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US media: After Biden announced his withdrawal from the election, Harris received huge political donations

2024-07-22

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According to reports from US media including CNBC and The Wall Street Journal, sources revealed that shortly after US President Biden announced on July 21 local time that he would withdraw from the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Harris had received huge political donations, most of which came from fundraisers who had supported her in previous campaigns.

The sources told CNBC that shortly after Biden announced he would drop out of the race and endorse Harris, major fundraisers who had helped Harris raise money during the 2020 Democratic primary and the 2016 Senate election immediately mobilized and began contacting wealthy Democratic donors.

US Vice President Harris Photo source: Visual China

Jon Henes, who served as Harris's financial director during the 2020 campaign, said: "From New York to California, I have been in touch with many of her supporters. We are organizing and starting the fundraising machine... Today I received more than 200 text messages, calls and emails from people who want to hold (fundraising) events and donate."

A source revealed that top Democratic donors currently planning to assist Harris include veteran Wall Street executive Marc Lasry, who helped Harris raise a lot of money when she competed against Biden during the 2020 Democratic primary.

CNBC reported that the renewed willingness of these Democratic big donors to donate is particularly significant because after Biden's poor performance in the debate with former President Trump on June 27, some major Democratic donors announced that they would no longer continue to provide funds to Biden's team if Biden became the Democratic nominee. A source revealed that Silicon Valley venture capitalist Reid Hoffman plans to donate more to Harris' campaign than he donated to Biden during the 2024 presidential election. According to records from the Federal Election Commission, Hoffman has donated at least $10 million to the Biden campaign to date. Hoffman has posted on social media to express his support for Harris.

According to the Wall Street Journal, after Biden announced his withdrawal from the race, Democratic Party big moneybags George Soros and his son Alexander Soros announced their support for Harris. Alexander posted on the social platform X on the 21st, saying, "Now is the time for us all to unite around Kamala Harris and defeat Donald Trump. She is our best and most qualified candidate." A spokesman for George Soros said he also supports Harris.

CNBC reported that in addition to the huge donations, small donors also made some moves. ActBlue, an online fundraising platform for the Democratic Party of the United States, said that within five hours after Biden announced that he would withdraw from the election, the platform had raised $27.5 million from small donors.

The report said that for Harris, the injection of the above funds shows that she has the ability to increase the total amount of campaign funds inherited from Biden. Anna Massoglia of OpenSecrets, a nonprofit investigation agency for campaign finance, said that Harris is likely to take over the remaining funds of about $96 million from the Biden team.

"The general consensus among most people I've talked to is that she can use the funds," Massoglia told CNBC. However, she mentioned that some conservative American lawyers believe that Harris needs to officially become the Democratic nominee to take over all the campaign funds left by Biden. Massoglia said that until lawyers resolve the legal debate over whether Harris needs to become the official nominee first, what will happen to these legacy funds is still up in the air, as are other funds from the Democratic National Committee and the joint fundraising committee.