Harris gets money on Wall Street, while Musk rejects Trump

While polls show the race to be extremely close, Harris has pulled ahead in the money chase. She boosted her war chest in August after raising $361 million, while Trump spent $32 million more than the $130 million he raised when launched an expensive advertising campaign to dampen its momentum. His super-allied Political Action Committee has depleted some of their cash reserves.

Trump received support from new sources, including donors from the crypto industry, whom he has courted assiduously, and some longtime Republican donors who have recently begun supporting him, such as hedge fund manager Paul Singer, who did not contributed to his previous campaigns.

The documents recorded the largest reported gift from Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. and CEO of SpaceX. He gave $289,100, the maximum amount, to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which supports GOP House candidates. Musk also created a super PAC this year to support Trump and House Republicans, who have spent millions in recent weeks. He won’t reveal his donors until next month.

The new support for Trump was not enough to offset the costs of launching expensive advertising campaigns. Harris and his main super PAC, Future Forward PAC, booked $421 million in paid media from September through Election Day, nearly double the $216 million for Trump and his ally MAGA Inc. PAC.

Kamala Harris

• Harris and the Democratic Party raised $361 million in August and entered September with $404 million in cash.
• Future Forward PAC, her super PAC ally, raised $36 million and had $84 million on hand.

Harris’ campaign held many fundraising events, including stops in San Francisco, when she tapped into her network of donors in her home state of California, and in the Hamptons on Long Island.

Financial industry donors included Bruce Karsh of Oaktree Capital Management LLC, Robert Stavis of Bessemer Venture Partners and I Squared Capital co-founder Sadek Wahba. Also donating were Janice Savin Williams of Siebert Williams Shanke, legendary oil trader Andy Hall, Glenn Fuhrman, who managed money for Michael Dell, and E. John Rosenwald, a vice chairman at JPMorgan Chase.

Stars Scarlett Johansson, Carol Burnett, Frances McDormand, Mayim Bialik and Alan Alda were among the donors. Fashion brand founders Stacey Bendet of Alice + Olivia and Rebecca Hessel Cohen of LoveShackFancy also gave.

Bronson van Wyck, known for designing and planning Trump donor Stephen Schwarzman’s 70th birthday party, joined Florida columnist Carl Hiaasen and Susan Fales-Hill, writer and television producer, as Harris donors.

Harris’ super ally Future Forward PAC received $3 million each from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and the Pacific Environmental Coalition, a nonprofit led by tech venture capitalist Matt Cohler. Cohler’s nonprofit donated to Nikki Haley’s super PAC in the Republican primary. Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Ripple Labs co-founder Christian Larsen each gave $1 million, the latter in the form of the XRP cryptocurrency.

(Hastings, co-founder and executive chairman of Netflix, sits on the board of Bloomberg Inc.)

Donald Trump

• Trump and the GOP raised $130 million in August and ended the month with $295 million in the bank
• Super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $25 million and closed in September with $59 million

Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, Interactive Brokers Group chairman Thomas Peterffy and Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Edward Glazer were among the big donors to the Trump campaign and the Republican Party since August.

Joseph Craft of Alliance Resource Partners LP, casino owners Frank Fertitta and Lorenzo Fertitta and country singer Lee Greenwood, who performed at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, also contributed.

Wall Street donors who gave to Trump included hedge fund manager Andrew Rechtschaffen, John Sargent of Rockefeller Capital Management and Emil Henry of Tiger Infrastructure Parts LP.

Diane Hendricks, the billionaire owner of ABC Supply Co., gave MAGA Inc. 10 million dollars. She was a featured speaker at the Milwaukee convention, described in the program as an “everyday American.” Cantor Fitzgerald’s Howard Lutnick, who hosted an August event in the Hamptons for Trump that raised $15 million, and Singer each gave $5 million.

Other Trump-supporting super PACs, including Musk’s America PAC and billionaire Miriam Adelson’s Preserve America, will not report detailed information about their finances until Oct. 15.