Kamala Harris campaign receives $170 million in funding after Joe Biden leaves office

Dmitri Mehlhorn, a donor consultant and Democratic strategist, believes the surge in energy is directly related to the pent-up pain of the previous weeks.

“The Democratic Party’s finances were optimized because the pressure campaign against Biden created tremendous tension that could have devastated the Democratic campaign organization,” Mehlhorn said. “But it didn’t break. It bounced back like a bolt or a catapult. Joe’s sacrifice put people into sacrifice mode.”

Even donors who had previously called for an open competition to select Biden’s successor have had to accept the reality that Harris will not face a significant challenge in the race. Media mogul Mike Bloomberg, one of the Democratic Party’s largest donors, issued a statement on Monday calling on the party to slowly determine its candidate and said “this decision is too important to be rushed.”

But within hours it became clear Harris was destined to receive the support of a majority of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, who will vote in the coming weeks to choose their next nominee.

“It’s a done deal,” said John Morgan, a trial lawyer and major Biden donor who has previously voiced opposition to Harris being Biden’s nominee. He said he is not sure Harris can beat former President Donald Trump, will not donate to her and is not sure if he will vote in November, but he would probably vote for her if he did.

He also observed that the amount of money pouring into Democratic coffers at this time makes his decision to withhold the cash irrelevant.

“No matter how much money I have, it’s like pouring coffee into a full cup,” he said. “That’s how it is. Now we just have to hold our breath.”

The surge in Democratic donations comes after major Silicon Valley donors announced they were investing heavily in support of Trump as Biden works to ease concerns about his health. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen announced his support for Trump, saying Biden has not done enough to build relationships with the tech industry.

Chris Kelly, a former Facebook chief privacy officer who ran against Harris for California attorney general in 2010 and is now co-owner of the Sacramento Kings NBA team, said the criticism simply doesn’t apply to Harris. He supports Harris for president and plans to donate to her campaign. He said Tuesday that Harris is from the Bay Area and has a long history of interaction and collaboration with the tech industry. That makes people in Silicon Valley feel more comfortable, Kelly said.

“Kamala Harris will be open to reconsidering some of the mistakes of this administration,” he said.

Harris’ old donor network has operated as part of the Biden machine for years, and some members of that network held a donor call on Monday that included multiple people from her 2020 presidential campaign’s finance committee.

“My sense is that the donor community is ready to get this done. We’re very excited and relieved,” said Susie Tompkins Buell, a major donor in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“I haven’t talked to anyone who thinks differently,” she added. “Women are on fire.”

Way to Win, a Democratic donor network dedicated to winning the House, Senate and White House this year, also reported an uptick in enthusiasm, fueled in part by expectations that Democrats can once again win more Southern battlegrounds such as Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.

“We’ve attracted some people who hadn’t committed to this cycle. And the people who had committed have committed more,” said Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, a co-founder of the group. “A lot of people say the Sun Belt states are out of the race. But the Sun Belt is definitely in the race.”

Biden Campaign events scheduled for the coming weeks have been canceled, though campaign officials said some events may be rescheduled. A fundraiser that first lady Jill Biden had planned to headline will now be hosted by second lady Doug Emhoff. The Harris campaign also reported a significant increase in volunteer sign-ups, with 58,000 signing up in the first 48 hours, a sign-up rate 232 times the Biden campaign’s daily average.

ActBlue, the Democratic-leaning agency that handled most of Harris’ campaign donations, reported raising nearly $47 million in the seven hours after Biden announced his candidacy on Monday. Since then, the ticker on the company’s website shows about $67 million in donations for all candidates and causes. Those totals are just shy of the site’s previous record of $70.6 million on Sept. 19, 2020, the day after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died.

$250 million raised in two days is huge by almost any historical standard, but it’s difficult to make direct comparisons with past elections because of changes in campaign finance laws, federal limits and inflation. $100 million in coordinated campaign funds in less than two days compares favorably to the $85 million the Biden campaign reported raising in all of May, and is comparable to the $53 million the Trump campaign reported raising in the 24 hours following his felony conviction in New York.

FF PAC’s predecessor, Future Forward USA Action, was founded in 2000 as a smaller group that raised $142 million over the cycle, according to OpenSecrets, an organization that tracks political money.

To put it in another perspective, 1.1 million donors in 41 hours represent 1.4% of the 81.3 million people who voted for Biden in the 2020 election. The campaign reported that most of the donations came from new donors this election cycle, meaning the base of potential returning donors will expand over the next 103 days.

One campaign adviser reported that even donors who had long privately opposed Harris were opening their wallets and making large donations. The sadness and fear of the past three weeks have been replaced by a frenzy of enthusiasm.

“It’s so thrilling, it’s so crazy. Everybody’s crazy,” said the consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss campaign fundraising. “This is what I love about American politics. The adrenaline rush, the ups and downs. This is the most thrilling roller coaster I’ve ever been on.”