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Investor Mark Cuban says he speaks to Kamala Harris’ campaign “three or four times” a week about fiscal policy, even as he lobbies against her bid to tax the unrealized gains of billionaires like himself. Just don’t call him an adviser.
“I don’t have a title of any sort,” Cuban told Semafor via email. “It’s up to them whether they answer the phone or return my messages.”
Cuban has become perhaps Harris’s loudest supporter in the circuit of billionaires helping power her presidential bid. He’s lauded Harris as a “pro-business” candidate and described her campaign as more responsive than President Joe Biden’s now-defunct reelection operation.
He even revealed this week on CNBC that he pitched himself as a potential Harris pick for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the same agency that unsuccessfully prosecuted him for alleged insider trading more than 10 years ago. Cuban said he sees himself as a real-world voice among those counseling the vice president’s team, but he declined to describe himself as a “counterweight” to more vocal progressives in her camp.
“I’m an entrepreneur, not a politician, not an economist,” Cuban told Semafor, adding that “the challenge they face is they have too many economists that look at problems academically rather than operationally. I just try to give my honest thoughts. Not as a counter balance. Just as a perspective from my experience.”
Cuban has previously talked with the well-funded group No Labels about a third-party presidential run, though he ruled that out last year. Soon after that public show of distaste for the two-party system, however, Cuban stood with Biden even after the June debate that ended up dooming his candidacy.
The Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment about Cuban’s informal role. Her team continues to add business advisors, however, bringing on Richard Garcia last month as the national director of small business engagement, per his LinkedIn. He was previously chief of staff at the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, among other roles.
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Cuban acknowledged in his exchanges with Semafor that “people get sick of rich people trying to solve problems.” Still, he delivered a subtle case for his own value to Harris, calling himself a “compassionate capitalist” who believes business can play a constructive role in rebalancing the economy towards the middle class.
He also recently said on X that Harris is the only presidential candidate in “founder mode,” a Silicon Valley term referring to a leader who embraces an activist role in managing a company and eschews stodgy management practices.
Despite Cuban’s avowal that he’s merely seeking to help the Harris camp, some observers say his advice may be partly motivated by self-interest. Cuban has spent years crusading against the SEC, making him an unorthodox potential pick for the Democratic nominee.
Lee Reiners, lecturing fellow at the Duke Financial Economics Center, said Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks – which he sold his majority stake in last year – are still embroiled in a lawsuit for promoting unregistered securities through Voyager, a defunct cryptocurrency company.
“I support any legal effort that will help defeat Trump. If Cuban having a seat [at Harris’ table] helps, then so be it,” Reiners told Semafor. “But I do worry about his potential influence on crypto policy under a Harris administration, as he is not a disinterested observer.”
Cuban has also assailed Harris’ so-called “billionaire tax” proposal, which would require Americans who claim at least $100 million in assets to pay a 25% tax on stocks and bonds that have accrued in value, even if they haven’t sold those assets yet.
“If you tax unrealized gains, you’re going to kill the stock market,” Cuban said on CNBC this week.
Harris recently unveiled a second plank to her economic platform that’s geared towards small businesses, with a $50,000 tax deduction. She also rolled out a proposal to tax capital gains at 28% for Americans earning over $1 million, a lower rate than Biden has sought.
“Her engagement with the [business] community I think is probably deeper than the President’s,” a person close to the Harris campaign told Semafor. “I don’t know if I’d say she’s more pro-business, but has she engaged more with the business community and does that shift her worldview? I think that’s right.”
Notable
- Eighty-eight corporate leaders endorsed Harris on Friday in a new letter, CNBC reports.
- Cuban called for the firing of current SEC Chair Gary Gensler earlier this year, per the Dallas Morning News.