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Today, I'm looking at how some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors over the last year tried to use their charms and Rolodex to bend the fate of the voting-rights bill—the one that appears set to die this week. 

But first, some Tuesday intel:

• The Gates Foundation is expected to announce its new, expanded board in the coming weeks, part of a series of governance changes after Bill and Melinda French Gates’s divorce. C.E.O. Mark Suzman told his staff last summer not to expect a “very large board,” as I reported based on leaked audio at the time. And the biggest change has likely already happened, with Gates pal Warren Buffett stepping down. But I’ll be curious to see who they choose to sit alongside Bill and Melinda at the world’s most important philanthropy. Remember that there’s a ticking clock at play: Melinda may leave as co-chair next year if the foundation’s governance isn’t running smoothly.

• I’m told that the staff of STAC Labs, the new Democratic tech firm funded heavily by Eric Schmidt, is unionizing, in part so they can have more bargaining power vis-à-vis Schmidt’s team. STAC is a small operation, with about a dozen employees, but it’s indicative of a broader labor organizing movement sweeping through the progressive tech ecosystem, from NGPVan to The Movement Cooperative to the Democratic National Committee. Nicole Aro, the group’s CEO, told me that “of course” they plan on voluntarily recognizing the union.

• I’ve been hearing some curiosity, from both the left and the right, about the departure of Sampriti Ganguli, the C.E.O. of the progressive philanthropic giant Arabella Advisors, which is very much in the conservative crosshairs these days as a nexus of Democratic “dark money.” The firm said she’s out to tend to her family in India, but I know the transition timeline raised some eyebrows in the sector: Ganguli is stepping down in April, but Arabella named its first president to take over day-to-day operations immediately, Rick Cruz, who himself will then be supplanted as day-to-day leader when a new C.E.O. is selected in 2023. To me, this is more just Cruz effectively serving as an interim C.E.O., in all but name, as they conduct a full search for a new C.E.O. Arabella, I’m told, wants to have two top leaders, not one.

Silicon Valley’s Doomed Pursuit of Manchin-Sinema Nirvana

Behind the scenes of the voting-rights drama, Democratic super-donors organized a furious pressure campaign to get Manchinema to “yes.” Then reality intervened.

For more than a year, the Democratic Party’s most powerful donors have been locked in a high-stakes debate over the future of American elections. Democrats in Washington largely agree on the importance of new laws to expand early and mail-in voting and weaken voter identification laws, among other things. But behind closed doors, among the bundler set and the aides that serve them, the mega-donors who try to shape the party’s agenda have been sharply divided on strategy. On one side are more idealistic contributors who view voting rights legislation as a nonpareil priority, the only thing that can protect American democracy from backsliding. On the other side of the argument are more pragmatic donors who have worried that, in a 50-50 Senate, election reform would wallow in gridlock and steal valuable time from the rest of the progressive agenda. I’ve been talking to both sides regularly, curious as to who would be proven right.

Democrats, after all, need to break a filibuster in order to pass practically any legislation, let alone a sweeping voting reform package that is flatly opposed by Republicans. The clock is ticking before the G.O.P. likely retakes the House in November. And the Senate’s two most conservative Democrats, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, have been saying for months that they won’t support modifications to the chamber’s filibuster rule, even a carve-out just for this particular bill, no matter what Joe Biden and some big donors may want. That legislation, as of today, is now looking dead.

Nevertheless, over the last week, a group of Democratic donors made something of a Pickett’s Charge to prove the haters wrong...

FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT