On the 2020 campaign trail, as Kamala Harris polled at just 10% to Joe Biden‘s 30% in the Democratic presidential primary, the then-California senator made a pledge to voters.
“Our campaign is not taking a dime from corporate PACs or lobbyists — and that was a very deliberate choice,” Harris, the soon-to-be vice president to President Joe Biden, told supporters in a February 2019 email. “Yes, it means we are leaving money on the table. But that’s ok with me.”
Campaign finance filings and Senate lobbying disclosures, however, tell a different story: Harris, through her then-presidential campaign and other committees, accepted donations during the 2020 race from both lobbyists and PACs affiliated with corporations. Now, as Harris assumes control over the tens of millions of dollars in Biden’s war chest following his decision not to run for reelection, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is being boosted once more by corporate-funded PACs and K Street, records show.
“It’s not a very solid pledge, because the money has so many avenues to flow into elections now,” said Craig Holman, an ethics lobbyist for the progressive Public Citizen think tank.
“I wish everybody would take the pledge not to take corporate and lobbyist money. But it’s going to get in elections no matter what,” added Holman, who said the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling “opened up the floodgates” for special interests to fuel campaigns.
Harris’s willingness to take the donations will likely open her up to hypocrisy charges from Republicans, who, since Biden’s announcement on Sunday, have accused Harris of lying about the octogenarian president’s health. Biden has only briefly appeared publicly since dropping out of the 2024 race and is slated to deliver an Oval Office address Wednesday evening. He has been isolating at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after his doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said he tested positive for COVID-19 a week ago. Biden, who saw Democrats rapidly turn on him after a lackluster debate performance in June against Trump, tested negative for the virus this Tuesday.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a top Trump ally in Congress, told the Washington Examiner Harris “lied when she said she wouldn’t receive corporate PAC money and lobbyist money just like she lied about Joe Biden’s health.” Many other congressional Democrats have swore off corporate money but either continued to take such contributions directly or done so through campaign finance loopholes, the Washington Examiner reported.
Months after Harris said in 2019 she swore off corporate PAC money, her leadership PAC took a $3,000 check in late December from the PAC for the shipping and receiving company UPS. Her 2020 presidential campaign also pocketed $2,800 in August 2020 from the Crowley Maritime Corporation, records show. Both donations were given after Harris dropped out of the race and appear to have been for her to pay down primary debt.
Motor City, a leadership PAC affiliated with Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) that is funded by major companies such as Delta Air Lines, Microsoft, Google, General Motors, and JPMorgan Chase, cut a $5,000 check to Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign in August 2020. Records show the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, which takes some corporate money from limited liability corporations, directed $2,500 to Harris’s leadership PAC in March 2020.
Over the years, committees tied to Harris took donations from Honeywell International, Cablevision Systems Corporation, Toyota, Home Depot, and other corporations, according to records.
“I think that money has had such an outside influence on politics, and especially with the Supreme Court determining Citizens United, which basically means that big corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money influencing our campaigns, right?” Harris said in April 2018. “We’re all supposed to have an equal vote, but money has now really tipped the balance between an individual having equal power in an election to a corporation. So I’ve actually made a decision … that I’m not going to accept corporate PAC checks. I just, I’m not.”
Meanwhile, despite her pledge to refuse money from K Street, Harris continued during her 2020 run to accept donations from registered lobbyists, financial disclosures show.
For instance, in October 2019, Harris’s then-presidential campaign took $2,800 from Patrick Brennan of the San Francisco-based firm Rooster LLC. Harris’s then-presidential campaign was also boosted by lobbyists at firms such as DLA Piper, Venable, DCG, and others, according to federal records.
The Intercept reported in April 2019 that Harris collected donations from lobbyists in South Carolina, New York, and California, including in the technology sector.
The 2024 war chest Harris now controls is, moreover, in part thanks to checks from registered lobbyists and corporate-funded PACs. And former aides to Harris are scattered at high-powered firms in Washington, D.C., including Holland & Knight, Invariant, WestExec Advisors, and companies such as Airbnb, Ford Motor Co., and Starbucks, Politico reported.
Andy Vargas, a former longtime aide to Harris, is senior vice president at Mercury Public Affairs, a firm that has faced scrutiny for representing Qatar, Turkey, and, just recently, a group linked to a covert Iranian government-controlled influence network.
Harris has, thus, forged crucial ties to the lobbying world as her profile has risen. Her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, has his own longtime connections to the corporate world given his prior role as a partner at DLA Piper and, before that, as managing director of Venable’s West Coast offices. Emhoff earned $1.2 million in partnership income from DLA Piper in 2020, as well as over $181,600 in income from Venable, according to Emhoff’s tax return that year released by the White House.
Harris received $131,000 combined during her 2020 presidential run from employees at DLA Piper and Venable. Recent DLA Piper and Venable clients include the likes of American Airlines, Meta, Lockheed Martin, Discover, Mercedes-Benz Group, PGA Tour, and OpenAI.
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Since last May, the 2024 Biden-turned-Harris campaign has scooped up at least $115,000 from employees at DLA Piper and Venable, records show.
The Harris campaign did not return a request for comment.
