Democrats are quietly forming a think tank to help them win in 2028, according to a Politico exclusive report.
“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,” the report claimed.
The outlet spoke with five people who were granted anonymity to speak about the think tank’s mission.
Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), is now previewing new research and a messaging hub called Searchlight.
The report claims Searchlight’s goal is to “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.”
Politico also noted, “Seth London, an adviser to major Democratic donors, is working with Jentleson on the effort.”
The sources told Politico the think tank “is an explicit rejection of purity tests Jentleson sees as holding the party hostage.”
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One person directly familiar with the project told the outlet that Searchlight’s 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.”
“The fight over the Democratic Party’s future is well underway,” Politico wrote. “Searchlight is the newest entrant into an already crowded scene of Democratic groups looking to shape the 2028 presidential primary.”
“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,’” one Democratic donor adviser, who heard Jentleson’s pitch, told the outlet. “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.”