Harris was only 2016 Senate Democratic candidate to get cash from Mnuchin
WASHINGTON — In the 2016 election cycle, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin donated only to one Democratic Senate candidate.
But it wasn’t Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the only Democrat who voted to confirm him for the position, who is up for re-election next year. It was freshman Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who has her own history with Mnuchin.
Mnuchin gave Harris’ campaign $2,000, according to documents from the Federal Election Commission, making her the only Democrat who ran on the national level to receive money from him that cycle.
Tyrone Gayle, Harris’ press secretary, questioned the idea that a campaign contribution would influence her vote.
“Senator Harris thoroughly evaluates each nominee based on their record and confirmation hearing — nothing else,” Gayle said in an email. “Senator Harris believes Secretary Mnuchin’s record of profiting off of the misfortune of thousands of families who lost their homes during the U.S. mortgage meltdown made him unqualified to manage our nation’s finances and advocate for working people.”
Harris came under scrutiny for her relationship to Mnuchin after it was revealed in a story by the Intercept that Harris as attorney general in California had declined to file a civil enforcement action against OneWest, the bank where Mnuchin was CEO, over foreclosures.
Harris told The Hill after the story emerged that her office “went and followed the facts” about OneWest. She also said the conduct of the state attorney general’s office was “a very separate point” from how a senator should approach Mnuchin.
Mnuchin served as finance chairman for President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016. Documents show he gave $25,000 to Team Ryan, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s joint fundraising committee, and $425,000 to Trump Victory.
Mnuchin also donated extensively to state Republican Party committees in New Jersey, West Virginia, Arkansas, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, and Connecticut.
The only other candidates Mnuchin gave to in the 2016 cycle outside of Trump were Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in December of 2016, who still had leftover campaign debt from his aborted presidential run, and former Democratic Mayor Michael Wildes of Englewood, N.J., who served as the immigration lawyer for now-first lady Melania Trump.
Like the president, Mnuchin had previously given extensively to Democrats.
He donated to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s campaign in 1998, 1999 and 2002. He gave to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaigns in 2000 and 2005 and former President Barack Obama’s 2004 Senate run. On the presidential level, he gave to both Obama and Clinton’s presidential campaigns in 2007, and former Sen. John Edwards and former Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaigns.