Within a minute or two, a free Sunday turned into a fundraising frenzy for Dale Schroedel.
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Shortly after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Schroedel — a San Francisco Democratic fundraiser for female candidates — was flooded with texts, calls and emails. From her living room, she began contacting donors for Harris for the first time.
“It just was non-stop … and I barely remember what happened the rest of the day,” said Schroedel, who raised money for Hillary Clinton’s two presidential bids and Rep. Barbara Lee’s U.S. Senate campaign this year. “The day was suddenly gone.”
The feverish fundraising highlights the historical significance of California money in presidential races. For decades, Democrats and Republicans alike have looked to the Golden State’s wealthiest donors. California — boasting ultra-affluent Silicon Valley and star-studded Hollywood — is often the top-giving state.
“When you see candidates making appearances in California, that’s just them making an appearance since they are here raising money,” said Republican consultant Jon Fleischman.
“The term that I prefer to use is performing a ‘cash-ectomy,’ which is really what it is,” he said. “It’s the surgical removal of cash from everybody’s pocket.”
The wealth is already helping Harris, an Oakland native and California’s favorite daughter who has decades-long personal relationships with some of the most prolific fundraisers. Some California Democratic mega donors — many of whom had paused their donations to Biden — pledged hundreds of millions to support Harris. Within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement, Harris raised a historic $81 million nationwide — the most anyone has ever raised in such a period in American history — including more than 500,000 first-time donors.
But Harris isn’t the only one with California ties.
U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio — former President Donald Trump’s running mate — brings a network of tech executives and crypto investors he built in the nearly five years he spent working in Silicon Valley. The experience is paying off: Vance frequently attends private dinners with tech moguls, many of whom have publicly endorsed the Republican ticket. A Vance fundraiser is set for Monday in Silicon Valley: $15,000 for dinner and a photo, $3,300 just for the meal. On Wednesday, he’s scheduled to collect checks at Harris Ranch in Coalinga.
‘It’s our money’
For decades, California has been a cash cow for Democrats nationwide. In 2020, money from the state helped Democrats book “every ad time slot” on TV in Atlanta and Philadelphia, said Christian Grose, professor of political science and public policy at the University of Southern California. Those are the biggest TV markets in those two key swing states, which helped put Biden in the White House.
But that same fundraising power served as leverage to force Biden to bow out of the 2024 race, Grose said.
Only comment….how sad Calif. has become so anti business, and anti Capitalist money flows to KH.
How the mighty have fallen.