Since Vice President Kamala Harris lost the elections in November, a group of great money that had raised more than $ 900 million to support her, but finally failed in her efforts she has maintained a low profile, since the advisors of Mrs. Harris have publicly guessed their campaign approach.
But a closed conference this week organized by the Super PAC, Future Forward, in a luxury coastal hotel in California made it clear that the group does not plan to fade.
Future Forward drew some of the most important names in democratic policy for the Ritz-Carlton Resort in Half Moon Bay, California, south of San Francisco, for donor letters about what he thought he went wrong last year and what could come later.
Attendees included potential future presidential candidates, such as Governor Gavin Newsom from California and Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, and seven -digit Democratic donors, some of whom had questions about why Future Forward could not help Mrs. Harris to win.
At an event on Thursday with passed hors d’Ovres Like mini lobster rolls and short-lrib Tostones and A Dinner Featuring Heirloom Tomato Carpaccio, Beef Tenderloin and Seared Sea Bass, Chaicomey Mciticed The Grouped, Sterned The Grouped, Sterned The Grouped Grouped, Sterned The Grouped, Sterned The Grouped, Sterned The Grouped, Sterned The Grouped, the grouped to the grouped to the grouped. “Reputation”: a dependence on surveys and random tests and trials.
“Those are just elegant ways of saying that we listen to voters and try to evaluate whether any of the things we really work on,” said McLean, according to a person in the room. The group declined to comment.
Standing in the Ritz-Carlton Observatory Room, Mr. McLean tried to calm the waters and send a message that Future Forward wants to remain part of the Democratic Party, despite criticism.
Other speakers at the event included Mr. Newsom and Mr. Beshear, as well as Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago and Senator Amy Klobuchar de Minnesota, according to a copy of the agenda reviewed by the New York Times. They were interviewed by future front agents, such as the pollster David Shor and the former Biden advisor, Anita Dunn, and by Kara Swisher, a former columnist of the opinion of the New York Times.
The guests included about 40 donors who financed approximately $ 250 million in Future Forward’s work in the 2024 electoral cycle, the group told the guests at the conference, according to a person who attended. Those megadonores included Jeff Lawson, a founder of the Twilio Technology Company, and the investor Andrew Hauptman, who gave $ 1 million to the last Super PAC cycle, as well as the Shannon Hunt-Scott philanthropist, which gave $ $. They also attended several of the most influential billonarios, such as Dustin Moskovitz, a Facebook founder.
The sessions included a visualization of a live focal group of young men in what was the hardest Congress district of 2024, the 13th of California; An informative session of the Executive Director of the Association of Democratic Governors; And a closing session on Friday with three Democratic members of Congress.
“The best way to stop Donald Trump at the federal level is to win control of the House of Representatives in 2026,” the agenda said. Many of Future Forward’s conversations highlighted the Democrats who won in conservative states, such as Governor Laura Kelly or Kansas.
The mere existence of the conference, especially for a group known for their discretion, fascinated Democratic donors and their advisors in recent months. Some said in advance in private that they attended the Future Forward event in part out of curiosity about how the group would defend their work last year.
Mrs. Harris’s team has shared some auctioned criticisms of Future Forward, even in an interview about the “Pod Save America” podcast, just after the day of the election. In private, some Democrats have been much less friendly, saying that Future Forward issued advertisements too late in the cycle and should have focused more directly on being black and Hispanic voters by EM. Harris.
The main front front advisors defended their approach for guests who included Mining Moore, a Democratic operation for a long time and a confidant Harris. They described that 96.3 percent of the Super PAC expense was in advertising, opposite to unrelated costs and general expenses, and that its non -profit organization of $ 220 million was presented to 73 progressive grouts, according to two people in the room. The advisors also reviewed which of the group’s ads worked and which were not, according to the data it collected.
Given the defeat of Mrs. Harris, she does not have a clear leg for the Democrats very well scars that the future forward has a path forward. The group was founded by the 2018 elections, and its leaders did not initially anticipate that it would become a long -term part of the democratic establishment, he thought that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. made it the main external group that supports its re -election offer.
In recent months, Future Forward has private conversations of heroes with donors to discuss what happened in 2024 and express the desire of the group to remain active in politics, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.
The group has said that since its foundation it has raised $ 1.4 billion, but it remains to be seen if it will be the leading group for a 2028 presidential candidate.
