Although Kamala Harris easily garnered the required number of delegates’ votes to be the presumed contender, her straightforward path to the nomination is by no means guaranteed. At least one significant Democratic contributor is declining to help Harris raise money, as I have previously reported.
“Asking friends for money requires enthusiasm or the hope of a political post. “I am neither,” Florida attorney John Morgan declared. Now it’s the turn of others. Furthermore, Morgan expressed his belief that Harris will not win in November.
According to a later Forbes article, megadonors like Morgan are not the only ones who oppose Kamala becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee.
Megadonors for Democrats, such as Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, and George Soros and his son Alex, swiftly sided with Harris.
“Other wealthy Democratic donors, such as Vinod Khosla ($7.7 billion), a venture capitalist, and Reed Hastings ($4.6 billion), the co-founder of Netflix, suggested Democrats look at alternatives to Harris. Khosla wrote on X that Democrats should “have an open convention and get a more moderate candidate,” while Hastings tweeted that delegates should “pick a swing state winner.”
“Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City ($104.7 billion), who donated $20 million to support Biden last month, tweeted on Monday that Democrats should “take the pulse of voters, especially in battleground states,” in the four weeks leading up to the convention’s August 19 start date rather than “rushing” to unseat Biden as the nominee.
“Democratic fundraiser John Morgan declared he would not raise money for Harris, telling ABC News that her failed 2020 presidential campaign was “awful” and that he didn’t think she was honest.
Their demands for a more transparent procedure to choose Biden’s successor, however, have gone unanswered, as elected Democrats quickly unified around Harris and no one has opposed her. Remember, Democratic leaders may have used blackmail to force Joe Biden to withdraw, but they had no choice but to take action when campaign finances dried up due to the donor class cutting off funding.
Megadonors who are dissatisfied with the absence of a selection process and believe Kamala is unfit to win will likely have the same amount of influence over her destiny as the front-runner did over Biden’s. If Kamala comes from the donor class, will she face a rebellion against her? Given what they did to Biden, anything is conceivable.
Harris is still the front-runner to win the nomination in the end, but anything may happen if the large sum of money from megadonors doesn’t flow in over the next few weeks. Delegates are not constitutionally required to vote for Harris even if she is the presumed Democratic Party nominee and has apparently gained the support of the majority of them; they are free to alter their views before the convention.
Will the donor class cause delegates to hedge? I’ll be working on it for the next few weeks.
Author: Scott Dowdy
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