In Final Stretch Before The Election, Harris And Trump Tap Into Millions In Real Estate Dollars
With the 2024 presidential election just days away, recently released fundraising data shows former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are roughly neck-in-neck in terms of fundraising from the real estate industry.
According to a partial list of donations by industry from Open Secrets, each candidate has raised roughly $17M from real estate industry sources through Oct. 17. Real estate represents Trump’s seventh-biggest source of revenue by industry, while it is the 11th-biggest source for Harris. Trump dominates in the securities and investment sector, taking in $203M versus Harris’ $63M.
Harris has raised record amounts overall in her 100-day sprint of a candidacy. The pace of donations has kept up throughout the race’s final months. In August, Harris and the Democratic National Committee outraised Trump and the Republican National Committee $257M to $85M. For the quarter overall, the Harris campaign and affiliated groups raised $633M to Trump’s $411M, not including political action committees.
At the same time, Trump has seen significant donations from the wealthiest Americans. This election cycle, he has raised $514.7M from donors giving $1M or more to PACs, including hotelier Robert Bigelow, who gave $1M earlier this year to help Trump pay his legal fees and then gave at least $35M more to Trump-affiliated PACs.
Conversely, while he’s seen dwindling support from small donors across the board, Trump appears to be attracting more small-dollar donations from members of the real estate industry, such as Curt Hofer, CEO of Jasper Stone, who donated $50K.
While many of Trump’s biggest donors, including moguls, CEOs and wealthy donors like Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, don’t directly have real estate interests, many will likely seek regulatory relief for other businesses.
Billionaire Elon Musk, whose SpaceX gave $75M to the pro-Trump America PAC Musk himself is directing, has been angling for a role in the federal government that would empower him to potentially rework or rescind regulations facing his industry. While Trump hasn’t discussed industry-specific regulations like pass-through deductions, like-kind exchanges and low capital gains taxes, his 2017 tax cuts are set to expire next year. He’s promised to make them permanent if reelected, part of his pro-business messaging.
“I know how hard it is to build a company from nothing,” said Diane Hendricks, billionaire owner of ABC Supply, a construction materials supply firm, during her speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee over the summer. “And we need a president who understands that too.”
When Harris became the Democratic candidate, a handful of Democratic supporters in the real estate industry expressed disappointment around the change in candidates, calling for a more centrist choice.
Some historical Democratic funders in that group, such as Walker & Dunlop CEO Willy Walker, haven’t made any additional donations to Harris or related PACs since late July. Peebles Corp. CEO Don Peebles, who told Bisnow in July that he wasn’t sure about Harris’ policies and agreed with many of Trump’s ideas, said he was going to “wait and see.” Records show he hasn’t given to either side since.
But that doesn’t mean that Harris hasn’t attracted significant CRE industry support.
Worthe Real Estate President Jeff Worthe gave the Harris campaign $1M, telling Reuters he wanted "what's good for business.” JMB Realty co-founder Neil Blumn and his wife each gave $500K, and ClayCo founder Robert Clark and Flynn Properties CEO Greg Flynn each contributed $500K as well.
Harris drew the ire of some in CRE when she came out in support of President Joe Biden’s proposed rent control regulations, and even spoke about pushing back against corporate landlords and unfair rent increases during an early rally. But since becoming the nominee, she hasn’t mentioned the topic in her policy proposals. According to Richard Oller, executive chairman of Philadelphia-based real estate firm GoldOller and a repeat Biden and Harris donor, this shows Harris can be responsive to the industry’s needs.
“She is going to be fine for real estate,” Oller said. “She’s been very open to proactive consulting. There are a lot of people she will be relying on who will be giving them very good information. And I think she's right, there has to be more affordable housing. There are ways to accomplish it that she's open to exploring.”
Harris announced a pair of real estate-related policy positions in August, including a pledge to invest in the creation of 3 million new homes in her first four years as president.
Harris also turned some skeptics in the real estate industry to her side. When Harris assumed the mantle of the Democratic party after Biden’s exit from the race on July 21, many donors and supporters pushed for an open nominating process to pick Biden’s replacement. That cohort included developers such as Rick Caruso, the former Los Angeles mayoral candidate, who posted on X about his desire for an open process the same day Biden dropped out. He’s since made a pair of donations totaling $150K to the Harris Victory Fund.
Oller also said that the general economic policies of Harris’ opponent would be detrimental to the industry. In the Trump camp, real estate figures supporting his bid for reelection tend to focus on his business experience and general stance against regulations as positives. Many feel some of his more extreme policy positions, such as enacting mass deportations and disrupting the labor market in construction, would work themselves out over time.
