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      The Democratic Party’s Money Machine

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      The Democratic National Committee is again raising huge sums from donors, but the rise of super PACs has forced it to adapt to a new era of big-money influence.Vice President Kamala Harris heads to next week’s Democratic National Convention on the back of a wave of enthusiasm.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesA political piggy bank The Democratic National Convention starts on Monday in Chicago, capping an extraordinary few weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris became the party’s presidential candidate.In that time, she has generated momentum and enthusiasm among voters. Some longtime political observers, like the Republican pollster Frank Luntz, are calling it unprecedented.Just one indicator: Last month, Harris’s campaign said it had raised $310 million, including $200 million in the seven days after President Biden dropped out.As Democrats gather in the United Center, one focus will be on the Democratic National Committee, the organizational backbone that coordinates the party’s electoral strategy, management and convention. Much of that involves money, and the committee raises millions that it disburses to fight in federal and state elections.DealBook dug into the numbers and spoke to experts to understand where the committee fits into the wider world of campaign finance and to show how its role has evolved.The first Democratic Party convention was in 1832. Sixteen years later, at their convention in Baltimore, party leaders established the Democratic National Committee. In 1856, the Republicans did the same, paving the way for the Republican-Democratic juggernaut that has dominated American politics ever since.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Harris Appeals to Tech Leaders in a Return to San Francisco

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      A Sunday fund-raiser offered Vice President Kamala Harris a chance to turn the page on a sometimes frosty relationship between President Biden and Silicon Valley.Joe Biden who?Vice President Kamala Harris, whose political career was born in San Francisco two decades ago, on Sunday returned to the city for the first time since clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, hoping to reset relations with a tech community that has soured some on President Biden.It was a turning of the page and a homecoming all at once. Ms. Harris’s late-morning event raised $13 million from the region’s white-collar establishment that counts her as their own.But her trip was as much a rally as a fund-raiser, with about 700 people piling into the Grand Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill. On one of this city’s quintessentially brisk, foggy August mornings, these wealthy givers waited in a queue that snaked up the hill, an indignity that would be unheard-of at a typical fund-raiser at a cozy private home in Woodside or Menlo Park. (Some donors with a connection or two found a way, as they do, to skip the line.)As is often the case in the highly choreographed world of presidential fund-raising, where egos must be treated tenderly, there was a series of receptions before the fund-raiser (with blue, pink and green wristbands) that clearly delineated the pecking order of big donors and their influence. Ms. Harris dropped in on each one, in descending order of price and intimacy, as donors enjoyed peach mimosas and shrimp cocktails before her remarks in the grand ballroom.“This is a room full of dear, dear, dear friends,” she said, standing before a giant “Harris Walz” sign and four flags: two American and two California.Mr. Biden has struggled for financial support from the Bay Area dating to his 2020 presidential campaign, when his list of fund-raisers was heavy on Obama-era ambassadors but light on the billionaire leaders of the tech industry.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tech Investors Are the Latest to Zoom for Harris

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      There was a Zoom call for cat ladies. Ones for Deadheads, Black women, white women, and then, of course, for the white dudes.And now, at long last, there was one for the venture capitalists.The latest affinity group to organize behind Kamala Harris on Wednesday represented the lowly millionaire and billionaire investors of Silicon Valley. Relative to the massive Zoom telethons that other groups had been hosting for Ms. Harris over the last two weeks, the “VCs for Kamala” call was a small group of around 600 people. But they represented some of the country’s most notable donors who have outsize influence in technology and Democratic politics.A week after publishing an open letter in support of Kamala Harris signed by more than 700 influential tech investors, a group of key backers took to Zoom to rally their peers in a way only they could: with PowerPoint presentations, startup aphorisms and a desire to make the Harris funding round “oversubscribed.” Their logo? Designed by AI, naturally.Ms. Harris, who grew up in Bay Area politics and has stronger personal relationships with tech executives and investors than did President Biden, has ushered in an enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket not seen in years. She is set to return to San Francisco for a fund-raiser this weekend, and the event is already sold out at all but the most expensive price points..On the call, Reid Hoffman, a major donor to President Biden and Ms. Harris, made the business case for supporting Ms. Harris over former President Donald J. Trump. “No chaos” was far better for business, he said. Other chief executives of major companies he has spoken to agreed, he added.Ron Conway, a billionaire investor and Silicon Valley Democratic leader, pledged on the call to match $50,000 in donations to the Harris effort. In total, the group received pledges of roughly $135,000 for the Harris campaign.John Corrigan, an organizer of the call, encouraged listeners to call their relatives in swing states and talk about politicsMr. Corrigan promised the group would reconvene in September: “After Burning Man.” More

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      Harris Holds First Fund-Raiser as Democrats Rally: ‘We Are the Underdogs’

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      Vice President Kamala Harris warned a crowd of supporters on Saturday that former President Donald J. Trump held the advantage in their contest for the White House given the short window until Election Day.“We got a fight ahead of us, and we are the underdogs in this race, OK?” Ms. Harris said in Pittsfield, Mass., at her first fund-raiser since President Biden dropped his re-election bid six days ago. “Level set, we’re the underdogs in this race. But this is a people-powered campaign, and we have momentum.”Polls have shown the vice president catching up to Mr. Trump — welcome news for Democrats after Mr. Biden had fallen significantly behind. The Harris campaign has also shown new strength in fund-raising and in the number of new volunteers, with the election roughly three months away.Since announcing her candidacy for the Democratic nomination and receiving Mr. Biden’s endorsement, Ms. Harris has deployed a sharpened message against Mr. Trump. On Saturday, she suggested he would restrict Americans’ “most fundamental rights,” including reproductive freedoms, and called him a “bully.”“What other freedoms could be on the table for the taking?” she said during her remarks, repeating her stark warnings of the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. “It’s serious business.”She also leaned into a new Democratic attack on the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, saying that some of the swipes the men had taken against her were “just plain weird.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Super PAC Tied to Elon Musk Is Being Guided by Ex-DeSantis Aides

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      Two Republican operatives who played senior roles helping the presidential campaign of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida have taken on leadership roles in a new pro-Trump super PAC that could spend tens of millions of dollars in the presidential race and has ties to Elon Musk.The aides, Generra Peck, who initially managed the DeSantis campaign, and Phil Cox, a former head of the Republican Governors Association who ran the DeSantis political operation in the years before his run, are quietly guiding the group, America PAC, according to three people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.The super PAC has acquired an air of mystery in the Trump orbit, with other outside groups largely in the dark about its plans. The involvement of Mr. Cox and Ms. Peck may help legitimize it within the Republican establishment as it aims to become one of the leading groups on behalf of Mr. Trump. Ms. Peck and Mr. Cox are two of the party’s most prominent operatives and now lead a public affairs firm, P2 Pathway Public Affairs, and their involvement also helps unify the DeSantis and Trump orbits even further.Also involved, according to a separate person briefed on the matter, is Charlie Spies, a senior election lawyer for the Republican Party. Mr. Spies, Ms. Peck and Mr. Cox declined to comment.The group has taken pains to be secretive. Joe Lonsdale, an Austin-based tech entrepreneur, has played a key role in the group, recruiting many of his friends — including the Jimmy John’s founder, John Liautaud; Antonio Gracias, a former director of Tesla; and the Craft family of Kentucky — to help fund the effort. Mr. Musk, who recently endorsed former President Donald J. Trump and is a friend of Mr. Lonsdale, has described himself as having “created” the group and is expected to donate, but the amount remains unclear.Ms. Peck rose to prominence as the initial campaign manager for Mr. DeSantis’s bid. By the end of the Republican primary race, she had drawn criticism for the Florida governor’s failure to live up to expectations. Mr. Cox worked for outside groups backing Mr. DeSantis during the primary contest.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Kamala Harris recibe cifra récord de donaciones para su candidatura

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      Tan solo la oleada de donaciones en línea alcanzó un máximo de 11,5 millones de dólares en una sola hora el domingo por la noche.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]La vicepresidenta Kamala Harris recaudó 81 millones de dólares en las primeras 24 horas desde que anunció su candidatura a la presidencia, informó su campaña, una cifra récord mientras los demócratas daban la bienvenida a su candidatura con una de las mayores avalanchas de dinero de todos los tiempos.Su campaña declaró que 888.000 donantes habían contribuido en su primer día, el 60 por ciento de los cuales estaban haciendo su primera contribución durante la contienda de 2024. La campaña dijo también que había inscrito a 43.000 de esos donantes para aportaciones recurrentes.La campaña de Harris no desglosó qué parte de los 81 millones de dólares se recaudó en línea mediante donaciones de pequeño importe frente a las de grandes donantes.Pero ActBlue, el portal digital de donaciones para los demócratas, había procesado más de 90 millones de dólares en el mismo periodo de 24 horas, según un análisis del New York Times de las contribuciones en línea de la plataforma.La oleada de donaciones en línea alcanzó un máximo de 11,5 millones de dólares en una sola hora el domingo por la noche.El partido se está uniendo rápidamente en torno a Harris. Las donaciones ayudarán a reconstruir un fondo que corría el riesgo de agotarse en las semanas de incertidumbre tras el mal debate del Biden, luego de que los grandes donantes pausaran sus aportes.Una de las fuentes de dinero fue una llamada el domingo por la noche con un grupo llamado Win With Black Women (Gana con las mujeres negras), que la campaña de Harris dijo que había recaudado 1,6 millones de dólares.En total, el domingo fue el tercer día de mayor recaudación en la historia de ActBlue. El máximo histórico se produjo el día después de la muerte de la jueza Ruth Bader Ginsburg en septiembre de 2020, cuando ActBlue procesó unos 73,5 millones de dólares. El segundo día más alto fue el día después del primer debate entre Biden y el expresidente Donald Trump, que coincidió con un plazo límite clave de recaudación de fondos.El lunes iba camino de ser otro gran día para las donaciones, con ActBlue superando los 30 millones de dólares procesados a media tarde. El contador de ActBlue incluye todas las donaciones en línea realizadas en la plataforma, incluidas las destinadas a candidatos a la Cámara de Representantes y al Senado, así como a organizaciones sin fines de lucro de izquierda.Shane Goldmacher es un corresponsal de política nacional y cubre la campaña de 2024 y los principales sucesos, tendencias y fuerzas que moldean la política estadounidense. Se le puede contactar en shane.goldmacher@nytimes.com. Más de Shane Goldmacher More

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      Donors Tell Pro-Biden Super PAC Roughly $90 Million in Pledges Is Frozen

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      Some major Democratic donors have told the largest pro-Biden super PAC, Future Forward, that roughly $90 million in pledged donations is now on hold if President Biden remains atop the ticket, according to two people who have been briefed on the conversations.The frozen contributions include multiple eight-figure commitments, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation. The decision to withhold such enormous sums of money is one of the most concrete examples of the fallout from Mr. Biden’s poor debate performance at the end of June.Future Forward declined to comment on any conversations with donors or the amounts of any pledged money being withheld. A Future Forward adviser would say only that the group expected contributors who had paused donations to return once the current uncertainty about the ticket was resolved.Separately, one donor to the group described being approached multiple times by Future Forward since the debate for a contribution, but said he and his friends had been “holding off.”The two people briefed on the frozen pledges declined to say which individual donors were pulling back promised checks, which were estimated to total around or above $90 million. It was not clear how much of the pledged money was earmarked for Future Forward’s super PAC versus its nonprofit arm, which has also been running advertising in key battleground states.The cash freeze comes as some advisers around Mr. Biden are discussing how to persuade the president to exit the race, and as his campaign has begun to test Vice President Kamala Harris in head-to-head surveys of voters against former President Donald J. Trump. The number of congressional Democrats calling for Mr. Biden to step aside is growing by the day.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Biden Trumpets Small Donors as Rich Backers Retreat

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      In a nationally broadcast interview on Monday, President Biden pushed back on rich Democrats who want him to end his re-election campaign, saying, “I don’t care what the millionaires think.”Small donors, he made clear, were coming through for him.But hours later, Mr. Biden joined a private call with his top donors and fund-raisers to reassure them. “It matters,” he told them of their support.The seemingly contradictory messages show the conundrum facing the president as he grapples with the fallout from his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump last month. In order to continue to fund his presidential campaign, Mr. Biden will most likely need the support of wealthy Democratic Party backers, but they have been among the loudest voices calling for him to end his bid for re-election.In trying to diffuse their opposition, Mr. Biden — a politician who has long relied on the party’s establishment to fund his campaign — has adopted a surprisingly populist anti-elite message that, in some ways, echoes Mr. Trump’s.Major donors are warning that the party will lose the White House and down-ballot races with Mr. Biden atop the ticket. A growing chorus of donors has been pushing — first quietly, then publicly — for him to step aside to allow a replacement nominee and threatening to withhold their cash unless that happens.While Mr. Biden’s campaign has continued to court wealthy Democrats, including working to schedule fund-raising receptions despite uncertain interest, the president has also publicly cast the backlash from major donors as a sign that he is sticking up for regular people against moneyed interests. But polls showing that many rank-and-file Democratic voters also have deep concerns about his age.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More