Joe Biden’s campaign is hurting for cash and increasingly reliant on the pro- Biden super PAC, Unite the Country, for help. Unite the Country is spending big in early states — the super PAC threw over $5.5 million into Iowa and is now expanding into South Carolina. But the Unite the Country donors swooping in to save Biden’s messaging efforts build on the super PAC’s established base of corporate lobbyists and consultants. Unite the Country recently picked up new supporters from private equity, venture capital, real estate, and other sectors that may be looking for favorable policies or to influence strategic appointments.
Headliners include the president of private equity firm Blum Capital Richard Blum, who donated $1 million to United the Country. Blum and his spouse, Senator Dianne Feinstein, have jointly raised over $25,000 for Biden’s campaign. Blum’s real estate firm CBRE Group has drawn scrutiny for lucrative contracts with the FDIC and USPS, the latter of which is costing the Postal Service millions of dollars a year in lease overpayments.
Unite the Country also picked up $150,000 in donations from three executives at Blackstone: Tony James, John McCormick, and Perry Verdun. Executive Vice Chairman Tony James appears to be hedging his bets, as he also donated $15,000 to the Pete Buttigieg-supporting super PAC VoteVets late last month. James is also a Buttigieg bundler. Michael Sacks of private equity firm Grosvenor Capital Management, who has already raised at least $25,000 for Biden’s campaign, donated $100,000. Bernard Aronson, founder of private equity firm ACON Investments, donated $15,000.
These firms have an economic interest in restricting federal oversight from their behavior. Private equity groups, including Blackstone, have been under fire for everything from bankrupting grocery chains to the global housing crisis to surprise medical billing.
Of course, private equity isn’t the only type of private investment fund. Players in its cousin, the venture capital industry, are warming to Biden as well. Doug Hickey, a former venture capitalist with Hummer Winblad and Biden bundler, donated $100,000 to Unite the Country. Hickey also bundled for Barack Obama and was later appointed to a role at the State Department. Venture capitalist and Wicklow Capital CEO Daniel Tierney also donated $100,000. Ron and Christopher Conway of the San Francisco angel investment firm SV Angel donated a total of $275,000 to the super PAC.
And Biden’s popularity with real estate moguls hasn’t dwindled either: Unite the Country received $50,000 from Kenneth Fisher, a partner at DC- and NYC- based real estate firm Fisher Brothers, as well as another $50,000 from Robert Friedman, president of the California- based YF Group.
Unite the Country also received donations from Silicon Valley techie types: Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia contributed $100,000. Airbnb settled a discrimination suit last year after a Harvard study found black guests were being discriminated against, and has faced criticism over its role in rising rents. Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman contributed $500,000 after previously splitting his support among several candidates, including Cory Booker. Hoffman co-founded Acronym, the group behind the app that caused a fiasco during the Iowa caucuses.
Unite the Country also received a major contribution of $750,000 from Masimo CEO Joe Kiani. The medical technology exec is a Biden bundler and recently hosted a fundraiser for Biden organized by the co-chair of The Blue Dog Coalition, Representative Lou Correa.
Unite the Country donors’ proximity to Biden’s campaign and deep pockets during the cash crunch may shed light onto the policies and appointments Biden might pursue if he wins the nomination. While Biden is not beholden to his donors, their specific interests in reducing federal oversight of private equity, real estate, and the tech sector might still be an indication of what to expect from a Biden administration.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy