Donors Game Out A Kamala Harris Candidacy As Potential Joe Biden Exit Looms; VP, Katzenberg On Call Today With Contribut [View all]

[pstokely]

https://deadline.com/2024/07/kamala-harris-top-donors-pick-1236015961/#comments

“Trump’s speech was sh*t, a mess, but that’s not a good reason to get caught up in keeping Biden,” one deep-pocketed agency exec said this morning after the former president’s low-energy, record-long RNC remarks Thursday night. “The polls are too tight and getting worse for us.”

While some donors have misgivings about Harris, there also is some skepticism that any other Democrat could wage a successful campaign to challenge her, even if Biden releases his delegates but does not endorse. After three weeks of Democratic infighting, the pressure will be on to rally around Harris.

“I don’t see how somebody else runs without tearing the country apart,” said one top Democratic supporter. “If the goal is to beat Donald Trump, there should not be someone else in this race.”

That said, the idea of a change at the top of the ticket is being viewed by some with a tad more optimism following Trump’s meandering acceptance speech that, while riveting at the start as he talked of his assassination attempt, reverted to one of his standard rally speeches by the end. “It’s actually Trump’s nightmare, because we are doing reality TV better than he is,” the supporter said.