Democrat megadonor George Soros is throwing his considerable wealth behind Kamala Harris now that President Joe Biden has dropped out.
His millennial son, to whom the 93-year-old entrusted the running of his $25 billion charitable foundation, urged the party to rally behind Biden’s vice-president at the top of the ticket. This would effectively avoid speed-running an open contest for the nomination with barely more than 100 days left until the Nov. 5 election.
“It’s time for us all to unite around Kamala Harris and beat Donald Trump. She is the best and most qualified candidate we have,” wrote Alex Soros, 38, the fourth of five children his father had with his two wives.
Although West Virginia senator and coal industrialist Joe Manchin is reportedly considering a run , it appears at this point that a Harris nomination could be inevitable—even if a swift coronation costs her legitimacy.
Some of her purported rivals for the candidacy, floated in recent weeks following Biden’s catastrophic debate performance , have endorsed her in the past few hours. These include Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Bronx Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the progressive wing of the party has also publicly backed the vice president.
Lastly, influential power brokers Bill and Hillary Clinton pledged Harris their support. Soros has longstanding ties with the duo: more than a decade ago he began raising funds for Hillary’s failed 2016 run. His son Alex just became engaged to Huma Abedin, one of Hilary Clinton's closest former aides.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk calls Harris a Soros puppet
Born to a Jewish family in Hungary in 1930, Soros grew up under the shadow of fascist Europe before managing to escape extermination at the hands of Hitler’s Nazis.
In 1956, he emigrated from London to New York, and eventually become a hedge fund speculator most famous for triggering a collapse in the British pound . He’s since used his billions to contribute philanthropically to the cause of multiculturalism in the West.
To his conservative opponents, however, his aspiration of pluralistic, open societies in reality mean mass illegal immigration that poses a direct threat to the cultural identity of nation states. Among his harshest critics is billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has likened the elder Soros to Jewish comic book supervillain Magneto and argued his organization “appears to want nothing less than the destruction of western civilization.”
On Sunday, the Tesla CEO, the world's wealthiest tycoon and now a diehard Trump supporter , sought to portray a Harris nomination as a stitch-up by the Soros dynasty and other party elites meant to bypass a contest in front of Democratic voters who were already deprived of any real choice during the regular primary season.
“I’d just like to thank Alex Soros for not keeping everyone in suspense about who the next puppet would be,” Musk posted on his social media platform.
Record amount of small dollar funds raised from grassroots
However, Biden’s base had already been ebbing away from the sitting president, even before a confused performance during the debate marked the beginning of the end for his re-election hopes.
Biden has suffered mightily for his steadfast support of Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza that has left well over 30,000 Palestinians dead , including thousands of children. The war is deeply unpopular among younger voters as well as America’s Muslim and ethnic Arab communities, including those in the crucial swing state of Michigan .
On Sunday, the donation platform for grassroots supporters dedicated to electing Democrats up and down the ticket said it raised nearly $47 million in a single day after Biden dropped out.
According to ActBlue, this is a record for its current 2024 campaign effort, while the New York Times reports suggest is the most collected in a single day since it received $74 million when Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died weeks prior to the November 2020 election.
This sudden avalanche suggests Biden’s candidacy suffered from a distinct lack of enthusiasm among its base, and it could change the calculus of the election if momentum persists.
“Small-dollar donors are fired up and ready,” ActBlue said.
By comparison, the record for wealthy party backers during a single event was the $28 million collected during a George Clooney fundraiser in June.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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