Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood donors powered Vice President Kamala Harris’ August fundraising surge, the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission show, helping Democrats build a $109 million cash advantage over Republican Donald Trump heading into the most expensive stretch of the presidential election.
While polls show the race is extremely close, Harris pulled ahead in the money chase. She boosted her war chest in August after raising $361 million, while Trump spent $32 million more than the $130 million he raised as he launched a costly ad campaign to blunt her momentum. His allied super political action committee also depleted some of their cash reserves.
Trump got support from new sources including donors from the crypto industry, whom he’s assiduously courted, and some longtime Republican donors who’ve only recently started supporting him, such as hedge fund manager Paul Singer, who didn’t contribute to his prior campaigns.
The filings recorded the largest single reported gift from Elon Musk, the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX chief executive officer. He gave $289,100, the maximum amount, to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which supports GOP House candidates. Musk also created a super PAC this year to support Trump and House Republicans, which has been spending millions in recent weeks. It won’t disclose its donors until next month.
The new support for Trump wasn’t enough to offset the costs of launching expensive ad campaigns. Harris and her main super PAC, Future Forward PAC, have booked $421 million in paid media from September through Election Day, nearly double the $216 million for Trump and his allied super PAC MAGA Inc.
Kamala Harris
- Harris and the Democratic Party raised $361 million in August and entered September with $404 million cash on hand
- Future Forward PAC, her allied super PAC, raised $36 million and had $84 million cash on hand
Harris’ campaign held many fundraising events including stops in San Francisco, as she tapped her home state California donor network, and in the Hamptons on Long Island.
Finance industry donors included Oaktree Capital Management LLC’s Bruce Karsh, Robert Stavis of Bessemer Venture Partners and I Squared Capital co-founder Sadek Wahba. Janice Savin Williams of Siebert Williams Shanke, legendary oil trader Andy Hall, Glenn Fuhrman, who managed money for Michael Dell, and E. John Rosenwald, a vice chair at JPMorgan Chase, also donated.
Celebrities Scarlett Johansson, Carol Burnett, Frances McDormand, Mayim Bialik and Alan Alda were among the donors. Fashion brand founders Stacey Bendet, of Alice + Olivia, and LoveShackFancy’s Rebecca Hessel Cohen also gave.
Bronson van Wyck, known for designing and planning Trump donor Stephen Schwarzman’s 70th birthday party, joined Florida chronicler Carl Hiaasen and Susan Fales-Hill, a writer and television producer, as Harris donors.
Harris’ allied super PAC Future Forward got $3 million each from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and the Pacific Environmental Coalition, a nonprofit led by technology venture capitalist Matt Cohler. Cohler’s nonprofit donated to Nikki Haley’s super PAC in the Republican primary. Reed Hastings of Netflix and Ripple Labs co-founder Christian Larsen each gave $1 million, the latter in the form of XRP cryptocurrency.
(Hastings, co-founder and executive chair of Netflix, is on the board of Bloomberg Inc.)
Donald Trump
- Trump and the GOP raised $130 million in August and ended the month with $295 million in the bank
- Super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $25 million and ended began September with $59 million
Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, Interactive Brokers Group Chairman Thomas Peterffy, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Edward Glazer were among the big donors to Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party in August.
Joseph Craft of Alliance Resource Partners LP, casino owners Frank Fertitta and Lorenzo Fertitta, and country singer Lee Greenwood, who performed at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, also contributed.
Wall Street donors giving to Trump included hedge fund manager Andrew Rechtschaffen, Rockefeller Capital Management’s John Sargent and Emil Henry of Tiger Infrastructure Parters LP.
Diane Hendricks, the billionaire owner of ABC Supply Co., gave MAGA Inc. $10 million. She was a featured speaker at the Milwaukee convention, described as an “everyday American” in the schedule. Cantor Fitzgerald’s Howard Lutnick, who hosted an August event in the Hamptons for Trump that raised $15 million, and Singer each gave $5 million.
Other super PACs backing Trump, including Musk’s America PAC and billionaire Miriam Adelson’s Preserve America, won’t report detailed information on their finances until Oct. 15.
