Abigail Disney, heiress of the Walt Disney fortune, along with other prominent liberal donors like Gideon Stein are saying they will not be donating to the Democratic Party until President Joe Biden resigns.
Abigail is the granddaughter of Walt’s brother Roy O. Disney, who co-founded the Walt Disney Company. Abigail Disney has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic Political Action Committees (PACs) and left-of-center political nonprofits over the last decade, and had earmarked $24,000 to Biden so far this election. But on Thursday, Abigail told CNBC that she intends to hold back on all financial contributions until Biden drops from the race.
“I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high,” she said. “If Biden does not step down the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire.”
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This follows from Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) becoming the first members of Congress to explicitly call for Biden to drop out due to his debate performance, which caused Biden to fall six percentage points behind Donald Trump according to a New York Times/Sienna College poll.
When asked who could replace Biden, Abigail pointed to Kamala Harris. “We have an excellent Vice President,” she said. “If Democrats would tolerate any of her perceived shortcomings even one tenth as much as they have tolerated Biden’s (and let’s not kid ourselves about where race and gender figure in that inequity) and if Democrats can find a way to stop quibbling and rally around her, we can win this election by a lot.”
Donor Gideon Stein of the Moriah Fund, a Biden supporter, is now changing his tune on the president and has also paused his planned $3.5 million in contributions to Democratic groups.
“Joe Biden has been a very effective president, but unless he steps aside my family and I are pausing on more than $3 million in planned donations to nonprofits and political organizations aligned with the presidential race, with the exception of some down ballot work,” he said. “Virtually every major donor I’ve talked to believes that we need a new candidate in order to defeat Donald Trump.”
Democratic donor Karla Jurvetson also implied she would pause donations to Biden on a call with other party financiers on Tuesday, agreeing with the mindset behind the withdrawals. Jurvetson gave more than $30 million to the party in 2020, and is among the top 50 contributors this election cycle.
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics and business for VT and a regular guest on The Unusual Suspects. Follow Shane’s work here.
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