Why Some Donors Are Holding Back on Endorsing Harris (for Now)

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Why some big money is holding out for now After just one full day of campaigning, Vice President Kamala Harris has a glide path to the Democratic presidential nomination. She has won endorsements from potential rivals and from powerful party figures like Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker. The Harris campaign also said it had raised more than $100 million between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening. But some major Democratic donors, including Mike Bloomberg and the venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, have yet to endorse her. DealBook hit the phones to find out why. Big-ticket backers don’t want it to look like a coronation. The concern is that if they support Harris too soon, they would appear to be anointing their party’s presidential candidate, rather than her earning it through a full democratic process. That would be reminiscent of the old days of smoke-filled rooms — and, in their minds, risked backfiring politically. In a post on X on Monday, Bloomberg stressed that the nominating process should play out: While some elected leaders and party officials make their endorsements, there are still four weeks before the party’s more than 4,000 delegates convene in Chicago. That is more than enough time for the party to take the pulse of voters, especially in battleground states, to determine who is best positioned to win in November and lead the country over the next four years. And Khosla posted on X, “An open process will allow everyone a chance to make their case and express their views. Coronations are bad for democracy.”