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From the New York Times: Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, under extraordinary pressure from friends and fellow billionaires to do more to help Vice President Kamala Harris, recently donated about $50 million to a nonprofit organization that is supporting her presidential run, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.
The donation followed months of arm-twisting from associates such as Bill Gates, investor Ron Conway and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn. Mr. Bloomberg recently spoke with Ms. Harris in a private phone call, according to two people briefed on the conversation.
Mr. Bloomberg’s decision conforms to a strategy that has become his trademark: Confounding Democratic operatives by refusing to make early investments — only to come in hot and heavy in the homestretch. But unlike his previous big gifts, this one was intended to be kept under wraps, and that secrecy has made unaware Democrats more anxious than they have been most autumns.
His contribution was made to Future Forward USA Action, the dark-money vehicle of Future Forward, Ms. Harris’s main super PAC.
This comes just one week after it was revealed that Bill Gates’ had made a secret $50 million donation to a pro-Kamala dark-money super PAC.
Bloomberg, 82, has an estimated net worth of $105 billion, is the second largest disclosed individual donor to Democrats in this election cycle, after the investor and philanthropist George Soros, the Times wrote.
Bloomberg, who became registered Democrat in 2018, has shelled out a ton of money promoting Democrats, including $10 million to help Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012, $29 million in 2014 and $24 million in 2016 to his own Super PAC, and $95 million to help Democrats retake Congress in the 2018 midterms.
In a desperate effort to try to stop Trump, Bloomberg ran for president himself in 2020. Describing the last-ditch effort, the Times wrote, “he spent $1.1 billion in a real-world experiment on whether enormous money could buy votes. It couldn’t. He got creamed in the Democratic primaries.”
After his own presidential campaign fell flat, Bloomberg spent $100 million trying to help Joe Biden win Florida in the 2020 election, but that didn’t work either.
The NY Times explains that Bloomberg has given $47 million in federally disclosed political contributions during this election cycle, but doesn’t specify whether that was to help Harris or other Democrats.
The report notes that Bloomberg seemed to have misgivings about Harris running for president, and states that when Joe Biden endorsed Harris, “Bloomberg issued a statement that pointedly did not, and he was dismissive of her capabilities in a private conversation at the time.”
A few weeks ago, Bloomberg reportedly met with Harris’ economic team, and then she called him to follow up. Finally he caved and forked over the $50 million.
NEWS:
Mike Bloomberg puts $50 million more into the effort to elect Kamala Harris.
Bloomberg, after months of extraordinary pressure from fellow billionaires and his friends, donates big to Future Forward’s nonprofit arm.
Here’s how it all went down.https://t.co/9FAw6GNk7l
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) October 28, 2024
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