After criticism, the $ 900 million group of Harris is trying to draw up a future

Since vice-president Kamala Harris lost the elections in November, a group with big money that had done raised more than $ 900 million To support her, but in the end it has failed in his efforts, a low profile-even if Mrs. Harris’s advisers have publicly viewed his approach to the campaign.

But a closed-door conference this week organized by the Super Pac, Future Forward, in a luxury Hotel aan Zee in California made it clear that the group is not going to fade.

Future attacker went to the Ritz-Carlton Resort in Half Moon Bay, California, to the south of San Francisco, to inform donors about what could happen and what could come last year.

Participants include potential future presidential candidates, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom from California and Gov. Andy Beshear van Kentucky, and seven numerical democratic donors, some of whom had questions about Why Future Forward Mrs Harris couldn’t help win.

Tijdens een evenement op donderdag met gepasseerde hors d’oeuvres zoals mini-kreeftenbroodjes en korte rib-tostones en een diner met heirloom tomatencarpaccio, rundvlees ossenhaas en aangebraden zeebass, Chauncey McLean, de leider van de groep, verwonderde de kritiek op wat hij noemde de “reputatie”-een afhankelijkheid van het pollen en testen en Randomized tests.

“Those are just chic ways to say that we listen to voters and try to gauge or one of the things we actually work,” said Mr. McLean, according to a person in the room. The group refused to comment.

Standing in the Observatory of Ritz-Carlton, Mr McLean tried to calm the waters and send a message that Future Forward wants to remain part of the Democratic Party, despite the criticism.

Other speakers at the event were Mr. Newsom and Mr Beshear, as well as Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, according to a copy of the agenda assessed by the New York Times. They were interviewed by future Forward agents, such as the Pollster David Shor and the former Biden consultant Anita Dunn, and by Kara Swisher, a former opinion columnist in the New York Times.

Guests include around 40 donors who finished around $ 250 million to the work of Future Forward in the 2024 election cycle, the group told the guests at the conference, according to a person who was present.

Those Megadonors were Jeff Lawson, a founder of the technology company Twilio, and the investor Andrew Hauptman, who each gave $ 1 million to the Super Pac Last Cycle, as well as the Philantrop Shannon Hunt-Scott, who gave $ 450,000. Also present were assistants for various of the most influential billionaires of the party, such as Dustin Moskovitz, a founder of Facebook.

Sessions include a viewing of a live focus group of young men in what 2024’s hardest fought congress district, the 13th of California; a briefing from the executive director of the Democratic Governors Association; And a final session on Friday with three democratic congress.

“The best way to stop Donald Trump at the federal level is to win control of the House of Representatives in 2026,” read the agenda. Many of the conversations of Future Forward emphasized Democrats who had won in conservative states, such as Gov. Laura Kelly from Kansas.

The mere existence of the conference, especially for a group that is known for its discretion, fascinated the democratic donors and their advisers in recent months. Some said in advance that they attended the event of Future Forward, partly out of curiosity about how the group would defend her work last year.

Mrs Harris’s team has shared some veiled criticism of Future Forward, also in An interview on the podcast “Pod Save America” Just after the election day. Private are much less friendly and say that a future future advertisements broadcast too late in the cycle And should have concentrated more fairly on the apparent of black and Spanish voters for Mrs. Harris.

Top Future Forward Advisers defended their approach to guests that include Minyon Moore on Friday, an old democratic employee and a Harris Confidante. They sketched that 96.3 percent of the Super PAC expenditure was for advertising, in contrast to non -related, overhead costs, and that the non -profit organization gave $ 220 million to 73 progressive groups, according to two people in the Chamber when the information was presented. Adviseurs also assessed which of the group’s advertisements worked and which did not, based on data it collected.

Given the defeat of Mrs. Harris, it is not clear to well -to -do Democrats that Future Forward has a path ahead. The group was founded during the 2018 elections and its leaders did not initially expected that it would be a long -term part of the Democratic establishment, although President Joseph R. Biden Jr. it finally made it The primary external group that supports its re -election offer.

In recent months, Future Forward has had private interviews with donors to discuss what happened in 2024 and to 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 collected $ 1.4 billion, but it is still to see whether it will be the leading group for a presidential nominated 2028.