Left-wing billionaire donors are pledging to financially support Vice President Kamala Harris’s potential run for the presidency after President Joe Biden announced over the weekend that he would drop out of the race. Several billionaire donors have endorsed Harris, ensuring she has the backing of the Democrat Party’s wealthiest supporters, including George Soros and his son Alex Soros.
Gretchen Sisson, a prominent Democratic bundler in California who supports Ms. Harris, said that the announcement was met with enthusiasm within her circles, and that she was collecting pledges to be collected later in the week. My phone is exploding,” she said. Lots of folks are asking where to contribute, what they can do to support the campaign, and wanting to write more. People who were committed but worried are now excited and energized.
The endorsements came quickly on Sunday afternoon from the Democratic Party’s billionaire class, such as Reid Hoffman, a prominent Democratic mega-donor who was among Mr. Biden’s strongest supporters over the last few weeks amidst the chaos. Another major billionaire backer of Mr. Biden, Alex Soros, the heir to the famous Democratic philanthropist family, also said he was backing Ms. Harris for the presidency.
Endorsements were also given by Democratic groups that direct big donors in their giving. Emily’s List, a significant-money Democratic group that supports women who endorse abortion rights and backed Ms. Harris during her vice presidency, offered an immediate endorsement. Way to Win, a major Democratic donor group with many members who are partial to Ms. Harris, also said that they were backing her.
As the New York Times mentioned, Reid Hoffman is among the biggest billionaire backers of Harris. In May 2023, Hoffman admitted to visiting convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, known as “Little Saint James” or more commonly referred to as “Pedophile Island.
In the 2020 campaign, Hoffman spent $7 million, alone, on boosting pro-Biden political action committees (PACs) and on ads opposing then-President Donald Trump. Between Hoffman and his wife, Michelle Yee, the pair donated close to half a million dollars to Biden’s campaign and two joint-fundraising committees supporting Biden.
Similarly, NBC News reports that billionaire donors are opening their pocketbooks for Harris, whom they consider a reliable contact inside the White House: “The floodgates will open,” Chris Korge, finance chair for the Biden Victory Fund, told NBC News. There’s been a lot of people holding back contributions that will now contribute because the whole thing — that whole situation was paralyzing our fundraising.
Korge said he was getting calls all day from major donors who were moved by Biden’s decision. Some even cried, he said.
Harris has long been a favorite of the wealthy on the nation’s coasts. In 2019, while running her failed campaign for president in the Democrat primary, Harris was almost exclusively funded by California residents and specifically those working for major law firms, multinational corporations, and Silicon Valley tech conglomerates. For instance, billionaire Gordon Getty of the Getty Oil dynasty held fundraisers for Harris at his mansion in San Francisco, California, with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA. Harris also received large amounts of cash from big pharmaceutical giants as well as Wall Street power brokers.