Centrist Dems met to plot 2028. Then Iran happened.

At a gathering of top center-left consultants and strategists for rumored presidential hopefuls pitched how to talk about foreign policy.

Smoke plumes billow following Israeli bombardment on Beirut's southern suburbs on March 2. | Ibrahim Amro/AFP via Getty Images

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Hours after the American military strikes in Iran started, Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett scrambled to write up a presentation on how centrist Democrats should talk about foreign policy in 2028.

On stage during Third Way’s “Winning the Middle” conference, Bennett described focus groups before the war in Iran started, where “the appetite for ongoing war among the voters we talked to was zero.”

Even though Americans usually default to Republicans on national security, they’re concerned about President Donald Trump’s “erratic” and “unstable” foreign policy, he told a crowd of early-state strategists, Democratic consultants and aides for prominent moderates and 2028 contenders. That, he added, gives Democrats the opening they need to win.

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