CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris’ business allies are privately making the case to CEOs why they should support her over former President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.
At private parties and meetings during the Democratic National Convention, business executives close to Ms Harris told CNBC they were tailoring their messaging to major companies in finance, technology and law.
Their argument is that a Harris presidency would be good for businesses because she wants to create a strong economy that helps the middle class, and that a Harris administration would offer businesses certainty on public policy that they wouldn’t get in a Trump White House, the people said.
Individuals involved in this effort were granted anonymity to describe private conversations.
At a party on Tuesday for tech executives and New York Democrats, some of the discussion focused on how to rally tech industry heavyweights, including lawmakers who lean more Republican than Democrat, to Harris’ support. Among the guests was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
The party took place at The Bunker in Chicago and was hosted by Tech:NYC, a tech trade group whose founding members include Bloomberg, Google, Meta, Union Square Ventures and Yahoo.
Another topic that has come up frequently this week is what positions a Harris administration would need to fill if it were to be formed.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York approached businessman and longtime Harris ally Charlie Phillips at Chicago’s Peninsula Hotel on Wednesday to tell him she thought he should serve in Harris’ Treasury Department.
As the speculation extends to who will be Harris’ Treasury secretary, one name being discussed among Harris’s aides at the convention this week is JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon, according to a person familiar with the matter.
A JPMorgan Chase spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the speculation.
Support from the CEO could add another boost to Harris’ already huge campaign coffers: New Federal Election Commission records show her campaign raised more than $200 million in July and had about $220 million on hand through August.
Harris fundraiser and Evercore vice chairman Charles Myers hosted a briefing Tuesday for about 60 CEOs and CFOs at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, according to people who attended.
The panel included Gene Sperling, an adviser to the Harris campaign, and Rebecca Patterson, a former chief investment strategist at Bridgewater Associates, the people said.
The official explained that the committee’s “message was that President Trump’s economic plans to raise tariffs and undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve would severely undermine existing trade agreements between the United States and its allies.”
Trump has said he would seek tariffs of at least 10% on goods from around the world if he were back in the White House, and has also said the president “should at least have a say” in setting interest rates, posing a potential challenge to the Federal Reserve’s independence.
A similar panel was led by Blackstone Vice Chairman Tom Nides, according to attendees, and included Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
Harris “is interested in business and workers working side by side,” Pritzker said at a separate Bloomberg event during the convention. “American businesses are interested, open and interested in working with Harris. I think Harris will take advantage of that opportunity.”
The lobbying effort to garner corporate backing for Harris comes after her campaign released the first parts of her economic policy plan last week.
The plan includes a goal of building 3 million new affordable housing units, enacting a federal ban on “price gouging” in the grocery industry, and providing a $6,000 tax credit for families with new babies.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonprofit budget hawk group, estimated that Harris’ plan would increase the deficit by $1.7 trillion over the next decade, it said in a new report.
In response to the report, Harris proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% to fund her proposals.
Congressional strategists and Democrats are keenly aware that for Harris’ economic plan to become a reality, the party will need majorities in both the House and the Senate.
Helping Democrats flip the House was the goal of a fundraiser for the Democratic House Campaign Committee on Tuesday.
Lawmakers told potential donors that if they wanted any of Harris’ plans to come to fruition, they had to help Democrats take back the House of Representatives, according to a person who attended the meeting.
