Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Walt Disney Company cofounder Roy O. Disney, said she will resume donations to the Democratic Party following President Joe Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the 2024 candidate.
In fact, Disney told New York Times journalist Kenneth Vogel on Monday that she plans to support Harris’ historic bid for the presidency “with all my heart.”
Vogel shared the update on X, writing, “NEW: Abigail Disney, the Disney heiress who had threatened to withhold money from Dems if Biden remained the nominee, plans to donate to @KamalaHarris & host a fundraiser. ‘I am supporting her with all my heart,’ @AbigailDisney told me.”
Disney previously paused donations to the party in early July. “I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket,” she said in a statement to CNBC.
“This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high. If Biden does not step down, the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain,” Disney noted. “The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire.”
Disney also named Harris as an alternative at the time: “We have an excellent vice president. If Democrats would tolerate any of her perceived shortcomings even one tenth as much as they have tolerated Biden’s (and let’s not kid ourselves about where race and gender figure in that inequity) and if Democrats can find a way to stop quibbling and rally around her, we can win this election by a lot.”
The film producer and philanthropist was one of several major donors who paused donations in the weeks that preceded Biden’s resignation and endorsement of Harris. Biden repeatedly insisted he had no plans to drop out of the race, so his announcement on Sunday kicked off a firestorm of both support and condemnation on social media.
At the center of it all is Harris, whose historic run could see her become the first Black and Southeast Asian person as well as the first female to be president of the United States. Harris has gained popularity on social media with young voters in recent weeks, particularly in response to her viral coconut tree comments from 2023.
