Instead of CPAC, it’ll be the Ideas Conference. Instead of taking place at National Harbor, it’ll be in the main room at the St. Regis Hotel, a few blocks from the White House. Instead of featuring President Donald Trump, it’ll be the first real cattle call of the Democrats nosing around 2020 presidential runs.

And it’ll be the Center for American Progress’ biggest move yet to establish itself as both the nexus of the Democratic Party’s future — and a player trying to shape what that future will be.


They’re modeling the event roughly on the Conservative Political Action Conference, the American Conservative Union’s annual gathering that’s become a prime stop for Republican leaders, and that notably gave Donald Trump his first major political platform as he was entering the fray.

“So much of our time right now is engaged, and rightfully so, in fighting Trump. On any given day, he issues one affront to progressive values after another,” said CAP President Neera Tanden. “It’s obviously critical that we provide a positive alternative of how we’re going to address the country’s challenges.”

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; Montana Gov. Steve Bullock; and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti are all confirmed to attend, and more are expected to be added to the event, scheduled for May 16.

Speakers have been encouraged to come with substantive proposals on the economy, climate change, national security, civil rights, reproductive rights and immigration rather than just political attacks on Trump. Sprinkled through the day will be panel discussions and conversations that will bring in activists and leaders of new organizations.

CAP hopes this event will make it the nexus for all the strands of the party that have begun to take shape since Trump’s win.

New anti-Trump groups are sprouting up almost by the day, many of them with overlapping missions, ambiguous agendas and questionable resources. At the same time, several of the bigger players — including CAP; the super PAC Priorities USA Action; David Brock’s collection of organizations; the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, backed by Barack Obama and Eric Holder; and even the Democratic National Committee itself — have been trying to stake their claims on guiding the efforts against the administration.

Some want a “let all flowers bloom” approach, anticipating a natural selection process that will, over time, lead to the unsuccessful groups folding or consolidating with more successful organizations.

“There’s a level of energy out there that I haven’t seen, and it’s not our role to pick winners and losers. I think there will be a process. Some people will be really successful. Some won’t. It’s great to have that trial and error out there,” Tanden said.

Others argue that this will lead to donor confusion and fatigue, but also a wasteful doubling of efforts like polling and war rooms. For a party that’s in an existential crisis and staring at a do-or-die 2018, that’s time and money they say they can’t afford to waste.

“There is a lot of grass-roots energy out there right now and that’s a good thing and it should be encouraged. The party can play a role, however, in bringing such groups together to help develop a strategy and a message moving forward that is smart and inclusive,” said David Eichenbaum, a Democratic media strategist who authored a paper about the party’s path forward with former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, the Democrats’ official responder to Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress last week. “Shared goals are the ones most likely to be achieved.”

Guy Cecil, chief strategist for Priorities, said his group’s consolidation around three main areas — voting rights, long-term research and working to fix how the left communicates online — was a careful strategy to find a lane for the super PAC as it transitioned from backing a specific candidate to supporting progressives overall.

“I’m a little skeptical of orgs that have an answer for everything,” Cecil said, adding that he’s heard from donors who are already griping about being hit up by many eager organizations, but also from many newly energized Democrats who are bringing fresh ideas forward.

“It is very clear that only relying on existing organizations is not a solution to the problem, we need to create an environment where people can be innovative, where people can fail,” Cecil said. “I don’t view that as a detriment to the fact that work needs to be done now.”

Tom Perez, the new DNC chairman, said he’s trying to help collaboration among all the elements.

“Over the next few weeks and months, I will be working with the new DNC leadership to make sure the DNC is the focal point in bringing progressives together and translating this momentum into a movement, and earning votes for Democrats up and down the ballot,” Perez said.

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Meanwhile, with most leaders caught up in the daily excitement of the intense Trump fight that their base is demanding, top strategists are beginning to worry that Democrats are already repeating the 2016 mistake of being sure voters hate Trump and skipping over the issues that won him votes to take the presidency.

“There is only so much space for Trump to occupy peoples’ lives, and the Democratic Party cannot exist and will not survive only as a foil to him — and we believe in good things that many Americans also believe in,” said a Democratic strategist in the early stages of work on 2018 races.

Last week, for example, as Washington and the national political conversation were consumed by new revelations of contacts between top Trump officials and the Russian ambassador, much of the news coverage around the country continued to be about people struggling to find jobs, debating health care and the ongoing opioid crisis. Democratic leaders and operatives have been anxiously taking note of that, urging the House and Senate campaigns that are already taking shape not to fall into the all-Trump-all-the-time trap.

Ultimately, for 2018 and beyond we have to provide a positive alternative and we hope that this will be the beginning of that effort,” Tanden said, explaining the transformation from what had been a sporadic think tank symposium into a major annual event.

What they’re trying to avoid, though, is the carnival element that has become a consistent theme of CPAC, with some attendees showing up in costumes and attention-grabbing speakers.

“I don’t know who the Milo Yiannopoulos is of the left,” Tanden said, “but we’re not going to have that person.”

