Female billionaires club digs deep to offer support to VP

The vice-president’s war chest has been bolstered by big names in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, with some ready to play an active role in her upcoming campaign.

Kamala Harris and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the Apple founder Steve Jobs and one of the world’s wealthiest women, have been friends for many years. Picture: Getty Images

An all-female group of Silicon ­Valley billionaires has thrown its weight behind Kamala Harris’s campaign as donations pour in for the Vice-President’s White House challenge.

The group of donors, many friends of Ms Harris from California, had mobilised funding and support for a potential run even before Joe Biden announced he was quitting the race on Sunday.

Now, as Ms Harris races to ­secure the Democrat nomination and launch her challenge to ­Donald Trump, her female backers are set to play an influential role.

They include billionaire philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and one of the world’s wealthiest women. Ms Powell Jobs has been close friends with Ms Harris for more than a decade and is set to play a major role in her campaign, according to The New York Times.

Alexandra Acker-Lyons, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser, told the newspaper that she began collecting pledges for Ms Harris from prominent ­female donors last week, as the pressure for Mr Biden to drop out became overwhelming.

Others have been building Ms Harris’s war chest for even longer. Andrea Dew Steele, a fundraiser who founded a non-profit organisation that aims to increase the number of Democrat women in government, also served on the ­finance committee of Ms Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign. She said she had been funnelling ­donors to groups such as Emily’s List, a Democrat political committee, for several weeks.

“We were trying to make sure that we were ready for this ­moment,” said Ms Dew Steele, “I was just trying to prepare the ground.”

Their support has enabled Ms Harris to make a fast start in the days since Mr Biden dropped out, with campaign adverts and a string of endorsements to head off any potential challengers. Ms Harris’s campaign raised $US81m ($122.8m) in donations in just 24 hours. By Tuesday (AEST), a Democrat fundraising committee had raked in a further $US150mn.

ActBlue, the platform for Democrat candidates and causes, reported that over 888,000 donors made contributions of less than $US200 in the day after Mr Biden dropped out. So far more than 1.1 million individuals have contributed, according to US media.

In recent months the number of grassroots donations had plummeted, with voters apparently unenthused by Mr Biden amid persistent concerns over the 81-year-old President’s age and ability to serve a second term.

Some major Democrat donors are holding back from endorsing Ms Harris or bankrolling her campaign, calling for a competitive process to choose the party’s nominee, even as potential challengers have fallen into line.

Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, urged Democrats not to rush into anointing the Vice-President.

“The decision is too important to rush, because the election is too important to lose,” he wrote on X.

Other leading Silicon Valley figures such as Netflix chairman Reed Hastings and billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla have declined to support Ms Harris and have called for an open primary.

Ms Harris, who served as a ­senator and attorney-general for California, has received a host of endorsements from Hollywood – opening new fundraising opportunities that had stalled since Mr Biden’s disastrous debate performance a month ago.

Among some in Hollywood’s political donor class there is frustration that Mr Biden was not forced out sooner, leaving Ms Harris little time to overhaul Mr Trump’s lead in the polls.

Many have blamed Jeffrey Katzenberg, the movie producer and longtime Biden ally.

Katzenberg hosted a Hollywood gala for Mr Biden at which George Clooney and Julia Roberts were the star guests on June 15, two weeks before the debate. The event raised $US30m for Mr Biden’s campaign, but Clooney later acknowledged in an op-ed for The New York Times that Mr Biden’s struggles were evident that evening. “He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate … we are not going to win in November with this President,” Clooney wrote.

Speaking to Variety magazine, one unnamed Hollywood executive and Democrat donor said there was “relief and gratitude” following Mr Biden’s decision.

THE TIMES