Two Democratic donors — Charles Myers and Phil Munger, the son of Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner, Charles Munger — hosted a campaign reception featuring Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday in New York.
(Bloomberg) — Two Democratic donors — Charles Myers and Phil Munger, the son of Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner, Charles Munger — hosted a campaign reception featuring Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday in New York.
More than 50 donors attended the fundraiser at Myers’ residence on the Upper East Side, which raised about $650,000 for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. That total exceeded the target of $500,000, according to a source familiar with the matter. Drew Barrymore, an actress and talk-show host, was expected to be in attendance, but ultimately did not show.
Some donors had to be turned away from the list of attendees after the event reached capacity earlier in the week, the source said.
Myers, the chairman and founder of Signum Global Advisors LLC, has advised political campaigns for more than two decades, including Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid in 2016. Both Myers and Munger have a long history of political donations.
Harris made a one-day trip to donor-rich New York for the event as Biden’s campaign kicks into full swing.
The White House is positioning Harris, the first Black, Asian and woman US vice president for a top role on the campaign trail, as Democrats seek to elevate her amid low approval ratings and attacks from Republicans on Biden’s fitness for office at 80 years old.
The fundraiser fell on the same-day the White House rolled out a travel schedule for Harris over the next two months that includes stops in Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida and Indiana. The appearances will put the vice president in front of key constituencies, including Latino voters, Black Americans, young people and the faith community.
Those blocs were critical to Biden’s success in 2020, which saw the highest voter turnout in the last century.
Among the stops will be the national conference of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, one of the Black fraternities and sororities that make up the “Divine Nine.” Harris is a member of another one of the storied sororities, Alpha Kappa Alpha. Harris will also speak at the convention of Reverend Jesse Jackson’s social justice nonprofit, the Rainbow Push Coalition.
Other stops at major gatherings of the NAACP, UnidosUS and the African Methodist Episcopal Church will position Harris to speak to a range of domestic policy issues the administration has placed in her domain, including abortion, book bans and racial economic equity.
(Updates with details after event ended, starting in the second paragraph.)
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