Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
An unlikely group of supporters is lining up to back Vice President Kamala Harris - Wall Street executives. NPR's Maria Aspan explains why an industry that Harris once prosecuted is rallying to support her.
MARIA ASPAN, BYLINE: The day after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris shared a favorite story about a time that she fought some formidable foes.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: During the foreclosure crisis, I took on the big Wall Street banks and won $20 billion for California families...
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HARRIS: ...Holding those banks accountable for fraud.
ASPAN: That was Harris speaking at her campaign headquarters last month. She's referring to her time as California attorney general more than a decade ago. It was during the worst of the financial crisis when millions of people were losing their homes. The government had gone after the mortgage lenders and struck a deal with them, but Harris wanted big banks to pay more, and she got it. The banks agreed to a settlement worth $20 billion for California. Yet today, Wall Street is lining up behind her.
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ROGER ALTMAN: Her campaign is going to be very well-financed.
ASPAN: That's Roger Altman, founder of investment bank Evercore, speaking to CNBC last month. Dozens of other wealthy financial executives later reportedly joined a call to strategize about fundraising for Harris. Within one week, Harris' campaign said it had raised more than $200 million from all donors.
There are a lot of reasons why Wall Street is embracing Harris. Though she is running on her record prosecuting big banks, she's also kept open lines of communication to Wall Street. For example, in March, she had a two-hour lunch with Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. More broadly, the financial industry generally likes stability, which isn't exactly something that Harris' rival, former President Donald Trump, is known for. Altman argued that by going from vice president to president, Harris will offer more of the same.
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ALTMAN: It's a good framework for running for president, and I'm sure she's going to take advantage of it.
ASPAN: Meanwhile, big banks have largely moved on from the financial crisis. They're still not happy about some of the federal laws and regulations that came out of it. But in comparison, that big California settlement Harris likes to campaign on - it just really didn't hurt Wall Street's business, at least not enough for it to hold a grudge. I spoke to Bert Ely, an independent banking consultant who covered the crisis.
BERT ELY: As big and important a state as California is, the center of the action is really between Washington and New York.
ASPAN: Now, of course, Harris wants to be at the very center of the action, and Wall Street is opening its checkbook to put her there.
Maria Aspan, NPR News, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF CURTIS HARDING SONG, "WEDNESDAY MORNING ATONEMENT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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