Dems are quietly forming a think tank to help them win again
At a private meeting last month, a top Democratic strategist pitched party leaders and donors: We need to break down ideological lanes and reject interest group agendas if we plan to win again.
Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) and top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), used the retreat to preview his new policy research and messaging hub, called Searchlight. Its goal: push the Democratic Party toward the most effective, broadly popular positions regardless of which wing of the party they come from, with an eye toward 2028, according to five people who have spoken directly to Jentleson and were granted anonymity to describe private conversations. Seth London, an adviser to major Democratic donors, is working with Jentleson on the effort.
The think tank's mission, as described by these people, is an explicit rejection of purity tests Jentleson sees as holding the party hostage, the most famous of which became fodder for a highly effective ad Donald Trump used against former Vice President Kamala Harris during his campaign to recapture the presidency.
Searchlight — a name inspired by the birthplace of Jentleson's former boss, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — comes at a precarious moment for a Democratic Party looking to revive its deeply unpopular brand and eyeing a comeback in the 2026 midterms. One person directly familiar with the project, granted anonymity to describe private details, said its aim will be to create 'an institutional space where Democrats can think freely and put those ideas out into the world.'
'That doesn't exist right now because anywhere else, you're going to get those ideas sanded down from one angle or another,' the person continued, adding that it wasn't going to be driven ideologically or 'on a left-right binary scale,' but rather 'draw on the best ideas wherever they come from.'
Jentleson explained the group to top Democratic donors and officials, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin and other congressional members, according to those people. The confab, dubbed 'Wildflower,' was hosted at a swanky resort of the same name in upstate New York, where it also drew several potential 2028 candidates, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego.
Some of Jentleson's pitch, these people said, was already laid out in a New York Times op-ed published soon after the 2024 election loss. He urged Democrats to declare 'independence from liberal and progressive interest groups that prevent Democrats from thinking clearly about how to win' and to reject the 'rigid mores and vocabulary of college-educated elites.' He urged elected officials to not be afraid of alienating powerful groups that dictated much of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
London, too, penned a post-election strategy memo that called for 'a complete rejection of race- and group-based identity politics.'
'Voters do not break down among the perceived ideological lines that a lot of Democrats are drawn into by the interest groups,' said a retreat attendee granted anonymity to discuss a private event. 'The machinations of the party force people into boxes, and if this is a vehicle to get those new ideas out there, outside those lanes that automatically limit the breadth of voters you're able to reach, then I think a lot of people would welcome that.'
But the fight over the Democratic Party's future is well underway, and Searchlight is the newest entrant into an already crowded scene of Democratic groups looking to shape the 2028 presidential primary. At least some of those who heard Jentleson's pitch were frustrated that it sounded duplicative of other efforts.
Just this week, Welcome PAC, a moderate-focused group, is holding 'WelcomeFest,' a day-long event they describe as 'the largest public gathering of centrist Democrats.' Several speakers at WelcomeFest, including Slotkin and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), also attended Wildflower.
'They're saying, 'we need a moderate voice, because we're losing everyone and we have to come back to the center and get away from woke, identity politics,'' said one Democratic donor adviser who heard Jentleson's pitch. 'They want to become a research and communications hub for that, which is great, but we already have a bunch of entities who do that.'
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