Deep Blue California Is a Piggy Bank for Kamala Harris — and Donald Trump: How They’re Trying to Cash In

But the money Trump and Vance raise in California will likely be spent in key swing states, he said.

“Our votes are no longer the commodity that makes California relevant in presidential elections. It’s our money.”

“Adrenaline rush”

California donors will play a key role for Harris, and she may have a better chance of raising money from them than she did during her 2020 presidential campaign.

Harris — then a first-term U.S. senator from California — was struggling to raise the cash she needed to stand out in the crowded Democratic primary field. Half of her fundraisers — the people who collect checks on her behalf — were also fundraising for and donating to her rivals a month into Harris’ campaign.

Just one day after Harris was elected to succeed Biden, she raised $81 million, nearly twice the $44 million she raised in the entire 11 months of her earlier campaign.

A Zoom fundraiser Sunday organized by a group called “Win ​​With Black Women” drew more than 44,000 attendees, with another 50,000 “unable to join” the call, said Schroedel, a Democratic fundraiser. The event raised $1.5 million in three hours, Bloomberg reported.

Harris’ momentum “defies every conceivable stereotype,” Schroedel said. Historically, black women running for office have had difficulty amassing sufficient financial support, she noted.

Schroedel said the timing of Biden’s withdrawal and endorsement helped Harris. Harris quickly consolidated support among party delegates and key Democratic leaders, leaving little room for others to challenge her. “This is the opportunity of the hour,” Schroedel said.

Democrats are now counting on Harris to prevent a second Trump term, Schroedel added. Harris also has taken a bolder stance on abortion rights than Biden, who has rarely used the term “abortion,” Schroedel said: “She’s willing and able to talk about it in a much more profound and personal, profound way.”

At a Thursday call for Democratic women, featuring state Sen. Angelique Ashby, a Sacramento Democrat, participants came from Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona. Speakers cast the November election as a fight to advance reproductive freedom or roll it back.

“I think the scariest thing right now is that men in this race, men on the other side, would like to define us,” Ashby said.

San Francisco activist Kimberly Ellis urged attendees — especially Black women — to volunteer and contribute to races up and down the ballot. “This moment is not just about electing the first female president of the United States of America. This moment is also about taking back Congress, keeping the Senate, flipping those swing districts that we need, and making sure that we’re electing women, women of color, and Black women at the local level,” she said.

The fundraising drive shows excitement about Harris, and memes related to Harris have gone viral on social media platforms, which could resonate with young voters, said Kevin Liao, a Democratic consultant who worked on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential bid in Massachusetts and then Biden’s 2020 campaign in Nevada.

“The party was in a state of stagnation after the first debate,” Liao said. “(Harris) was like a shot of adrenaline and energy for the party.”

Harris’ personal relationships could help open doors. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, was an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles for 30 years, and Harris is also friends with some Democratic mega-donors and fundraisers, such as Susie Tompkins Buell and Chrisette Hudlin.

“Her current relationships, coupled with the fact that donors are not as enthusiastic about Biden, put her in a really good position to make a big gain,” Grose said.

Silicon Valley Elegy

The personal relationships Vance built in Silicon Valley also helped solidify Trump’s support among California’s wealthiest residents, even though the region overwhelmingly backed Biden in 2020.

Last month, Vance hosted a fundraiser for Trump in San Francisco and introduced the former president to prominent entrepreneurs — including David Sacks, The New York Times reported. Days later, Sacks hosted Trump at his own $20 million Pacific Heights mansion, raising more than $12 million.

“If you have a tech-savvy buddy who’s a venture capitalist who’s now in the running to become the second most powerful person in America and a potential presidential candidate in four years, that sounds pretty cool,” Fleischman said.

Despite his time in California, Vance is better known for “Hillbilly Elegy,” his bestselling memoir about growing up poor in Ohio. It’s that dual background that could help Trump gain traction with economically conservative donors in Silicon Valley, as well as win working-class votes in Midwestern states, said Cathy Abernathy, a longtime GOP strategist and ally of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“The tech world and the Rust Belt are somehow on the same wavelength when it comes to someone like Vance,” she said.

Even before Trump chose Vance, some Silicon Valley tycoons were warming to the former president.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, for example, endorsed Trump shortly after the attempted assassination two weeks ago, and his allies helped set up a super PAC to support Trump. Hedge fund executive Bill Ackman, who has largely supported Democrats, also endorsed Trump after the shooting. Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, who founded venture capital firm A16Z, also support Trump.

It has been difficult to raise money for Republicans in the Bay Area over the past two decades, where only Democrats have been elected, Abernathy said. But a growing number The support from some Silicon Valley executives is a signal of growing dissatisfaction with Democratic policies on technology, taxes and crime, she said.

Some executives pointed to the Biden administration’s antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google, federal investigations into cryptocurrency companies and Biden’s proposal to increase the capital gains tax, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“How much rhetoric does it take to hear that the rich aren’t paying enough and we want to raise more taxes?” Fleischman said. “Well, at some point, rich people don’t like to hear that.”