Harris endorsed vs. Trump by Murdoch heir, CEOs of Yelp, Box Ripple
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at the Throwback Brewery, in North Hampton, New Hampshire, on September 4, 2024.
Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Eighty-eight current and former top executives from across corporate America have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president in a new letter shared exclusively with CNBC.
Among the signers are several high-profile CEOs of public companies, including Aaron Levie of Box, Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp and Michael Lynton, chairman of Snap, Inc.
Other signers appear to be issuing their first public endorsements of Harris since she became the de facto Democratic nominee in July.
They include James Murdoch, the former CEO of 21st Century Fox and an heir to the Murdoch family media empire, and crypto executive Chris Larsen, co-founder of the Ripple blockchain platform.
Other notable signers are philanthropist Lynn Forrester de Rothschild, private equity billionaire José Feliciano, Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson, and D.C. sports magnate Ted Leonsis, owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Mystics and the NHL’s Washington Capitals.
The three-page list also includes a slate of longtime Democratic political donors, like Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr, Insight partners Deven Parekh and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former chairman of Walt Disney Studios.
Another subset of names are people who have supported Harris in particular since her political campaigns in California, like the philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and NBA Hall-of-Famer and billionaire businessman Magic Johnson.
More than a dozen of the signers made their fortunes on Wall Street: Tony James, the former president and COO of Blackstone and founder of Jefferson River Capital; Bruce Heyman, former managing director of private wealth at Goldman Sachs; Peter Orszag, CEO of Lazard and Steve Westly managing director of the Westly Group and a former Tesla board member.
Still more are prominent in Silicon Valley, including the venture capitalist Ron Conway, entrepreneur Mark Cuban, and former LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman.
After all these, however, the lion’s share of the 88 signers who endorsed Harris are former CEOs of major public companies.
They include former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Barry Diller of Paramount, Ken Frazier of Merck, Logan Green of Lyft, Blake Irving of GoDaddy, Alan Mulally of Ford, Laxman Narasimhan of Starbucks, and Dan Schulman of PayPal.
A strategic purpose
Considering how long the list of names runs, the endorsement letter itself is relatively short.
“The best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy” is by electing Harris president, the writers say.
They also argue that Harris would “continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment” if she were president.
The reason for the long list and the…
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