Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has reportedly said it rejects money from lobbyists, but a Daily Caller News Foundation review of campaign finance records casts doubt on this claim.
Dozens of lobbyists have contributed to Harris’ campaign since the vice president took over President Joe Biden’s reelection operation on July 21, an analysis of Federal Election Commission (FEC) records shows. The deluge of lobbyist cash came after The New York Times and Politico reported that Harris was continuing Biden’s policy of not accepting direct contributions from individual lobbyists.
Lobbyists pouring money into Harris’ campaign work to influence policy on behalf of a wide range of industries, including everything from tech to marijuana, disclosures show. Organizations repped by Harris’ lobbyist donors include tobacco and vaping giant Altria, a marijuana interest group, Apple, the Dow Chemical Company and a bio-fuel trade group, among many others.
Harris has a history of pledging to forgo lobbyist cash but accepting it anyway, taking over $100,000 from lobbyists at firms such as DLA Piper, Venable, DCG and others during her 2020 presidential campaign, breaking her promise at the time, the Washington Examiner reported.
“Our campaign is not taking a dime from corporate PACs or lobbyists — and that was a very deliberate choice,” Harris promised in a February 2019 email to supporters, according to the Examiner. “Yes, it means we are leaving money on the table. But that’s ok with me.”
While FEC records indicate that the Harris campaign isn’t holding to its current promise to avoid donations from lobbyists, the pledge itself doesn’t prevent lobbyists from making contributions to support her election effort. The Democratic National Committee (DNC), which can spend funds to support Harris’ run for the White House, has no prohibition on accepting donations from lobbyists.
The Harris campaign is aware of this backdoor, sending vice presidential nominee Tim Walz to a lobbyist-heavy fundraising event hosted by former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe last week, according to Politico. Invites to the event, which ultimately raised $1.2 million, reportedly said that the Harris campaign does not accept donations from lobbyists but that the DNC does.
Harris, despite taking money from corporations and lobbyists during her time as a senator and presidential candidate, has long decried the influence of money on politics.
“I think that money has had such an outside influence on politics, and especially with the Supreme Court determining Citizens United, which basically means that big corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money influencing our campaigns, right?” Harris said in April 2018. “We’re all supposed to have an equal vote, but money has now really tipped the balance between an individual having equal power in an election to a corporation. So I’ve actually made a decision … that I’m not going to accept corporate PAC checks. I just, I’m not.”
Harris and her team have “a pretty open door” to lobbyists, according to Holland & Knight lobbyist, and former senior Harris advisor, Yasmin Nelson.
“On the issues that are important to her, she is definitely going to want to hear from people, and if they happen to be downtown, on K Street, and you’re best positioned to help her through that, then I think she will,” Nelson told the NYT. Nelson, who secured a meeting with Harris’ team in June, is also fundraising for her.
Harris has personal ties to the lobbying industry as second gentleman Doug Emhoff was previously a partner at DLA Piper, a law firm that does considerable lobbying work, according to disclosures. Andy Vargas, a former longtime aide to Harris, works as a senior vice president at Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying firm that has come under fire for lobbying on behalf of Turkey, Qatar and an organization reportedly linked to an Iranian-backed influence network.
Other groups represented by Harris’ lobbyist donors include the Motion Picture Association, the software company Adobe, the National Association of Realtors, the California Teachers Association and the Center for American Progress, according to FEC records.
The Harris campaign did not respond to the DCNF’s multiple requests for comment.
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