Venture capitalist and Abundance bro Seth London’s ambitious dark money scheme employing powerful consultants Lis Smith is best of class, but far from alone in backing centrist candidates.
Luke Goldstein and Katya Schwenk have done yeoman’s work in a piece cross-posted at Jacobin and The Lever.
Majority Democrats, the Bench and Numerous Campaigns Blend Like Poison in a Milk Shake
We’ll do the ol’ picture = 1000 words thing to start:
pic.twitter.com/G6ZPvE3rt9
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) May 4, 2026
Here’s how Goldstein and Schwenk outline the scheme and the venture capitalist abundance bro behind it:
…a new dark-money-backed enterprise of unparalleled scale and complexity. The influence network brands itself as boosting Democrats’ electoral prospects ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. But the project’s true ambitions go much further.
Born from the ashes of the party’s 2024 defeat, this new operation has taken inspiration from Democrats’ free-market neoliberal turn after stinging defeats in the 1980s and 1990s and infused it with the deregulatory zeal of the abundance movement. Funded by Silicon Valley billionaires with skin in the game, the network is exploiting the country’s increasingly threadbare campaign finance laws to elect a new generation of leaders on board with bringing the party back to the “moderate” middle.
The machine operates as two big-name new organizations, Majority Democrats and the Bench, both tied to a single venture capitalist-turned-secretive Democratic adviser. Under this umbrella, the influence network is dispersing millions through a sophisticated nesting doll of political action committees (PACs), nonprofits, consultancies, and LLCs, while sharing the same big-money donors, political consultants, and often the same policy proposals.…New filings reviewed by The Lever show that Majority Democrats and the Bench have together raised $8 million so far this year, most of which came from tycoons like hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel and Nvidia board member Tench Coxe, as CBS News reported this month. Other major donors to the network include venture capitalist Bill Helman, Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings, and crypto CEO Michael Novogratz.
Those donations build on seed funding from the likes of LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, who spent millions supporting Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris while urging her to go easy on antitrust and Big Tech.…
Majority Democrats and the Bench, along with their various offshoots, are the brainchild of Seth London, a venture capitalist and adviser to major Democratic donors.
In the weeks after the Democrats’ disastrous performance in the 2024 elections, which bestowed the GOP with a trifecta of power under President Donald Trump, London released a blueprint, to much media fanfare, for rebuilding the party.
As skanky and ambitious as London’s project it, it’s far from alone.
It’s Not Just the One Abundance Bro Scheming and Funding Either
Lest we think one abundance bro and his web of dark money vehicles is the be-all and end-all of the practice on the Democratic side, let’s check this September 2025 piece by Adam Johnson for big-picture context:
There have been several centrist efforts hatching in the marshes of DC this year, but for the purposes of this essay we will focus on three high-profile ones that launched in 2025: the so-called Abundance Movement, Majority Democrats PAC, and the Searchlight Institute.…Unlike the other two factions on this list, the Abundance faction isn’t a specific group, but a deliberately vague, supposedly post-ideological worldview that, its supporters claim, can include everyone from socialists to the far right. In practice, however, the movement is textbook neoliberalism. Primary boosters of this “movement” include Silicon Valley and Wall Street-funded organizations like the Niskanen Center, Arnold Ventures, Open Philanthropy, Emergent Ventures, increasingly many elements within the Koch Brothers network, the overtly rightwing American Enterprise Institute, and a smattering of other billionaire-backed organizations and passthroughs. Henry Burke of the Revolving Door Institute recently published a detailed report laying out each blade in the sprawling carpet of astroturf.
As vacuous as “Abundance” is as an ethos, it fits right in with London’s Majority Democrats project which launched in a tabula rasa blank slate state and needed something beyond “we want to rebrand the Democratic Leadership Council”:
“These Younger Democrats Are Sick of Their Party’s Status Quo,” reads the obligatory New York Times launch puff piece, framing the astroturf effort as an organic youth movement.…(“Majority Democrats has yet to issue policy prescriptions,” The Times notes, as if it’s an afterthought.) The group is said, however, to be embracing the advice of “Seth London, an adviser to major Democratic donors,” which is a somewhat incomplete biography in that it omits that Seth London is a multimillionaire venture capitalist.
The third group Johnson covers, Searchlight Institute, is mostly notable for being founded by former John Fetterman Chief of Staff Adam Jentleson and having had the gall to claim credit for Zohran Mamdani’s win in last year’s New York City Mayor’s race.
But back to Seth London’s Majority Democrats.
All-Star Lineup/Rogue’s Gallery
The Wikipedia entry on Majority Democrats ought to put a chill down the spine of any wary watcher of abundance bro politics, corporate centrists, and smooth and smarmy Democratic elected officials. Here’s how it opens:
Majority Democrats is a hybrid political action committee (PAC) and super PAC launched in July 2025 by elected representatives from the Democratic Party. The group is led by Rohan Patel, a former executive at Tesla and Obama administration official. The group largely consists of moderate Democrats, and its inaugural chairman is Jake Auchincloss.…Majority Democrats was formed in July 2025 by a group of Democratic politicians in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump. Its stated mission is to focus on “reshaping and growing the Democratic Party so that it can compete everywhere and improve the lives of the American people.” The group consists of largely moderate Democrats in federal, state, and local office, including Ruben Gallego, Elissa Slotkin, Abigail Spanberger, Angie Craig, Brendan Boyle, Gabe Vasquez, George T. Whitesides, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Maggie Goodlander, Aftab Pureval, Ritchie Torres, and James Talarico. Approximately 30 politicians joined the effort at its launch.
In September 2025, the Boston Globe reported that Massachusetts congressman Jake Auchincloss would be the group’s inaugural chairman. Auchincloss called the group’s ideology “patriotic, productive populism”. The group is advised by multiple Democratic communications officials, including Lis Smith and Matt Corridoni.
I could go in so many repulsive directions from here given the collective resumes of the luminaries involved, but let’s start with Jake Auchincloss.
Backed by Palintir and Backing Israel
The two important facts to know about Majority Dems pivot man and US Representative from Massachusetts 4th Congressional District are:
He takes money Palantir money
He backs “unconditional military aid” for Israel
That latter point merits an excerpt from his Wiki:
While running for Congress in 2020, Auchincloss said “I grew up in the Jewish tradition and was raised with the conviction that Jews everywhere must support one another and the State of Israel in order to secure our collective well-being” and that he has a “visceral appreciation for how dangerous a neighborhood Israel exists in.” He stated “unconditional military aid and strong bilateral security ties are essential foundations for U.S.-Israel relationship.” and “there are red lines for me, like BDS and conditioning aid to Israel”.
Auchincloss voted to provide Israel with support following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. In October 2023, Auchincloss rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, saying that “Calls for de-escalation, even if well-meaning, are premature, Israel needs the military latitude to re-establish deterrence and root out the nodes of terrorism. Israel did not ask America to de-escalate on September 12, 2001.” He rejected Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey’s call for de-escalation saying, “Now is not the time for equivocation. Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization … Israel is a liberal democracy with the right and responsibility to defend itself and its citizens.”
At a July 2025 town hall in Newton, Massachusetts, Auchincloss faced public criticism over his stance on the ongoing war in Gaza. Amidst the starvation in Gaza, caused by the Israeli blockade, Auchincloss reiterated his position that Hamas bore sole responsibility for the conflict and humanitarian crisis, asserting that the militant group was is “singularly responsible for atrocities in the Middle East right now” and had “singular power” to end the war by releasing hostages. While acknowledging unacceptable humanitarian conditions in Gaza and disputing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that there was no starvation, Auchincloss said that the blame lay primarily with Hamas. He described the group as having “eviscerated” the Palestinian people over the previous 15 years and cited instances of violence attributed to it. He has been described as a pro-Israel lawmaker. Auchincloss supported US strikes on Iran with Israel in the Twelve-Day War.
It’s interesting that being a massive zionist is never an issue for “centrist” groups, despite Israel’s massive unpopularity with Democratic and independent voters.
Now let’s look at the ringmaster Seth London has recruited to run the whole show: Lis Smith.
She Brought Us Mayor Pete and Harassed Cuomo Victims
Not to be confused with legendary New York Post gossip Liz Smith, our Lis has more serious offenses to answer for, namely foisting Pete Buttigieg on the American public and her loathsome conduct on behalf of Andrew Cuomo.
This New York Magazine headline alone “Lis Smith has turned an unknown mayor into a serious contender” (archived) should put Smith in the icky political hack Hall of Shame.
But the details are damning too:
At 37, Smith is already a campaign-worn strategist and Washington, D.C., folk hero, credited with launching the 38-year-old mayor to, if not the top tier of the presidential race, its second tier — not a bad showing for someone who was a relative unknown this time last year. Even before she dated the “Luv Gov” and was marked by the particular kind of celebrity that only New York tabloids can bestow — niche, intoxicating, and troubling all at once — Smith seemed destined for notoriety. “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t,’’ was her high-school-yearbook quote, a line spoken by Lady Macbeth. “She came, like, fully formed in the stilettos to college,” one Dartmouth classmate said.
With jet-black hair and big hazel eyes lacquered with mascara and smudged with liner, Smith looks like a slightly devious Snow White. She is partial to all black and leather jackets and wearing sunglasses indoors, which, she told me, has a particular utility: “I have very expressive eyes, and sometimes, when we’re doing those on-the-record bus tours, wearing sunglasses is sort of a way to sit back and look around the room without people knowing.”…Smith’s real power is that reporters actually like her. It helps that she’s fun — “She’ll have a beer or a vodka or several,” Vardon said — but it’s also that she knows how to spot and place a story that will pop.
So yea, that’s the puff piece profile the woman’s rep is built on. If contemplating people who actually present themselves in this manner hasn’t already sent my readers running away in horror screaming “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn“, we should also look at Smith’s conduct on behalf of legendary loser Andrew Cuomo.
Covering for Cuomo
The New York state Attorney General’s “Report of Investigation into Allegations of Sexual Harassment by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo” (PDF) is the key primary source document on the scandal and Smith’s role in it.
But this Defector article is much more fun, some highlights:
…the inner workings of Cuomo’s crisis response team, a group of powerful advisors characterized by an omnidirectional hostility towards Cuomo’s accusers, each other, and the media covering the case. The group included several longtime inner-circle advisers, as well as an intriguing pair of public figures: CNN host and Andrew’s brother, Chris Cuomo, and Lis Smith, a political consultant who served as Pete Buttigieg’s top presidential campaign advisor. Their cantankerous and ultimately futile attempts to keep the governor’s doomed career afloat provide a useful window into how power is wielded.…At Smith’s behest, MSNBC’s Katy Tur evidently carried her fair share of water for the governor in a televised report on March 3, the day Cuomo first addressed the growing number of allegations against him in a public statement that went something like, I am sorry women didn’t like my innocent hugs and friendly banter. Per the documents released by the AG, Smith and her fellow savvy political operatives monitored the response to Cuomo’s public statement, including a segment on Katy Tur’s MSNBC program.
“Does anyone know Anne Thompson,” Smith wrote to her colleagues.
“Who is that,” responded Cuomo’s secretary, Melissa DeRosa.
“She’s on msnbc and they keep coming to her for her advice on what this all means and I don’t know her,” wrote Cuomo’s pollster, Jefrey Pollock.
“I’m texting w Katy Tur,” Smith wrote. “Katy is saying my spin live. Like verbatim on [MSNBC].”
On her March 3 broadcast, Tur said: “I’ve just been talking with somebody who is close to the family and I asked them, given the moment we have been living in for the past two years, given how everyone has had a reckoning with this Me Too moment, why would someone like Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is a savvy politician, not have buttoned things up, not have gotten the message to be careful about what he says around his staffers around others. And the person said, it’s not that he didn’t think the rules didn’t apply to him, it’s just that in the Cuomo DNA, they are extraordinarily friendly, I guess, by nature.”…If you’re thinking that someone has to be a specific kind of asshole in order to make a career out of doing political hatchet work that they never want to be publicly attached to, you are quite correct. Lis Smith is very much that kind of asshole.…Perhaps the single most illustrative detail in the entire Smith file is an email in which she lets her colleagues know how she treats journalists who meaningfully push back on her narrative and don’t play ball. Smith wrote about how she took “a fucking run at” New York Times reporter Matt Flegenheimer ahead of his report of another accusation against Cuomo. “I told him his story was pathetic and an embarrassment to the times and that I looked forward to reading it b/c it would further reduce their credibility on their issue and that i especially looked forward to mocking it and him on twitter,” she wrote.
Never fear, Smith has gone on a redemption arc, elevating Buttigieg, looking back wistfully at the other disgraced Governor she worked for (and this one she slept with), and trashing Cuomo in her 2022 memoir, via the Guardian:
According to Smith, Buttigieg made politics ennobling and fun. More important, he offered a road to redemption.
“He saw me for who I actually was and, for the first time in my adult life, I did too,” Smith writes. According to exit polls in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Buttigieg brought meaning to middle-aged white college graduates. These days, he is seen by Democrats as a possible alternative to Joe Biden in 2024.
Smith dated Eliot Spitzer, another governor of New York who fell from grace.
“We were like a lit match and dynamite,” she writes. Smith also gushes about Spitzer’s “deep set, cerulean blue eyes”, the “most gorgeous” such pair she had ever seen. A 24-year age gap provided additional fuel but Spitzer, once known as the Sheriff of Wall Street, spent less than 15 months in office. His administration ended abruptly in 2009, over his trysts with prostitutes.…Smith recounts in detail Cuomo’s mishandling of Covid, the allegations of sexual harassment and his obfuscation. He “died as he lived”, she writes, damningly, “with zero regard for the people around him and the impact his actions would have on them”.
Now let’s look at Smith’s new Mayor Pete.
That James Talarico Isn’t as Squeaky Clean as He Seems
He’s relatively new to the national stage, but the Dem nominee for Texas’ US Senate seat, James Talarico, and his skanky dark money side piece (why should an ambitious candidate limit himself to one corporate backer?) are worth a look too.
Donald Shaw raked some fetid, fertile, and dank muck for Sludge, calling his subject “an adjacent network of shadowy Democratic donors, nonprofits, consultants, and PACs” to Seth London’s Majority Democrats:
A Delaware nonprofit created just seven months ago has already channeled nearly $3 million into a little-known political committee sitting at the center of a growing Democratic “dark money” operation, and even basic details about its leadership and structure are unlikely to be made public before the 2026 midterms.
Contours Inc., recognized by the IRS as a 501c(4) social welfare organization in October 2025, lists only one officer and has filed only a minimal IRS e-Postcard that reveals virtually nothing about its finances or operations.
The new group has been busy funneling money to Democrat-aligned political spending groups. Contours has sent at least $2.9 million to Government That Works PAC, a hybrid political action committee registered last August that has quietly been routing dark money into Democratic races this cycle. Government That Works has raised $7.6 million in total—mainly from nonprofits that do not publicly disclose their donors—and has spent $5.5 million across several competitive contests, with roughly $2 million still on hand heading into election season.…Contours listed only one name in its IRS filing: principal officer Sarah Stremlau, a philanthropy consultant who previously led fiscal sponsorship operations at Arabella Advisors. For years, the firm—recently rebranded as Sunflower Services—has managed a sprawling network of left-leaning nonprofits, including the Sixteen Thirty Fund, that have moved hundreds of millions of dollars through Democratic groups while shielding their donors from public view. The Sixteen Thirty Fund itself contributed $4 million to Government That Works in January 2026, making Contours and Sixteen Thirty its two largest funders.…The PAC has deployed that money across a range of races. Its largest outlay of $3.75 million went to Lone Star Rising PAC, the primary super PAC backing Texas Democrat James Talarico in his victorious U.S. Senate primary race, while also spending against his chief rival, Rep. Jasmine Crockett. That sum made Government That Works the top donor to Lone Star Rising, accounting for roughly four in ten dollars the super PAC has raised. Lone Star Rising has also drawn funding from billionaires Reid Hoffman ($1.5 million) and Stephen Mandel ($500,000), as well as $500,000 from The Bench, a PAC to which Mandel has given $2 million.
The Bench is the connecting tissue that ties Contours with Seth London’s Majority Democrats piece.
That’s all we have time for today, but there are multiple other notables involved with Seth London’s dark money scheme including Ruben Gallego, Elissa Slotkin, Abigail Spanberger, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and Ritchie Torres that I’ve either covered previously or intend to in the future.
As Democrats seem set to cruise to big election wins in the upcoming midterms in November, it’s important to keep an eye on this kind of crap because its purveyors are endlessly rebranding themselves and finding new host bodies to occupy candidates to back.
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