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The Donor Report Card on Harris
Taxes, antitrust, closer ties with business: These were some of the issues corporate backers sought more clarity on at the Democratic National Convention.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s team was active in Chicago, trying to build her case with big donors.Credit…Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
Donors weigh in on the D.N.C.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech may have been short on the details policy watchers were seeking, but she presented a sweeping vision for how she plans to grow an economy that’s showing signs of slowing. “I will bring together labor and workers and small-business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs,” she told the Democratic National Convention last night.
The nod to corporate America comes as Democrats try to firm up relations with big business. DealBook has been hitting the phones all week to hear what donors thought of the four-day convention.
Chicago was a hot ticket. A flood of donors decided to go only after Harris became the presumptive nominee. These donors ended up making a big impact on the convention: The event’s host committee said it raised a record $95 million for the event, mostly from sponsorship packages that guaranteed prime seats and other perks if donors gave between $100,000 and $5 million.
Many of the party’s largest Wall Street donors were there, including Brad Karp, the chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss; Raymond McGuire, the president of Lazard; Blair Effron, a founder of Centerview Partners; and John Rogers Jr., the founder of Ariel Investments.
Harris supporters argued she would be a strong steward of the economy. That was the messagein a flurry of private meetings and parties hosted during the convention. They sought to portray her as a steady hand, versus the uncertainty that a second Trump administration would bring.
Wall Street also engaged in a favorite parlor game: guessing Harris’s pick for Treasury secretary. One popular candidate was Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary. Other possibilities emerged, notably Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase. Still, some donors wondered whether Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts would everlet a banker sit in that role.