Invoice Gates has donated about $50 million to assist elect Vice President Kamala Harris, The New York Occasions reported Tuesday.
The donation was made privately to a nonprofit group referred to as Future Ahead, which is supporting Harris’ Democratic bid for president and was not meant to be made public, folks acquainted with Gates’ help informed the Occasions. The mammoth determine can be a shift for the Microsoft co-founder, who has usually prevented throwing his monetary may behind candidates on both aspect.
“I support candidates who demonstrate a clear commitment to improving health care, reducing poverty and fighting climate change in the U.S. and around the world,” he informed The New York Occasions in an announcement. “I have a long history of working with leaders across the political spectrum, but this election is different, with unprecedented significance for Americans and the most vulnerable people around the world.”
“This election is different,” he added when requested about his previous historical past straddling each events.
Photograph by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP through Getty Photos
Gates has not formally endorsed Harris, however the Occasions added that he has informed pals he’s involved about what may occur in a second Donald Trump presidency.
Future Ahead is the biggest tremendous PAC in America and has raised greater than $700 million, a lot of it by way of its nonprofit “dark money” arm that doesn’t disclose its donors. Different main benefactors embrace former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has given hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to the group.
Gates’ ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, has additionally given giant donations to teams supporting Harris’ bid and described her personal shift from the political sidelines in an interview with the Occasions earlier this month.
“Now I do get to make whatever decision I want to make about endorsing or not endorsing on my own,” she mentioned, referring to her 2021 divorce from Gates and her choice to step down from her household basis.
This 12 months’s election has attracted billions of {dollars} in donations and introduced in most of the nation’s richest Individuals, some who had beforehand vowed to remain out of politics. Essentially the most notable is tech mogul Elon Musk, the world’s richest individual, who has vocally supported Trump and skirted the road of federal election legal guidelines with a million-dollar sweepstakes for residents in swing states.
