Senior Democrats are rebooting an influential foreign policy group to help potential 2028 presidential candidates and bring together national security specialists who could staff the next Democratic administration, Axios has learned.
- National Security Action has picked Maher Bitar, who has worked for Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the White House, to lead the group going into the 2028 primary season.
Why it matters: Founded in 2018, National Security Action (NSA) influenced Democrats' messaging on foreign policy in the 2020 election and ultimately helped staff much of President Biden's national security team.
- That included then-National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who co-founded NSA.
- The group aims to have a similar influence in the 2028 election and the next Democratic administration.
Driving the news: Bitar, the national security adviser and chief counsel to Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), told Axios the group will host retreats, conduct polling, and be a "hub" to think through the party's foreign policy "to be ready for 2028 and beyond."
- Bitar was coordinator for intelligence and defense policy on Biden's National Security Council.
Ben Rhodes, who founded the group with Sullivan and is on its board, said the group's "two most interesting projects to think about are the pipeline of people who might work on campaigns and populate a Democratic administration, and then the ideas that can form a progressive or Democratic foreign policy going forward."
- "I think the next Democratic administration should look quite different [from the Biden administration]," he added. "It's kind of time to pass the baton so there's a really great opportunity to try to talent spot, and help elevate some different voices."
The big picture: NSA's challenge will be navigating the divides on foreign policy in the Democratic Party that are much deeper than they were during President Trump's first term.
- 80% of Democrats now view Israel unfavorably, up from 53% in 2022, before Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, per Pew. The party is also unsettled on issues like tariffs, China and artificial intelligence.
- That skepticism has split the party and made some on the left wary of people who served in the Biden administration.
As Axios CEO Jim VandeHei noted in his C-Suite newsletter Saturday, 40 of 47 Senate Democrats voted to block arms sales to Israel last month.
- Among them: every Democratic senator viewed as seriously weighing a White House bid — Arizona's Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, New Jersey's Cory Booker, Michigan's Elissa Slotkin, Georgia's Jon Ossoff and Connecticut's Chris Murphy.
What they're saying: "The center of gravity has shifted on the relationship with Israel, and there will be a debate about the nature of the relationship going forward," said Sullivan, who rejoined NSA's board after leaving the Biden administration.
- "Obviously, National Security Action is not going to resolve that debate, but it's going to try and ensure it's as healthy a debate as possible.… "As we look at what foreign policy will look like following Trump 2.0 there are just a lot more fundamental questions that are going to need answering."
Rhodes said that "in Trump 1, there was a sense that if a Democrat won, that the foreign policy would look familiar to the past — Obama policy with obviously some adjustments. Bernie [Sanders] obviously would have taken it further to the left, and Biden took it to the right."
- "I think right now it's a wide-open question as to what Democratic foreign policy is," he said, "and who the practitioners are of that foreign policy."
Bitar made clear that NSA would continue to be a "big-tent" organization to bring together people across the party, with an emphasis on the next generation of leaders.
- "We are not excluding anyone," he said.
The intrigue: Sullivan and Rhodes were colleagues during the Obama administration, co-founded NSA and remain on the board, but Rhodes said that "I think Jake and I obviously moved in different directions" since founding NSA.
- "We'll both be involved.… I've obviously moved in a more progressive direction on Israel and other things, and I am not shy about making my views known, and so I want to help facilitate the inclusion of more progressive perspectives and ideas and people."
