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.
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.
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.
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.
Read more at TheHill.com.
