Majority Democrats, a group that is seeking to sideline the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, is holding a conference in Denver this week, dubbed “What’s Next,” that will host Democratic lawmakers including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and potential 2028 presidential candidates.
Majority Democrats’ website describes it as “a project that is supported by MD PAC,” and the conference website says it is paid for by MD PAC. Registered in July 2025, MD PAC is a hybrid PAC, a committee with one account for limited contributions and another that can accept unlimited ones. It has received 96% of the $17.5 million it raised this cycle from six billionaires, according to a Sludge review of Federal Election Commission records.
Most of MD PAC’s money, about 76% of it, has come from hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel and his wife Susan. Mandel is underwriting a network of centrist-leaning organizations that also includes the think tank Searchlight Institute. His firm, Lone Pine Capital, is heavily invested in artificial intelligence company stocks, including a nearly $1.2 billion stake in AI infrastructure company Nebius as of June 30, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The fund also reported billions of dollars worth of stock in other AI-related companies, including more than $1.1 billion in semiconductor equipment maker ASML and hundreds of millions of dollars each in data storage company Seagate, chip equipment company Applied Materials, and data center developers Hut 8 and TeraWulf.
