Wall Street donors rush to back Kamala Harris

Their directive: raise lots of money for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign — and fast.

Just days after Biden announced he would step down as the party’s nominee and endorsed his No. 2 to lead the Democratic ticket, donors have sprung into action to pepper their well-heeled networks with requests to quickly fill Harris’ campaign coffers to close a fundraising gap with their Republican opponent, Donald Trump.

“I’ve been a pretty prolific fundraiser and I’m going to use my full book of contacts to try to get her elected,” Bob Clark, founder of the real estate developer Clayco Inc., said in an interview. “I sent my endorsement with a link to all my contacts and I don’t know what the results of that have been yet, but I’m definitely going to start working the phones.”

Clark has already held an event for Biden in Chicago this year, and plans to organize one for Harris later this year.

On Wednesday, a group of about 40 Democratic donors in law and finance will meet virtually to strategize and begin sketching out economic talking points to sell Harris’ agenda to Wall Street, according to a person familiar with the effort who requested anonymity to discuss the private gathering. 

Hosts of that meeting include Centerview Partners LLC’s Blair Effron, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP’s Brad Karp, Avenue Capital Group’s Marc Lasry and Lazard Inc.’s Ray McGuire, the person said. Among those invited to attend are Blackstone Inc.’s Jon Gray, Peter Orszag of Lazard, Evercore’s Roger Altman, former Sony Group Corp. executive Nicole Seligman and Faiza Saeed, presiding partner at the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, according to the person. 

Cost-Effective Fundraising

The call is informal, with more events to be planned in coordination with the campaign, the person said. In-person fundraisers are on the table, as well as virtual ones, which would allow Harris to attend multiple events per day, are a cost-effective way to raise money quickly and also make it possible for her to hit the ground in battleground states.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer told investors on Wednesday that a Harris win would “absolutely, absolutely no doubt about it” be good for US businesses.

The flurry of donor enthusiasm behind Harris could help Democrats make up nearly a month of lost fundraising time as major contributors largely paused giving to Biden’s campaign after his disastrous June 27 debate with Trump as a pressure tactic to get him to drop out of the race.

Online events to rally support for Harris are popping up. Members of Congress, including Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono and Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal, are speaking on a Zoom call Wednesday to make a pitch to Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. The campaign has also scheduled an Aug. 1 virtual fundraising event — with tickets ranging from $25 to $6,600 — featuring writer and historian Heather Cox Richardson, according to an invitation.

Democrats need more money to be competitive. Biden and his allies were expected to outraise and outspend Trump’s political operation in the 2024 election, but weak Democratic giving and unexpected fundraising hauls from once-reluctant Trump donors, including billionaires Elon Musk and Paul Singer, mean Republicans have more cash on hand. Harris’ team will have to bring in large sums in the coming weeks to finance an expensive campaign strategy that includes numerous field offices and hefty advertising buys. 

Harris inherited the $96 million left in the campaign account when Biden dropped out, but the operation wasn’t on sustainable financial footing. The campaign spent 93% of what it raised in June, according to the most recent federal filings. Trump’s team also filed a long-shot complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday alleging that Harris shouldn’t have access to the leftover Biden warchest. 

Cash Infusion

So far, the money has been pouring in. Harris doubled the size of her campaign bank account in less than 36 hours after she announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination, pulling in $100 million as of Monday evening, a record-breaking haul. Of the 1.1 million unique donors who contributed, 62% were giving for the first time, according to the campaign.

She also won support from billionaire Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC Inc., and Michael Sacks, chairman and chief executive officer of hedge fund GCM Grosvenor.

“Anyone who doubts Kamala Harris’s political expertise should pay attention to how she so perfectly handled every step post Biden’s exit,” Diller said in a statement. “I will donate the maximum to her campaign.”

Harris acted quickly after Biden suspended his campaign on Sunday to shore up support for her effort. Her team began contacting Democratic National Committee delegates to seek their commitment to vote for her in the party’s nominating process, and late Monday she earned support from the required threshold of more than 2,000 delegates, putting her on a glide path to officially winning the nomination in August.

Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will also hit the road for a series of fundraisers in the coming days. Harris is scheduled to appear at an donor event featuring performances by James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma, and Emanuel Ax on Saturday. The second gentleman will also appear at a series of fundraisers later this month that First Lady Jill Biden was initially slated to headline.

Emhoff will attend several fundraisers next week, including an event in Martha’s Vineyard featuring featuring comedian David Letterman, and others in Nantucket and coastal Maine, with wealthy donors decamped to New England for the summer.