Vice President Kamala Harris’s top campaign fund-raisers are being treated to four days of glitz and glam during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — hotel packages at the Ritz-Carlton and the Four Seasons, an on-field visit to Wrigley Field and, for the really big kahunas, maybe even private face time with the presidential nominee herself.
But unlike at other recent Democratic conventions, the public won’t know who those top fund-raisers are.
About a month before voting begins in some states, American voters have less knowledge about the people helping the 2024 presidential candidates raise money than they have had in any election in 20 years. That’s because, for the first time in modern presidential fund-raising, neither the Democratic nor the Republican nominee has disclosed the names of so-called bundlers, the people who amass large financial contributions for presidential campaigns and, in the eyes of transparency advocates, wield significant power in campaigns and presidential administrations.
The disclosure of bundlers is not required by law. The modern bundling era began in 2000, when President George W. Bush professionalized the world of campaign fund-raising with a program that was heavy on nicknames, calling some big-money chasers Rangers and others Pioneers. Democratic presidential nominees have disclosed their bundlers in some fashion in every cycle since then. Republican nominees did so in 2004 and 2008; Mitt Romney, a private-equity executive sensitive to concerns he was too close to the rich, did not in 2012. Former President Donald J. Trump did not disclose his bundlers during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns and has not done so this year.
The Harris campaign has so far not disclosed the names of its bundlers, nor did President Biden’s campaign before he dropped out of the race. Asked this week if the Harris campaign planned to disclose its bundlers, a campaign spokesman declined to comment. Trump campaign spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment on whether they planned any disclosure.