Major Democratic donors are already flocking to Kamala Harris, and they say the main reason is straightforward: She’s not Joe Biden.
Her presidential campaign raised more than $200 million in its first week, and the Democratic super PAC Future Forward said it had received $150 million in commitments after Biden bowed out. The wave of big-dollar donors, which is defying predictions that the vice president would not be able to appeal to the party’s fundraising class, has been particularly noticeable because of some donors’ previous aversion to giving to a president they saw as a doomed candidate.
Donors told POLITICO that with Harris assuming Biden’s spot at the top of the ticket, they are now more willing to support a Democratic presidential candidate again. Some were also motivated by their desire to beat GOP nominee Donald Trump.
“I’ve talked to more people who have been just in a general sense more reserved about President Biden, who are now very enthusiastic,” said Mozelle Thompson, a former Federal Trade Commission commissioner and Democratic donor. “The enthusiasm gap, the excitement gap, has been erased.”
It’s still early days, but so far the stream of money has been so strong that one donor adviser has even cautioned some donors to slow down until the dynamics of the race make it clearer where money is most needed.
Venture capitalist Bradley Tusk had decided not to donate significantly to Biden’s reelection campaign — but with Harris as the Democratic candidate, he said, he planned to give at least $100,000 to back her. With Biden at the top of the ticket, he reasoned, the funding would not have paid off, but Harris’ chances were markedly better than Biden’s. And unlike the president, Harris wasn’t “falling asleep” or giving “crazy answers.”
“I understand why people might grumble, and she might not be their first choice,” Tusk said. “But in reality, it comes down to this, which is: Do you want Trump back or not? And if the answer is no, there’s now a candidate that is viable.”
Harris’ 2020 bid for the White House ended two months before the first Democratic caucus or primary. At the time, her campaign’s financial resources had been dwindling, and the then-senator from California explained that her campaign didn’t “have the financial resources we need to continue.”
“As the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete,” Harris said when she announced she was dropping out.
Even after she assumed the vice presidency, donors remained skeptical of Harris. Some discussed replacing her, with one unlikely suggestion that Biden should nominate Harris to the Supreme Court so that she had an off-ramp from the 2024 ticket.
But in the beginning stages of the current race, her team appears to have elevated her standing with the party’s funders, scheduling opportunities to schmooze with donors at events. One Democratic donor, a longtime Harris supporter, emphasized that she had “materially enhanced her brand in a short period of time.” The person, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations among the donor class, said that even those who had initially wanted an open convention had quickly come around to Harris’ candidacy.
Still, there were some donors who did not think she could win, the person said, adding that it was a small group.
The tension between Harris and the donor class highlights how much of the party’s fundraisers are, like the ticket’s former principal, older white men. Among those who cast doubt on Harris’ fundraising abilities, “The skepticism was universally from white men,” said donor adviser Alexandra Acker-Lyons.
And while Harris’ identity as a Black and South Asian woman may have at one time caused doubts among that traditional donor base, her candidacy also brings in money from new corners of the party. Among South Asian donors, enthusiasm for Harris’ rise to the top of the ticket has been “off the charts,” said Raj Goyle, a former Kansas state representative who bundled for Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign and co-founded Indian American Impact, a voter mobilization nonprofit.
