Democrats Are Split on Tapping Billionaire Power
Since 2024, a growing rift has emerged in the Democratic Party over whether to better coordinate with billionaire-backed political networks to match Republicans. Now this clash between populists and party elites is no longer quiet.
The clash between populists and elites in the Democratic Party is an all-out fight over money and power. (Scott Olson / Getty Images; Jacek Boczarski / Anadolu via Getty Images)
After the 2024 election, a schism in the Democratic Party quickly widened. The party’s corporate faction — which urged nominee Kamala Harris to shun economic populism — decided the lesson of the election wasn’t that voters were sick of an oligarch-appeasing party, but that operatives should better coordinate shadowy shell organizations and slush funds of billionaire cash to match Republicans.
By contrast, the party’s populist faction saw the election as a reminder that the party needs much clearer anti-oligarch and anti-corruption politics.
Today this simmering conflict went from muted and subtle to blatant and explicit, bursting into the spotlight thanks, in part, to good old-fashioned shoe-leather journalism.
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