Michael R. Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, recently donated about $50 million to a nonprofit organization supporting Kamala Harris’ presidential run, under pressure from billionaire Bill Gates, reports the New York Times. Investor Ron Conway and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn have also supported Harris with donations. Several billionaires are in fact, siding with the Kamala Harris’ presidential race while Elon Musk firmly backs Donald Trump.
In recent months, democrats had urged Mr. Bloomberg to consider a large donation to help Harris in her campaign for president. Mr. Bloomberg’s advisers have for months received pressing questions from Democratic supporters concerned about his apparent lack of interest.
As the New York Times reports, Mr. Bloomberg’s decision to act at this time with the donation is in keeping with his business strategy based in this case on the concept of first “confounding” Democrats by refusing to make investments early in the campaign, and then bolstering and supporting them with a large donation that comes just days before the election.
But unlike his previous large donations, this one was meant to remain hidden, and this secrecy has made unsuspecting Democrats more anxious than ever. Now, however, his contribution has gone to Future Forward USA Action, whose mission is to support the American middle class and American democracy — promoting new ideas and new perspectives. The organization is the main super PAC supporting Harris, which is a Political Action Committee that aims to raise money for or against a candidate.
A person following the story told the New York Times that Bloomberg met with Harris’ economic team to give feedback on her economic plan. The vice president then called Bloomberg to offer her appreciation. Bloomberg, has endorsed and supported Democratic presidential candidates since 2012 and earlier this year donated nearly $20 million to a super PAC, even though he supported President Joe Biden’s re-election bid at the time.
According to federal information, so far in this election cycle, the 82-year-old billionaire, who has declined to make public comments about his endorsement of Harris, has donated more than $42 million to Democratic candidates. The recent donation is less than the more than $151 million he donated during the 2020 election cycle.
