Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has been appealing to business leaders and CEOs as she seeks to clarify her positions and policies ahead of the 2024 election.
Mark Cuban is one of hundreds of venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs who have voiced their support for Harris. The billionaire emailed Business Insider some notes about what he likes about the candidate (healthcare transparency) and what he’d like to see from Harris as a business leader if she were pitched by the campaign (more on cryptocurrency).
Harris had been meeting with business executives behind the scenes in the months before she became President-elect Joe Biden’s top candidate, The New York Times reported in July. Campaign supporters have been privately speaking with executives during this week’s Democratic National Convention to make the case for why the vice president would be a good fit for American business, CNBC reported Wednesday.
Harris has positioned herself as a pro-business figure, promising to make it easier for new entrepreneurs to start their own businesses by cutting “unnecessary bureaucracy and unnecessary regulatory burdens” and is also seeking to win the support of labor unions.
But the vice president has not released a detailed economic plan, and critics say proposals released so far on curbing price gouging and providing subsidies to first-time homebuyers lack substance and that policies such as raising corporate taxes are carryovers from the Biden administration.
Broadly speaking, the campaign so far has focused on helping low- and middle-income Americans, Business Insider’s Laila Maidan reported.
A Harris campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Cuban has already voiced his support for Harris and defended some of her policy proposals, but added in an email to BI that “the devil is in the details.”
Here are some of the qualities and policy approaches Cuban shared with us that other CEOs would like to see in Harris:
“Not an ideologue”
Cuban said in an email to BI that he was looking for a candidate who was “not an ideologue,” which may have been a less-than-subtle jab at Harris’ Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, who critics have repeatedly described as an ideologue.
The billionaire added that he wanted someone who was “down-to-earth and open-minded,” and “that’s exactly what she is.”
Self-awareness
Cuban wrote that another attribute that distinguishes Harris from Trump is her self-awareness, which will serve her well as she tries to woo business leaders.
“One of the things that sets KH apart from her Republican opponents is that she’s self-aware,” he wrote. “She knows what she doesn’t know, and she’s willing to listen to businesses, from the little corner yogurt shop to the industry giants.”
Support for employees
Cuban argued that Harris is a pro-business candidate who wants to help businesses and organizations, but also their employees.
“She wants all of her companies to succeed,” Cuban wrote. “She just wants her employees to share in that success. I don’t think any entrepreneur or CEO would disagree with that.”
Cryptocurrency Clarification
Cuban, the cryptocurrency investor, told BI in a separate interview that he is intrigued by Harris’ call for “regulatory clarity” regarding the digital asset industry.
Brian Nelson, a policy adviser to Harris’ campaign, said during a Bloomberg News roundtable on Wednesday that the vice president would support the cryptocurrency market in a way that allows it to thrive while still providing safeguards.
“She would support policies that ensure that emerging technologies and those kinds of industries can continue to grow,” Nelson said during the conversation, acknowledging the need for “stable rules, rules of the road.”
Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryal Shirzad told X that he has been involved in “numerous discussions with the Harris team” and that Nelson’s comments were a “step in the right direction.”
Transparency in healthcare
This may be especially true for people like Cuban, who has been pushing to reduce drug costs through his low-cost drug mail-order service, Cost Plus Drugs.
But the billionaire told BI he appreciates that Harris “spoke about transparency in healthcare.”
Harris laid out her economic agenda at a rally on August 16, vowing to lower prescription drug prices, “demand transparency” on drug pricing and forgive medical debt for millions of Americans.
“Obviously, the devil is in the details,” Cuban added, “but so far I like what I’ve heard.”
If you are a CEO or business owner who is still undecided about the 2024 election, please call Lloyd Lee at (646) 768-1630 or email him at lloydlee@businessinsider.com for the Signal number.
