WASHINGTON — Eighty-eight current and former executives from corporate America are endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president in a new letter shared exclusively with CNBC.
Among the signers were several well-known public company CEOs, including Aaron Levie BoxJeremy Stopelman cry and Chairman Michael Linton snapshot company.
Other signers appeared to publicly support Harris for the first time since she became the de facto Democratic nominee in July.
They include James Murdoch, the former CEO of 21st Century Fox and heir to the Murdoch family media empire, and Chris Larsen, co-founder of the Ripple blockchain platform and cryptocurrency executive.
Other notable signatories include philanthropist Lynn Forrester de Rothschild, private equity billionaire José Feliciano, twillio Co-founders Jeff Lawson and Washington, D.C. sports mogul Ted Leonsis, owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Mystics and NHL’s Washington Capitals.
The three-page list also includes a series of longtime Democratic political donors such as John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Insight partner Deven Parekh and Jeffrey Katzenberg, founder and managing partner of Wndr and former chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.
Another group of names are those who have supported Harris since her political campaign in California, such as philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz and NBA Hall of Famer and billionaire Magic Johnson Johnson.
More than a dozen signatories made their fortunes on Wall Street: Tony James, former president and operating officer black stone Founder of Jefferson River Capital; Bruce Heyman, former managing director of Goldman Sachs Private Wealth; Peter Orsager, CEO Lazard Steve Westly is Managing Director of Westly Group, formerly Tesla Board member.
There are more Silicon Valley luminaries, including venture capitalist Ron Conway, entrepreneur Mark Cuban and former LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman.
Most of the 88 signers supporting Harris are former CEOs of large public companies.
they include ex Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, former IAC Chairman Barry Diller Paramount Former CEO of Fox Corporation Merck Ken Frazier, CEO and Logan Green, former CEO Lyftprevious godadi Former CEO Blake Owen Ford former CEO alan mulally Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan and Dan Schulman (former CEO) PayPal.
strategic purpose
The endorsement letter itself is relatively short considering the length of the list.
The author said that “the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy” is to elect Harris as president.
They also believe that if Harris becomes president, she will “continue to promote fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability and a good business environment.”
The reason for such a long list and such a short letter is that the letter itself was not written to persuade the public to vote for Harris.
Instead, it was intended to provide a well-timed show of political force for Harris, who is running a tight race just four days before the first presidential debate.
Harris and Trump have spent the past week laying out their competing economic visions ahead of a Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC.
Harris Overview Proposals to support small businesses One plan increases the tax deduction for start-up costs tenfold, to a maximum of $50,000.
She also proposed Increase the top rate of capital gains tax The tax rate for those making more than $1 million a year would rise to 28% from the current 20%, but is well below the 39.6% level proposed by President Joe Biden.
Harris said she lowered Biden’s top rate in part because her goal was to encourage more private sector investment.
trump card developed its own competitive economic agenda In New York on Thursday, he called for a government efficiency commission aimed at rooting out fraud.
He also promised to cut the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% for companies making products in the United States.
Trump has also won the support of many prominent Wall Street figures and private-sector backers, including Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Ma Elon Musk.
The letter’s original organization can be traced to four of Harris’ top backers: Roger Altman, senior Harris chairman EvercoBlair Effron, co-founder of Centerview Partners, former American Express CEO Ken Chenault and former CEO Ursula Burns copy.
The genesis of the project was described to CNBC by a person familiar with the process who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe how the project came about.
Altman, Efron, Chenault and Burns organized the effort and then took the letter to Harris’ presidential campaign to demonstrate the vice president’s support in the business community.
The full text of the letter and a list of signatures are below.
We support Kamala Harris for President of the United States.
Her election is the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy. With Kamala Harris in the White House, the business community can be confident that they will have a president who wants American industry to thrive. As a partner with President Biden, Vice President Harris has a proven track record of pushing to stimulate U.S. business investment and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global marketplace. She will continue to promote fair and predictable policies, support the rule of law, stability and a good business environment, and work to provide every American with the opportunity to pursue the American dream.
- Roger Altman, founder and senior chairman of Evercore
- Shellye Archambeau, former CEO of MetricStream
- Carl Bass, former CEO of Autodesk
- Tom Bernstein, President and Co-Founder of Chelsea Piers
- Afasaneh Beschloss, founder and CEO of Rock Creek
- Jeff Bewkes, former CEO of Time Warner
- W. Michael Blumenthal, 64th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, former CEO of Bendix and Unisys
- Rosalind “Roz” Brewer, former CEO of Sam’s Club; former CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance; former COO of Starbucks
- Ursula Burns, former CEO of Xerox; Chairman of Teneo; Founding Partner of Integrum Holdings
- Maverick Carter, CEO of SpringHill
- Ken Chenault, Chairman and Managing Director, General Catalyst; Former Chairman and CEO, American Express
- Peter Chernin, co-founder and partner of TCG
- Tony Coles, Chairman and Former CEO of Cerevel
- Tim Collins, founder, CEO and senior managing director of Ripplewood
- Ron Conway, founder and managing partner of SV Angel
- Robert Crandall, former President and Chairman of American Airlines
- Mark Cuban, Various Entrepreneurial Endeavors, and “The Shark” on “Shark Tank”
- Richelieu Dennis, Founder and Executive Chairman of Sundial Group of Companies
- Barry Diller, Chairman and Senior CEO of IAC, Senior CEO of Expedia; former Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Fox Corporation
- John Doerr, Chairman of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
- Arnold Donald, former CEO of Carnival Corporation
- Blair Effron, partner and co-founder, Centerview Partners
- José E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Clearlake Capital Group
- David P. Fialkow, co-founder and managing director, General Catalyst
- Anne Finucane, former Vice Chairman of Bank of America
- Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO EL Rothschild
- Ken Frazier, former executive chairman, president and CEO of Merck & Co.
- Mark Gallogly, co-founder and executive director of Three Cairns Group; co-founder of China Bridge Partners
- Chad Gifford, former chairman of Bank of America
- David Grain, Founder and CEO of Grain Management
- Logan Green, chairman and former CEO of Lyft
- Daniel J. Halpern, Co-Founder and CEO, Jackmont Hospitality Group
- Bruce Heyman, former U.S. Ambassador to Canada and former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs’ Private Wealth Department
- Melody Hobson, Co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments; Chairman of Starbucks
- Roger Hochschild, former CEO and President of Discover Financial Services
- Reid Hoffman, Partner at Greylock Partners, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn
- Glenn Hutchins, Chairman of North Island or Co-Founder of Silver Lake
- Blake Irving, former CEO of GoDaddy
- Tony James, former president, CEO and executive vice chairman of Blackstone Group; founder of Jefferson River Capital
- David Jacobson, senior advisor and former vice chairman of BMO Financial Group; former U.S. Ambassador to Canada
- Alvin “Magic” Johnson, Chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises
- Brad Karp, Paul, Weiss Chairman
- Jeffrey Katzenberg, Founder and Managing Partner, WndrCo
- Ellen Kullman, President and CEO, Carbon3; Former Chairman and CEO, DuPont
- Todd Lachman, founder of Sovos brand
- Chris Larsen, co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple
- Jeff Lawson, former CEO of Twilio
- Ted Leonsis, CEO, Memorial Sports & Entertainment
- Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box
- Ed Lewis, former chairman and CEO of Essence Communications and co-founder of Essence Magazine
- William M. Lewis Jr.
- Michael Lynton, Chairman of Snap, Inc. and former CEO of Sony Entertainment
- Tracy V. Maitland, President and Chief Investment Officer, Advent Capital Management
- Helena Maus, CEO of Archetype and Marker Collective
- Marissa Mayer, co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Products, former CEO of Yahoo
- TJ McGill, co-founder, Evergreen Pacific Partners; Suzanne Sinegal McGill, co-founder, Rwanda Girls Initiative
- Danny Meyer, founder and executive chairman of Union Square Hotel Group
- Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder and CEO, Asana
- Alan Mulally, former Ford CEO
- Anne Mulcahy, former chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation
- James Murdoch, founder and CEO of Lupa Systems; former CEO of 21st Century Fox
- Laxman Narasimhan, former CEO of Starbucks
- Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
- Peter Orszag, former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and CEO of Lazard
- Deven J. Parekh, Managing Director, Insight Partners
- Sean Parker, founder of Napster; founder and chairman of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
- Charles Phillips, co-founder and managing partner of Recognize; former president of Oracle and former CEO of Infor;
- Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Corporation
- Penny Pritzker, 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce; Founder and Chairman of PSP Partners
- Vasant Prabhu, former chief financial officer and vice chairman of Visa
- Spencer Rascoff, founder and CEO of 75 & Sunny Ventures; co-founder and former CEO of Zillow
- Puneet Renji
- Rachel Romer, founder of Guild Education
- Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Senior Advisor, Centerview Partners
- Kevin P. Ryan, Co-Founder, MongoDB, Business Insider, GILT Groupe, Zola, Pearl Health, Affect Therapeutics and Transcend Therapeutics
- Faiza Saeed
- Dan Schulman, former president and CEO of PayPal
- Jim Sinegal, co-founder and former CEO of Costco
- Dan Springer, former CEO of Docusign
- Tom Steyer, founder and former co-senior managing partner of Farallon Capital
- Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp
- Scott Stuart, founder and managing partner of Sageview Capital
- Larry Summers, the 71st U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and President Emeritus of Harvard University
- Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO of Chobani
- Daniel Weiss, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Los Angeles Group
- Steve Westly, founder and managing partner of Westly Group
- Ron Williams, former CEO of Aetna
- Robert Wolf, former CEO of UBS Americas
