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EXCLUSIVE: A national group tied to Big Tech executives is seeking to move the center of power in the U.S. Senate to the middle by electing moderate senators in races this year and beyond.
The group, More Perfect Union (MPU) – a self-described “citizen-led movement working to heal the divide in our nation” – was founded in 2020 by Jake Harriman, an entrepreneur, international social justice activist and a Marine Corps veteran.
According to a digital outline of the group’s agenda, which was obtained by Fox News Digital, Harriman’s organization aims to help elect a bipartisan “fulcrum” of U.S. senators by targeting “open seats and only play in Primaries in deep Red & Blue states.”
Jake Harriman in a 2016 file photo. (Donald Bowers/Getty Images for GLG / Getty Images)
In a section of the outline headlined, “Our strategy to fix it,” More Perfect Union wrote that it will work to help elect “3 new country-first candidates to the U.S. Senate in 2022” and “be the dominant player in each race.”
The group aims to tackle certain Senate races because the “major cause of the dysfunctionality and gridlock in Congress is in the Senate, and the Senate is a longer, 6-year play that gives the fulcrum members enough time to get meaningful legislation passed.”
MPU’s outline suggests those assisted in being elected to be part of the fulcrum will work to “pass a federal reform bill” with a focus on “electoral reform, structural reform in Congress, ethics reform, and campaign finance reform.”
According to MPU, there “are very few competitive general elections, and the primary election process rewards extremes” as “outside groups provide millions of dollars in support to candidates who pass their ideological purity tests.”
And the effort won’t stop once people are in office.
“Carrot and stick: MPU provides financial support and political air cover to reward and hold accountable fulcrum Senators once elected,” the outline reads.
The group pledged in the outline “$1M hard money” plus a “minimum of $5M independent expenditures per race.”
MPU claims on its website that it “isn’t a political organization.” In a statement to Fox News Digital, Harriman also said More Perfect Union is not a political group.
Harriman is also the founder of a “social venture” called Nuru International, which aims “to eradicate extreme poverty in some of the most fragile regions of the world.” He was previously honored by the Obama White House as a “Champion of Change.” He is a senior adviser to the McChrystal Group, a business consulting firm, as well.
“Due to the desperate condition of the U.S. political system, Jake has now turned his attention to helping protect the American Democratic experiment, which he fears is on the brink of failure – a failure that would have terrible global consequences,” Harriman’s McChrystal bio reads. “Jake is the Founder and CEO of More Perfect Union, a 10-year plan to heal the divide in the nation and make our government work for the American people by building a viable center in American politics. Key early components of Jake’s plan include creating a country-first fulcrum of five new Members in the U.S. Senate, building a nationwide movement for unity and reform, and passing new legislation to reform the electoral system and structural rules and norms of Congress.”
Harriman in December traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, where he held at least one meeting and outlined MPU’s agenda, telling those in attendance about the group’s mission and how the Senate race in Alabama could benefit the “fulcrum” effort, according to a source who was at the meeting.
That fulcrum, as recalled by the source, would involve the formation of a caucus of so-called moderate senators from both political parties, including Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Chris Coons, D-Del.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is surrounded by journalists as he walks to the Senate chamber for a vote at the Capitol on Oct. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
“He said he came up with a plan and sent it to some of his mentors, and he mentioned Jim Mattis and George W. Bush,” the source said of Harriman, who presented those in attendance with polling data that showed optimism about former U.S. Army Special Operations aviator Mike Durant’s Alabama Republican primary campaign for Senate.
While discussing polling with attendees, the source said Harriman “showed that the Trump endorsement wasn’t the only thing people cared about” and suggested that Republican Alabama Senate candidate Katie Britt, who has exceeded expectations in certain polls, does not have what it takes to beat fellow Republican Mo Brooks, who currently serves Alabama in the House and has the backing of Trump.
“They like candidates with a military background, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” the source said, reflecting on the group’s outlook. “Harriman said they went in, they recruited [Durant], they helped him put his team together, and then they backed off.”
The Alabama Patriots PAC, which Harriman said was established to support Durant, according to the source, has already spent nearly $1 million on federal elections this year and released numerous advertisements promoting Durant’s candidacy. Durant says he does not control the ads.
Last month, Durant made an appearance on the 1819 News podcast and responded to a recent article that claimed he is receiving financial support from a Super PAC, denying that any such action is taking place. “I didn’t really even understand what PACs were, how it worked,” Durant said. “As a candidate, I cannot communicate with PACs at all, [with] Super PACs. I can’t have any correspondence, I can’t control anything.”
Kelly Wingfield, of Urbandale, Iowa, fills out his ballot during early voting in Adel, Iowa, on Oct. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
In December, the Alabama Patriots PAC reported a $1 million contribution from America’s Promise, which lists Harriman as its treasurer.
America’s Promise uses the same Arlington, Virginia UPS store address as entities under various names, all including “More Perfect Union” in the title and listing Harriman as president. America’s Promise reports receiving its money from California tech giants with liberal and establishment DC donor histories.
Jeffrey Chambers of California, a senior advisor for TA Associates, has given $500K to America’s Promise.
Thomas Safran of Thomas Safran & Associates gave America’s Promise $100,000 last June. Safran has made multiple donations to Kamala Harris and gave more than $700,000 in 2020 to the Biden Victory Fund, a fundraising committee.
California’s Gerald Risk, a lecturer at Stanford University who once worked for the Silicon Valley tech giant Asurion, has given $400K to America’s Promise.
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John Chambers, the former executive chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems, gave America’s Promise $250,000 in 2021. Online records show Chambers has also funded Republicans viewed in some quarters as relatively moderate or anti-Trump, like Romney, the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, former House speaker John Boehner, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Chambers gave $100,000 to McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund in 2020.
An entity originally incorporated as More Perfect Union that changed its name to More Perfect Union Action lists two other officers in its registration, Don Faul as secretary and Ime Archibong as treasurer – both of whom have notable backgrounds in big tech.
Faul is CEO of Athos, a high-tech coaching and training system. He was previously the “VP of Online Operations” for Facebook, where he led the company’s “risk operations” team, and before that worked at Google. Archibong, meanwhile, is the “Head of New Product Experimentation” at Facebook, where he has worked since 2010.
Another entity originally registered as More Perfect Union Foundation whose name was changed to More Perfect Union lists two other officers in the same posts.
Celebrating their bipartisan effort, senators gather outside the chamber following a procedural vote aimed at reopening the government, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. From left are, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Sen. Joe Donnelly
Fox News Digital’s request for comment from More Perfect Union was answered by a single representative, working on behalf of both More Perfect Union and Alabama Patriots PAC. That representative provided Fox News with statements from both Harriman and the Alabama Patriots PAC. No name was attributed to the PAC statement.
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Harriman said: “More Perfect Union is not a political organization. We are building a veteran-led movement with local chapters focus on civic education, leadership development and community service work.”
The Alabama Patriots PAC made following statement: “Alabama Patriots PAC is focused on getting a proven conservative outsider elected to the U.S. Senate in Mike Durant. The other candidates in Alabama are career politicians and Washington insiders and have been part of the problem for years. They’re taking a page from the Biden-Schumer playbook in fabricating stories about Mike [Durant]. Durant has a history of putting country first. He did it in uniform and now he will do that in the United States Senate.”
Attempts to obtain further comment from MPU did not meet with a response.
Durant’s campaign could not be reached for comment.
