With help from Daniel Lippman PROGRAMMING NOTE: POLITICO Influence will not be publishing from Aug. 26 through Sept. 2. We’ll be back to our normal schedule on Tuesday, Sept. 3. KENNEDY CAMPAIGN CASH DRIES UP: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies blew tens of millions of dollars on his now-defunct presidential campaign, bolstered by large infusions of cash from his running mate Nicole Shanahan and Trump megadonor Timothy Mellon. — The Kennedy scion suspended his campaign in an announcement on Friday. During the meandering speech, Kennedy lambasted the Democratic Party as the party of “Big Tech” and “Big Money.” — But much of Kennedy’s own bid for the presidency was powered by major donors, including his vice presidential pick Shanahan, who was formerly married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. She poured about $15 million into the campaign and more into his super PAC, American Values 2024. Mellon, the banking heir, donated more than $25 million to the pro-Kennedy PAC. Mellon, notably, just recently gave an additional $50 million to back a pro-Trump super PAC. — Other notable donors to the pro-Kennedy super PAC included Mark Gorton, who gave $1 million (and co-founded the super PAC), and Leila Centner, who gave $1 million. — Before the announcement, Kennedy’s campaign cash had run close to dry. As of July 31, his campaign account had about $3.9 million cash on hand with $3.5 million in debt to Gavin de Becker and Associates, the eponymous security firm of Kennedy’s friend and donor de Becker, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. — But it’s not clear what may happen to the large chunk of change left in the pro-Kennedy super PAC. As of July 31 — according to the latest filing with the Federal Election Commission — the group, American Values 2024, had about $14 million cash on hand. — The super PAC did not respond to an inquiry about the status of the funds. Happy Friday, and welcome to POLITICO Influence. My name is Hailey Fuchs, and I’m your host of PI today. For those in D.C., I hope you’re enjoying the relatively temperate weather this week, and for those returning from Chicago, I hope you get some sleep this weekend! The newsletter will be off next week, but Caitlin will return to helm PI on Tuesday, Sept. 3. Send us all your money and politics tips hfuchs@politico.com and coprysko@politico.com. Follow us on X: @Hailey_Fuchs and @caitlinoprysko. DNC CASH BOOM: In other news, ActBlue announced that it had processed donations totaling more than $100 million in the week of the Democratic National Convention, as of noon on Friday. SPOTTED at lobbying firm BGR’s daily happy hour this week at Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, per a tipster: senior adviser to the president Steve Benjamin, Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, among others. The event was hosted by BGR’s Jonathan Mantz, Labriah Lee Holt, Syd Terry, Andy Lewin, Patrick Dolan, Lester Munson and Bill Viney. — We’re also told, per the tipster, that BGR hosted a golf outing for some members of Congress, where Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) got a hole-in-one (PI will believe it when we see it!). HARRIS’ DONOR DASH: POLITICO’s Jessica Piper reports some eyebrow-raising campaign finance statistics from the Harris campaign. — “Vice President Kamala Harris activated a flood of Democratic donors who had been on the sidelines, new data shows: More people donated to her campaign in its first 10 days than in the entire 15 months of President Joe Biden’s,” writes Piper. — “And most of the donors were new not only to the campaign but to giving to any Democrats this cycle.” — “Harris’ campaign and affiliated joint fundraising committees received contributions from nearly 2.3 million individual donors from July 21, when Biden dropped out of the race, through July 31, according to a detailed POLITICO analysis of new fundraising data. Biden had just shy of 2.1 million donors dating back to April 2023, when he formally launched his reelection bid. (In fact, Harris surpassed Biden a day earlier, on July 30.)” U.S. CHAMBER OUT OF NICARAGUA: The government of Nicaragua has shuttered the U.S. Chamber of Commerce operation in the country, according to the Associated Press. — “Nicaragua’s government closed another 151 nongovernmental organizations Thursday, among them some of the most important trade organizations, including the American Chamber of Commerce, coming just days after the government shuttered some 1,500 nongovernmental organizations, many of them religious in nature,” the AP said. — “The Interior Ministry also cancelled the legal status of the umbrella organization for European countries’ chambers of commerce in Nicaragua.” — “The U.S. chamber, known locally as AMCHAM, had been in existence in Nicaragua for 47 years. It focused on promoting investment and bilateral trade with Nicaragua’s most important trade partner. The Associated Press left messages with the chamber seeking comment on the move.” OPENAI JOINS LOBBYING FIGHT: “OpenAI is opposing a bill in California that would place new safety requirements on artificial intelligence companies, joining a chorus of tech leaders and politicians who have recently come out against the controversial legislation,” reports Bloomberg’s Shirin Ghaffary. — “The San Francisco-based startup said the bill would hurt innovation in the AI industry and argued that regulation on this issue should come from the federal government instead of the states, according to a letter sent to California State Senator Scott Wiener’s office on Wednesday and obtained by Bloomberg News. The letter also raised concerns that the bill, if passed, could have ‘broad and significant’ implications for US competitiveness on AI and national security.”
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