Washington, DC- Just one week after an historic Republican win, major Democratic Party figures are huddling with liberal super-donors for a closed door meeting in an effort to retool the left to fight back against president-elect Donald Trump and strategize for upcoming election cycles.
Politico reports that Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren are among the big Democratic names currently attending a conference at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the Democracy Alliance, a secretive club of wealthy liberals, including billionaire financier George Soros. The conference reportedly includes appearances by leaders of unions and liberal groups.
This is the first meeting of Democrats since Hillary Clinton’s loss in last week’s presidential election and according to the conference agenda, liberals plan to launch an extensive warfare strategy against President Trump, starting with his first day in office. They also seek to preserve Obamacare and other legacies instituted by Barack Obama during his presidency.
The conference agenda states that some of the sessions deal with preparing for the 2017 and 2018 elections, while other sessions address derailing Donald Trump’s plan for the first 100 days of his presidency, which the agenda calls a “terrifying assault on President Obama’s achievements – and our progressive vision for an equitable and just nation.”
Keith Ellison, who is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is featured in a session entitled “The Working Class Vote” where the session description states, “The working class vote was a high-visibility challenge in 2016, and is likely to be so again in 2018. Progressives engaged this challenge aggressively and learned a lot from this experience.” The description of this session then says that Ellison and other panelists will “share what was learned and how that should impact our strategy going forward.”
Politico reports that on Friday, Ellison called for the need for Democrats to invest more in “training officials and developing policies in the states” during a donor conference call that was organized by a Democracy Alliance endorsed group called State Innovation Exchange (SiX). Ellison urged donors to support SiX – a “national resource and strategy center that supports state legislators in advancing and defending progressive policies across the country,” according to its website. SiX has a long-term vision of building progressive power and infrastructure at the state level with a network of more than 1,500 elected officials who represent all 50 states.
As a top candidate for the chairman of the Democratic National Party, Keith Ellison is a key participant at the Democracy Alliance conference. The conference runs from November 13 through November 16, 2016.
