered Oct. 15 (after the last pre-election disclosure deadline) and spent over $8.5 million in 61 races, including on Libertarian spoiler candidates in Kansas (lost by Sen. Roger Marshall to Democrat Adam Hamilton) and Iowa. We confirmed the committee in FEC records. DataRepublican reposted it: "Yes." See Who.
• Nov. 16–20, 2026 — The Nationwide Deliberation Campaign's public roundtables run, feeding two national reports due in December 2026; the five-layer campaign toward a "People's Proposal" and a national citizens' assembly begins in January 2027.
• 2027–2028 — The Nationwide Deliberation Campaign aims for its "People's Proposal" by January 2028. Earlier DSA material she released points to an Insurrection Act confrontation around 2027 (see the timeline on her profile). Zeitz said the war room is also for 2028, which "people think will be even worse."