While Donald Trump might be on the ballot come Nov. 5, it’s really a different rich old white man that Kamala Harris has to ward off. So says fellow billionaire investor Mark Cuban.
“Really it comes down to ‘get out the vote,'” said Cuban, on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “And the crazy thing is, it’s the Harris campaign versus Elon—not even versus Trump,” the Shark Tank judge, who has campaigned for Harris, added.
While both parties enter crunch time in what has been deemed by some to be one of the closest elections in the nation’s history, Musk has been becoming all the more of an oversized figure in the race. “Elon is running the ground game for the Republicans. And that is really what the race is all about the last two weeks,” Cuban said in a statement to Fortune.
Indeed, Musk—who has previously fixated on privatizing Mars, running Twitter into the ground, and making delicate EVs—has found a new toy to play with: America’s democracy. He was revealed to be the sole donor to a super PAC named America PAC, which funneled $74 million to Trump’s campaign between just July and September, per Federal Election Commision filings.
Musk has since announced that he’d be giving $1 million every day until the election to those living in a swing state who sign his online petition in regards to support of the First and Second Amendments. Using the words of a multi-level marketing girlie, Musk tweeted that for a short period, registered voters who live in Pennsylvania and sign or refer someone to the petition will also receive $100. Musk has already given $1 million checks to two attendees at rallies hosted by his PC, notes Reuters. The legality of said scheme has been questioned.
Calling Musk’s petition both “innovative” and “desperate,” Cuban noted on CNBC “that you only do that because you think you have to.” While he didn’t give his sign-off on the venture and noted it could backfire, Cuban said a sweepstakes itself is “not a bad idea.” As for its legality, after looking into it “as a sweepstakes it looks like it may be, but from a FEC perspective, I have no idea.”
The ultra-wealthy take on the presidential race
Billionaires, in general, have taken on a ballooning influence in politics. Having raised $1 billion in just three months before the end of September, Harris broke fundraising records, per The New York Times.
Despite Musk’s vocality, Harris has a greater number of billionaires publicly backing her than Trump: at 79 and 50, respectively, according to Forbes. Of course, that’s led to a bit of mixed messaging on the Democrat’s side as the party known for higher taxes against the uber-wealthy must toe the line for their donors.
Speaking against the potential of Harris taxing unrealized capital gains, Cuban asserted that was “not going to happen.” And “if for some reason she lied about it, I would campaign against her so there wouldn’t be a second term.” It seems as if on both sides, the wealthy are playing a large hand in strong-arming candidates.
“That was the regular season, this is the playoffs,” said Cuban of certain polls that show a narrowing lead for Harris. “You gotta play like you’re one point behind, so that’s what we’re doing.”
