Kamala Harris donors say early support made them ready to seize this moment

(WASHINGTON) — America has no shortage of big donors or political fundraisers, but five years ago, a relatively small group of people looked at the crowded Democratic field in U.S. presidential election and came to the same conclusion – they would use their money and influence to support a young senator with little national recognition at the time: Kamala Harris.

Some are familiar names to those who follow campaign finance, media titans with known eyes for plucking promising talent out of large pools: superstar Hollywood talent agent Bryan Lourd, Emmy-winning “Glee” producer Ryan Murphy, filmmaker J.J. Abrams, Jeff Shell – now the president of Paramount Global – and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

But like most campaigns, other early supporters were less well known or moneyed but just as vital: grassroots activists who energized neighbors and posted on social media to drive donations for the woman they wanted to see one day shatter the highest and hardest glass ceiling in America.

“She was not focused on how much money did somebody raise. She was focused on ‘we’re building a community, a network, and a family that believes in my message and wants to help get it to the rest of the country,’ Harris’ 2019 National Finance Chair Jon Henes told ABC News, noting that they raised over 40 million dollars during her primary campaign.

He added, “If you just leave it up to people who can write a big check, you’re not going to be able to build a real movement.”

ABC News spoke to over 25 people from Harris’ 2019 national finance committee, a group in charge of raising money and galvanizing communities to support their candidate. Some of them were known to Harris as a part of her “Ride or Die” crew.

“The finance committee was so diverse – racially, geographically, professionally. It laid the groundwork for this moment,” Henes said. “So what we’re seeing now with these Zoom calls to raise money and the rallies shows the excitement and diversity coming to play.”

The presidential campaign they invested in then fizzled out two months before the 2020 Iowa caucus. Now, however, it has come roaring back – no surprise to many supporters who had watched Harris’ ascent long before the world knew her name.

The prescient early supporters

Neil Makhija, commissioner of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, first met Harris in 2010 when she was running for California attorney general. “I walked up to her and said I had not been that inspired since I heard Barack Obama,” he told ABC News, adding that he further told Harris she would be president one day.

Multiple “bundlers,” as they’re called – people who collect donations from multiple contributors for a candidate and deliver them as a single, large donation – said they saw the same quality in Harris.

Kimberly Marteau Emerson, the regional co-chair of the Southern California Harris Victory Fund PAC, said she also first met Harris in 2010 when she was running for California attorney general. Nearly a decade later, shortly before Harris launched her presidential campaign in 2019, Emerson watched her at an event publicizing her book.

“She communicates like Barack Obama. She is that good. She is a great storyteller,” Emerson says she told her husband, John B. Emerson, also a Harris PAC regional co-chair as well as a Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegate. “She spoke in a way that helped us relate to her and each other. There was a common humanity.”

Emerson said she and her husband knew many candidates who were running in 2020. But the day Harris announced, Emerson texted her: “I’m in.”

Many of Harris’ supporters point to her ability to connect with people. “I thought she had a great people’s touch. And an interest in people in all walks of life,” Wells Fargo Vice Chairman of Investment Banking Frederick Terrell told ABC News. “She was intellectually curious, our conversations were engaging … She will make a fabulous president.”

Yet some people stressed that winning wasn’t the only factor in their decision to invest in Harris.

“I’m a values-based supporter. I’m not a frontrunner supporter,” said Jill Louis, who was one of Harris’ 38 line sisters at the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Alpha Chapter at Howard University. “We came up in a time when we believed this country stood for freedom and equality … that’s what we’re so steeped in.”

Jubilation over the new likely Democratic nominee

Many donors with whom ABC News spoke for this story said they have been playing the long game in supporting her. And now, with fewer than 100 days remaining before Election Day, many said they’ve never before experienced this level of excitement in politics.

Just an hour after Biden announced on July 21 that he was no longer seeking reelection, top donor and bundler Alex Heckler was in the audience of the Broadway musical “Suffs,” based on the women’s suffrage movement a century ago and co-produced by Hillary Clinton. As the curtain opened and before the lead actress delivered her first line, Heckler recalls, something unexpected happened.

“Before she can say a word, there was an outrageous applause. People started chanting ‘Kamala’ for a minute,” Heckler told ABC News. “I had chills. People in the crowd were crying.”

Wanda James, a DNC delegate from Colorado, said realizing that Harris would likely be the Democratic presidential nominee took her back to former President Obama’s first campaign.

“I feel all 2008 … You could hear the Beatles singing ‘Here Comes the Sun,’ James said. “My phone was ringing and buzzing so much, my phone was hot.”

Others told ABC News that while they were initially relieved and excited by the news that Biden had stepped down and endorsed Harris for the Oval Office, they are also facing a blunt reality.

“Donors recognize it’s more difficult electing a Black woman – [a] double whammy in this world of misogyny and sexism,” said Susie Tompkins Buell, a longtime Democratic donor and activist who’s also a close friend of Hillary Clinton’s, for whom she also was a campaign bundler. Yet Buell also feels Harris is the clear pick to support.

“It’s so obvious. She has the aura. She’s tenacious. She has it all,” Buell declared, but added that supporters “need to understand the reality of this process … This is uncharted territory for all of us.”

Harris’ VP pick

Should Harris secure the Democratic presidential nomination, one of her first tasks will be to select a vice presidential running mate, a process that has already begun.

Areva Martin, a California at-large Democratic delegate who has known Harris since they were both college freshmen, says she’s comforted by the fact that that Harris is supported by strong Democratic leaders.

“I like that she picked Eric Holder to do the vetting,” Martin said, referring to Barack Obama’s former attorney general. “I think he’s brilliant. Bringing Holder in is bringing the Obama coalition.”

ABC News has confirmed the two frontrunners for Harris’ VP pick remain Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Governor Mark Shapiro. Nearly every donor with whom ABC News spoke said they supported both.

Yet a few donors had different ideas. Takeila Hannah, who held the first large fundraiser for Harris in North Carolina during her 2019 campaign, said prior to state Gov. Roy Cooper announcing on July 29 that he was withdrawing from consideration for the position that she would also strongly support him for the job.

“What they have in common is they’ve both been [attorneys general] of states. That’s a language they can speak … they both come from the law,” said Hannah.

Dr. Manan Trivedi, a Democratic donor and former candidate for Pennsylvania’s 6th congressional district, echoed several others with whom ABC News spoke in saying he hoped Harris would make a more unconventional pick to continue shaking up the race. His choice is Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“I know it’s not going to happen. But as a dad of two daughters and a successful wife, I think we’re overdue,” Trivedi said. “And I think Gretchen Whitmer is a dominant force and we need Michigan; it’s not just because she’s female. She has a great record and it brings the race into stark contrast.”

Looking ahead

Since President Biden withdrew from the presidential race just over one week ago, the Harris campaign said it has so far raised over $200 million, including the record-shattering $81 million in donations it received in the 24 hours immediately following Biden’s announcement. That enthusiasm, some donors believe, demonstrates high-level support for the candidate.

Asif Mahmood was deputy national finance chair for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, as well as the financial point person for Asian outreach for Harris’ 2019 campaign. He notes that there are “stark differences” between 2016 and now that work in Harris’ favor, one of which is the major boost Harris has received due to the presidential race focusing on Biden’s age and other perceived weaknesses for as long as it did.

“In 25 years, I haven’t seen the energy Kamala is enjoying right now,” Asif told ABC News. “This is more than Obama energy.”

Even so, Asif said, the campaign cannot afford to be complacent, particularly regarding the swing states that Clinton lost to Trump in 2016. He expects campaign workers to visit those states to bolster efforts there.

Fundraiser Tina Duryea, who’s also a Connecticut delegate to the Democratic National Convention, said it’s not just the big checks that are significant in this moment. Duryea says she raised a respectable amount of money for Harris from grassroots supporters in the 24 hours after Biden’s withdrawal.

“I did TikToks, Facebook posts, Threads, Instagram, and raised 30 thousand from small-donor donations,” Duryea told ABC News.

Michael Kempner, founder and CEO of the global PR film MikeWorldWide, who’s accustomed to collecting high-dollar donations for Democratic candidates, said the Harris candidacy is generating renewed interest from potential supporters.

“I’ve received close to a 100 texts, emails and calls from people who want to be more involved who previously were not enthusiastic,” Kempner said. “The level of excitement feels Obama-esque. There’s a level of enthusiasm [that] in my 40 years I have never experienced.”