Kamala Harris Endorsed for President by 88 Business Leaders Including James Murdoch, Peter Chernin, Mark Cuban, Barry Diller
VP Kamala Harris has garnered support for her 2024 presidential campaign from executives spanning multiple industry sectors including Hollywood in a new open letter signed by 88 business leaders.
Signatories to the letter, first reported by CNBC, include James Murdoch, founder and CEO of investment firm Lupa Systems and former CEO of 21st Century Fox — whose political leanings are sharply divergent from those of his father, conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
More from Variety
Hollywood names on the list include Peter Chernin, co-founder and partner of the Chernin Group holding company; Jeff Bewkes, former CEO of Time Warner; Barry Diller, chairman of IAC and former CEO of Paramount Pictures and Fox; and Michael Lynton, chairman of Snap and former CEO of Sony Entertainment. Also signing the letter is outspoken billionaire Mark Cuban, a co-host of ABC’s “Shark Tank” and owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
Not surprisingly, the letter’s signatories include Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former studio exec who was a major fundraiser for President Biden before Biden dropped out of the race. Katzenberg is currently founder and managing partner of investment firm WndrCo.; prior to launching his ill-fated Quibi streaming venture, he was CEO of DreamWorks Animation and head of Walt Disney Studios and Paramount Pictures.
The letter does not call out Donald Trump by name. Harris’ election “is the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy,” the letter says. “With Kamala Harris in the White House, the business community can be confident that it will have a President who wants American industries to thrive.”
The business leaders touted Harris’ “strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global market” during her tenure as VP to President Biden. “She will continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment, and she will strive to give every American the opportunity to pursue the American dream,” it says.
Other execs signing the letter include Maverick Carter, CEO of the SpringHill Co. (co-founded with LeBron James); Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, who owns the NBA’s Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Mystics and the NHL’s Washington Capitals; Charles Phillips, former president of Oracle, ex-CEO of Infor and current Paramount Global board member; and NBA great Earvin “Magic” Johnson, chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises.
Other notable names on the list, who are longtime Democratic boosters, include Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Collective; John Doerr, chairman of VC firm Kleiner Perkins; Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary; and Reid Hoffman, partner at Greylock Partners and executive chairman of LinkedIn.
Other Hollywood execs who have backed Harris include Netflix executive chairman Reed Hastings. Celebs endorsing her include George Clooney, Shonda Rhimes, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Fonda, Nick Offerman, Mark Hamill, Jeff Bridges and J.J. Abrams.
Here’s the text of the letter with all of the signatories, in alphabetical order (via CNBC):
We endorse Kamala Harris’s election as 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 it will have a President who wants American industries to thrive. As a partner to President Biden, Vice President Harris has a strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global market. She will continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment, and she will strive to give every American the opportunity to pursue the American dream.
Roger Altman, Founder & 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 & CEO of Rock Creek
Jeff Bewkes, former CEO of Time Warner
W. Michael Blumenthal, 64th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of both 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; Chairwoman of Teneo; Founding Partner of Integrum Holdings
Maverick Carter, CEO of The SpringHill Company
Ken Chenault, Chairman & Managing Director of General Catalyst; former Chairman & CEO of American Express
Peter Chernin, Co-Founder & Partner of TCG
Tony Coles, Chairperson & former CEO of Cerevel
Tim Collins, Founder, CEO, and Senior Managing Director of Ripplewood
Ron Conway, Founder & Managing Partner of SV Angel
Robert Crandall, former President and Chairman of American Airlines
Mark Cuban, Various entrepreneurial endeavors and a “shark” on Shark Tank
Richelieu Dennis, Founder and Executive Chair of Sundial Group of Companies
Barry Diller, Chairman & Senior Executive of IAC and Senior Executive of Expedia; Former Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Fox, Inc.
John Doerr, Chairman of Kleiner Perkins
Arnold Donald, former CEO of Carnival Corporation
Blair Effron, Partner & Co-Founder of Centerview Partners
José E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clearlake Capital Group
David P. Fialkow, Co-Founder & Managing Director of General Catalyst
Anne Finucane, former Vice Chair of Bank of America
Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Chief Executive of E.L. Rothschild
Ken Frazier, former Executive Chairman, President & CEO of Merck
Mark Gallogly, Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Three Cairns Group; Co-Founder of Centerbridge 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 of Jackmont Hospitality
Bruce Heyman, Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada and former Managing Director of Private Wealth at Goldman Sachs
Mellody 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 and 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 & Executive Vice Chairman of Blackstone; Founder of Jefferson River Capital
David Jacobson, Senior Advisor and former Vice Chair of BMO Financial Group; Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada
Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Chairman and CEO, Magic Johnson Enterprises
Brad Karp, Chairman of Paul, Weiss
Jeffrey Katzenberg, Founder & Managing Partner of WndrCo
Ellen Kullman, President and CEO of Carbon3; former Chair and CEO of DuPont
Todd Lachman, Founder of Sovos Brands
Chris Larsen, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Ripple
Jeff Lawson, former CEO of Twilio
Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment
Aaron Levie, Co-Founder & CEO of Box
Ed Lewis, former Chairman and CEO of Essence Communications, co-founder Essence Magazine
William M. Lewis, Jr.
Michael Lynton, Chairman of Snap, Inc., former CEO of Sony Entertainment
Tracy V. Maitland, President and Chief Investment Officer of Advent Capital Management
Helena Maus, CEO of Archetype and Marker Collective
Marissa Mayer, co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Products, former CEO of Yahoo!
T.J. McGill, Co-Founder of Evergreen Pacific Partners and Suzanne Sinegal McGill, Co-Founder of Rwanda Girls Initiative
Danny Meyer, Founder & Executive Chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group
Dustin Moskovitz, Co-founder and CEO of Asana
Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford
Anne Mulcahy, former Chairman and CEO of Xerox
James Murdoch, Founder & 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 United States Office of Management and Budget and CEO of Lazard
Deven J. Parekh, Managing Director of Insight Partners
Sean Parker, Founder of Napster; Founder and Chairman of 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 Collective
Penny Pritzker, 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce; founder and Chairman of PSP Partners
Vasant Prabhu, former CFO and Vice-Chair of Visa
Spencer Rascoff, Founder and CEO of 75 & Sunny Ventures; Co-Founder and former CEO of Zillow
Punit Renjen
Rachel Romer, Founder of Guild Education
Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Senior Counselor at Centerview Partners
Kevin P. Ryan, Co-founder, MongoDB, Business Insider, GILT Groupe, Zola, Pearl Health, Affect Therapeutics, and Transcend Therapeutics
Faiza J. Saeed
Dan Schulman, former President & 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, Founding & Managing Partner of Sageview Capital
Larry Summers, 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury and President Emeritus of Harvard University
Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder & CEO of Chobani
Daniel Weiss, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Angeleno Group
Steve Westly, Founder and Managing Partner of The Westly Group
Ron Williams, former CEO of Aetna
Robert Wolf, former CEO of UBS Americas
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.