Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris has been making her pitch to business leaders and CEOs as she races to define herself and her agenda for the 2024 race.
Mark Cuban is one of hundreds of VCs and tech entrepreneurs who have voiced support for Harris. The billionaire emailed Business Insider a few notes about what he likes about the nominee — healthcare transparency — and what he would like to see from Harris — more details about cryptocurrency — if he, as a business leader, was being pitched by the campaign.
Harris met with corporate executives behind the scenes even months before she replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, The New York Times reported in July. Allies of her campaign have been privately courting business leaders during the Democratic National Convention this week to make the case for why the VP could be fruitful for Corporate America, CNBC reported Wednesday.
Harris has presented herself as a pro-business promising to make things easier for newcomer entrepreneurs by cutting “needless bureaucracy and unnecessary regulatory red tape.” While also courting and getting support from labor unions.
However, the vice president has not rolled out a detailed economic plan. Critics have said that the proposals released so far on price-gouging bans or first-time homebuyer subsidies are light on specifics, while policies, like a hike on corporate taxes, are a carryover from the Biden administration.
In broad strokes, the campaign has so far focused on support for middle and lower-income Americans, Business Insider’s Laila Maidan reported.
A spokesperson for the Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Cuban has already expressed support for Harris and defended some of her policy proposals. But, he added in an email to BI, “the devils in the details.”
Here are a few points that Cuban shared with us on qualities and policy approaches Harris has that he believes other CEOs would like to see.
‘Not an ideologue’
Cuban told BI in an email that he’s looking for a candidate who is “not an ideologue,” a perhaps not-so-subtle jab at Harris’ Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly been described as such by his critics.
The billionaire added that he wants someone “pragmatic and open-minded. All of which she is.”
Self-awareness
Another quality Cuban said he sees in Harris that sets her apart from Trump is her self-awareness — and that’ll help her when she’s trying to reel in business leaders, Cuban wrote.
“One of the things that makes KH stand apart from the Republican nominee is that she is self-aware,” he wrote. “She knows what she doesn’t and is willing to listen to business(es), from the smallest corner yogurt shop to the giants of industry.”
Support for employees
Cuban argued that Harris is a pro-business candidate who wants to support companies and businesses while also lifting up their employees.
“She wants all businesses to succeed,” Cuban wrote. “She just wants their employees to share in their success. Which I don’t think any entrepreneur or CEO is going to disagree with.”
Clarity on crypto
As a cryptocurrency investor, Cuban told BI in a separate conversation that he was interested in Harris’ pitch for “regulatory clarity” around the digital asset industry.
Brian Nelson, a policy advisor to the Harris campaign, said during a Bloomberg News roundtable on Wednesday that the vice president will support the crypto market in a way that would allow it to flourish while ensuring safeguards.
“She’s going to support policies that ensure that emerging technologies and that sort of industry can continue to grow,” Nelson said during the conversation, acknowledging there is a need for “stable rules, rules of the road.”
Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad said on X that he has participated in a “number of discussions with the Harris team” and that Nelson’s statement was a “second step in the right direction.”
Transparency in healthcare
This point may be more specific to folks like Cuban, who has championed lower costs for drugs through his discount pill-mailing service, Cost Plus Drugs.
But the billionaire told BI that he appreciated Harris “talking about transparency in healthcare.”
While laying out her economic agenda at a rally on August 16, Harris vowed to lower to cost of prescription drugs, “demand transparency” around drug pricing, and cancel medical debt for millions of Americans.
“Of course, the devils in the details,” Cuban added. “But so far, I like what I’ve heard.”
Are you a CEO or business owner who is undecided about the 2024 election? Reach Lloyd Lee at (646) 768-1630 or send an email to lloydlee@businessinsider.com for his Signal number.
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