Why Mark Cuban is campaigning for Harris

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban has emerged as one of Vice President Harris’s most visible surrogates, becoming the latest business leader to jump off the political sidelines in the final stretch of the presidential race.

From hitting the campaign trail with Harris to cable news appearances, Cuban’s ramped-up support offers another friendly voice for business-oriented voters.

Cuban told The Hill Harris has been “very transparent” about being open-minded, suggesting “she will listen to Republicans, independents like me and others.”

“She doesn’t base who she speaks to on loyalty,” he said. “She looks for diverse feedback before making a pragmatic decision.”

Cuban’s emergence, however, also brings the Democrats’ internal debate over antitrust and other tech issues into the vice president’s sphere.

Cuban is an outspoken critic of the Biden administration’s aggressive approach to antitrust and cryptocurrency, two issues with which Democratic donors and some moderates who could be persuaded to choose Harris may still have concerns about.

The Harris campaign’s recent embrace of Cuban could signal she may be more receptive to these industries than President Biden, who largely aligned with the Democrats’ left-flank approach to antitrust and crypto.

“There’s this notion out there that Democrats do not understand business and have no relationship with the business community,” Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright told The Hill. “And I think he pokes holes in that narrative.”

The Dallas Mavericks minority owner and ABC “Shark Tank” investor helps counter this argument, Seawright said, by reaching industries from Silicon Valley to sports to corporate America.

“Whether it’s tech and business owners ... Mark Cuban also has connective tissue to the sports world, to the medical world and all the other things that he has done throughout his career that’s made him a successful capitalist, and the vice president believes in capitalism.”

Cuban told The Hill he chose to increase his political activity given the closeness of the race between Harris and Trump. A national polling index by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ showed Harris with a 0.9 percentage point lead over Trump on Tuesday.

The entrepreneur appeals to male voters — a constituency Harris has struggled to reach at times — on the economy and has positioned himself as a direct counter to former President Trump’s business narrative and the billionaires backing him, political strategists suggested.

“You have these business leaders standing up, not just for Kamala Harris, but against the phony capitalism or the full wealth that Donald Trump presents,” political strategist Basil Smikle told The Hill.

“I think it speaks directly to Trump’s narrative as being this very rich individual who is a very successful businessman and can make anyone that supports him successful in their own right as well,” he said. “I think Cuban’s charisma and status as a business leader can help tear down that narrative that Trump has built around.”

Cuban’s involvement in the Harris campaign is not necessarily a surprise given his longtime criticism of Trump, though the past month has marked a new, multifaceted approach for the entrepreneur.

At the beginning of October, Cuban and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman joined other entrepreneurs for the launch of “Business Leaders for Harris” to make the case for her as she faced pressure for the administration’s handling of the economy.

He later appeared with Harris on the campaign trail in Wisconsin, where she highlighted her economic agenda and he bashed Trump’s tariffs policies. And on Sunday, he appeared on ABC News’s “This Week” to talk about the race.

“He's become a very active ... and a very more rapid-response person than you would expect from a lot of surrogates,” Democratic strategist Eddie Vale said.

“A lot of surrogates will do an event, or they'll put on a bus tour, [and] that's sort of the end of it, but he's really jumped into doing a whole bunch more series of events on the ground. He's doing press, weighing in on these events.”

“He’s up there, arguing, fighting, responding to people in good chunks of real time,” Vale added. “Whatever level of hesitancy he had previously about political engagement certainly has gotten tossed out the window.”

Despite Cuban’s outright support for Harris, he has so far shied away from giving money to her presidential campaign, he told ABC News.

“I haven’t given her a penny. People think, ‘Oh, you’re giving her a lot of money.’ No, I haven’t given a penny,” he said.

Cuban’s messaging appears to resonate with at least some swing state voters. According to recent polling from public opinion research firm Blueprint, Cuban’s warnings against Trump’s economic policies were among the most persuasive arguments for swing state voters.

Blueprint also found Cuban has a plus-19 favorability rating.

As for what’s in it for Cuban under a Harris administration, policy experts suggested he might want influence with the vice president, who presents an opportunity to change gears on the antitrust and tech policies he takes issue with.  

In doing so, Cuban’s involvement brings the intraparty fighting on the policies closer to Harris’s purview.

He is among various billionaire leaders who have voiced concerns about Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan, who has spearheaded the Biden administration's aggressive antitrust agenda.

Attempts to break apart leading technology companies could “risk” the country’s ability to lead in artificial intelligence development, Cuban told Semafor this month.

Cuban said this did not mean he would push Harris to replace Khan, like some other major Democratic donors have suggested. These donors have argued her anticompetitive policies could curb U.S. innovation by breaking up the country’s largest tech companies.

“I have not said a word to Kamala about any person or position and whether think they should stay or go,” Cuban told The Hill.

On the flip side, progressive activists believe such policies are needed to rein in the power of Big Tech companies. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said this month that Cuban’s comments about Khan were “wrong,” calling her the “best FTC chair in modern history.”

How Harris would handle the debate over Khan remains unknown, though the vice president may be viewed by the business community and progressives as “up for grabs” when it comes the issue, said Owen Tedford, a senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors.

“It’s fundamentally a battle to try and shape Harris and kind of push her in one direction or another, where they feel there’s an opportunity,” Tedford said.

“She obviously is from California, likely has some sympathies for the big tech industry and it wouldn’t shock me were she to win, if she walked back some of the aggressive rhetoric from the White House,” he added.

“It would be surprising for him to not at least be vocal in the process, given the role that he seems to have taken on,” Tedford added.

Keeping Khan might also be an “easy gift and way” for Harris “to curry favor” with progressives, Tedford noted.

The same goes for the leadership at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with which Cuban has had a contentious relationship.

Cuban, a prominent advocate for cryptocurrency, has repeatedly called for SEC Chair Gary Gensler to be replaced, citing his hard-line approach to digital currencies. He has even floated his own name to head up the SEC, recently telling Politico it is not a job he would “chase” but if asked, he “would want to be interviewed.”

Nonetheless, he told The Hill he does not “want a job” in the Harris administration, adding “I’ve always been happy to share the benefit of my experience with whoever is in office. That won’t change.”

Cuban keeps his cards close to his chest, including when it comes to his political affiliation.

His political ambiguity is likely “a big part of his appeal,” Vale suggested.

When pressed on the criticism Harris has received about changing her views since her first presidential run, Cuban said he is not “a fan of candidates who are dogmatic” or “transactional.”

“I prefer candidates that learn over time and adapt their positions based on what has changed and what they have learned. To me as a tech guy and entrepreneur, this is what great CEOs do,” he wrote in an email to The Hill. “I’ve never met a great CEO who is set in their ways.”