U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at Pullman Yards on March 9, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
Evelyn HochsteinReuter
Days after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley withdrew from the Republican presidential primary on March 6, the veteran media executive and Haley supporter spoke out. harry sloan Sloan received a call from movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, asking him to help President Joe Biden fight Donald Trump in the general election.
Sloan told CNBC in a recent interview that he has agreed to help raise money for Biden’s re-election bid and try to win Republican-leaning business leaders to support the president.
“The people I know are generally business Republicans, but they will listen to me,” Sloan said of supporting Biden. The former MGM chairman said he has already reached out to some people in his Rolodex and plans to host a fundraiser for Biden later this year.
Since Haley ended her campaign, Ms. Sloan has decided to support Mr. Biden over Mr. Trump, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations. He is said to be one of six people.
Katzenberg, co-chair of the Biden campaign, has been trying to bring wealthy Haley supporters into the Biden campaign since at least February.
But now that Haley has officially withdrawn from the race, the effort has gone too far.
Sloan and other Haley supporters also heard from Biden campaign finance chair Rufus Gifford, who is part of a WhatsApp group called Haley Supporters for Biden. He said he is doing so.
For the Biden campaign, successfully nabbing former Republican Haley donors would amount to a fundraising coup, stepping up the president’s political operations while removing these potential donors from the Trump campaign. .
Efforts to win over Haley donors also accelerated after President Trump threatened to blacklist them.
“Anyone who has ‘contributed’ to…” [Haley] From this moment on, you will be permanently banned from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them and we won’t accept them,” he said. I wrote it on Truth Social January 24th.
It’s worth noting that Haley did not endorse Trump when she withdrew from the race.
Mr. Sloan himself has become a major part of Mr. Biden’s fundraising arsenal. While Haley was still in the primary race, Sloan helped raise at least $550,000 for her bid for the White House, most of it on two separate occasions, including once at her home in Los Angeles. This was done through a fundraising campaign.
But Mr. Sloan is not a partisan donor. He has previously donated to candidates on both sides of the aisle, donating $100,000 to the pro-Biden political action committee Future Forward last year and making a separate donation to the Biden campaign. .
Mr. Sloan also donated $100,000 to a PAC supporting Ms. Haley, according to Federal Election Commission records. Another Republican who received a donation from Sloan is Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick.
Not a Trump fan at all
Barbara Comstock, formerly of Virginia republican party A congressman who co-chaired Haley’s campaign is also working against Trump’s candidacy.
“I support the efforts of Republican voters to oppose Trump. I also support the Republican Party in support of Ukraine,” Comstock told CNBC in an email. “I’m still thinking about what else would be most helpful.”
If Comstock chooses to include fundraising in his efforts, he said Republican voters opposed to Trump will work through a super PAC called Republican Accountability.
Supermarket PAC He recently announced plans to launch a $50 million general election effort to defeat Trump.
The project will feature videos from former President Trump voters explaining why they won’t support him again in 2024. The clips and quotes will appear on TV, radio, billboards and digital ads targeting voters in battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. , Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Super PACs are primarily funded by anti-Trump donors. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and major Democratic donor, donated $4 million to the group last year, according to campaign finance records. Mr. Hoffman also donated $250,000 to a pro-Haley PAC.
Hoffman’s political adviser, Dmitri Melhorn, told CNBC that Hoffman has donated at least $2 million to Republican accountability PACs so far this year.
Republican Accountability also received $2 million in 2023 from Defending Democracy Together, a political nonprofit led by Bill Kristol, an outspoken critic of President Trump and a former aide in the Reagan administration.
