Key figures in the world of finance are rallying behind Vice President Kamala Harris in spite of her past tensions with Wall Street and her potential impact on financial sector stocks if elected president.
What Happened: Billionaires such as Jonathan Gray of Blackstone, Marc Lasry from Avenue Capital Management, and philanthropist George Soros are among those endorsing Harris.
Other high-profile supporters include media mogul Barry Diller and construction industry leader Bob Clark.
Key figures in finance, including Lazard's CEO Peter Orszag, Evercore ISI's co-founder Roger Altman, and Robert Rubin, ex-co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, are also reportedly backing Harris, Forbes reports.
Harris' stance on financial regulation is not extensively documented. But during her tenure as California's attorney general, she negotiated a $20 billion settlement for homeowners with major banks over mismanagement of mortgages during the financial crisis.
According to the Forbes report, in her 2019 memoir, Harris compared a phone conversation with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon during those settlement talks to "two dogs in a fight."
While a potential Harris administration's policies towards banks remain uncertain, analysts predict that Donald Trump could be more beneficial to financial firms. Wall Street billionaires who are supporting Trump include former TD Ameritrade chairman J. Joe Ricketts, renowned investor John Paulson, and Stephen Schwarzman, who is Gray's superior at Blackstone.
Why It Matters: The support for Harris from prominent Wall Street figures is intriguing given her past confrontations with the financial sector. Her pursuit of big banks during the mortgage crisis and her critical comments about industry leaders suggest a potentially tougher regulatory stance.
However, her backers may be betting on her ability to balance regulation with economic growth. The support from Wall Street could also indicate a desire for stability and predictability in policy-making, which could be beneficial for financial markets.