Less than two months before national Democrats gather in Chicago for their convention, the local host committee has secured the financial commitments necessary to meet its nearly $85 million fundraising obligation, a source close to the committee familiar with the effort told the Tribune.
The Chicago host committee for the Democratic National Convention already has “the vast majority” of those commitments in hand, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private fundraising effort.
A more complete financial picture won’t be publicly available until after the Aug. 19-22 convention, when the host committee, officially named Development Now for Chicago, will be required to disclose details of its contributions and expenditures in federal tax and campaign finance filings.
Still, interviews and public records show corporations, labor unions and Democratic political organizations have opened their checkbooks to help the Chicago DNC committee raise the money needed for what could be one of the most expensive political conventions in history.
“We are grateful for the broad coalition of partners coming together to support the city and this historic convention,” host committee spokeswoman Natalie Edelstein said. “This August we have an opportunity to show the world all that Chicago has to offer and look forward to hosting an unforgettable event that leaves our city stronger and solidifies our position as a premier event destination.”
The Chicago preparations come amid increasing questions about President Joe Biden’s fitness following his subpar performance at last week’s presidential debate against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Many Democrats had been viewing the convention as a celebration of Biden’s renomination, but Biden’s disjointed debate performance has pushed some in his own party to raise the prospect that he should be replaced on the ballot before November.
Biden and his top supporters have insisted he will not end his campaign, and it would be very difficult for Democrats to replace him unless he chooses to step aside.
Plans for the convention haven’t been scaled back even after Democrats announced in late May that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will be nominated virtually ahead of the in-person gathering at the United Center and McCormick Place. The early nomination is necessary to ensure the Democratic ticket’s place on the ballot in Ohio, where the Republican-controlled state legislature failed to move back Ohio’s Aug. 7 deadline for being placed on that state’s ballot. The DNC in Chicago begins 12 days later.
The host committee committed to raising the $85 million as part of Chicago’s $30 million line of credit agreement that helped the city win its convention bid, but the group — led by prominent Democratic donor Michael Sacks, an ally and adviser to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and prominent Democratic fundraiser who hosted a big-dollar fundraising event with Biden in April — hopes to raise as much as $100 million to cover the full cost of the four-day convention and related events.
The committee’s fundraising efforts are separate from the $75 million in federal funding Chicago and Milwaukee, which will host the Republican National Convention later this month, each received from Congress for security-related costs, including police overtime and equipment. In the past, the federal government also provided some direct funding for both major parties’ nominating conventions, but President Barack Obama signed a measure in 2014 ending that practice.
From the start of the 2024 convention push, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who was pivotal in bringing the DNC to the city, promised the committee would be able to pay for the convention without leaving taxpayers or the Democratic National Committee on the hook.
A spokeswoman declined to say how much Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune who’s spent freely on political campaigns and causes, intends to contribute to the convention.
“Gov. Pritzker is excited to welcome the DNC to Chicago in August and has made clear from the beginning that the convention efforts have his full support,” campaign spokeswoman Christina Amestoy said.
His support has involved helping the committee raise money from donors across the country, Amestoy said. That includes fundraising stops during a trip to California earlier this year when the governor was promoting the state’s film tax credits to movie studio executives.
Pritzker, an ardent supporter of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, gave $1.25 million to the host committee for that year’s DNC in Philadelphia, making him the largest individual donor, according to the committee’s disclosures to the Federal Election Commission.
Records show the governor did not contribute to the Milwaukee DNC host committee in 2020, when the convention largely went virtual amid the COVID-19 pandemic and Pritzker was engaged in a costly, ultimately unsuccessful ballot fight to institute a graduated-rate income tax in Illinois.
He did, however, make contributions totaling more than $2.5 million that year to the Wisconsin Democratic Party, campaign finance records show.
This year, the more than a dozen corporations that have so far contributed to the DNC host committee offers few surprises. The list features prominent Chicago companies such as United Airlines, McDonald’s, Archer Daniels Midland Co., CME Group, Cboe Global Markets Inc. and Peoples Gas.
By and large, officials for the companies declined to comment on the size of the contributions but portrayed the giving as a blend of hometown boosterism and nonpartisan civic engagement. Several have given to both the Chicago and Milwaukee host committees — a way of trying to stay above the fray, or playing both sides, in a fractious political environment.
“We have a long history of donating to the nonpartisan, nonprofit convention host committees when a party convention is held in our hometowns, and we’re doing so in Milwaukee and Chicago this year,” said Adam Collins, chief communications officer for Molson Coors.
A Chicago-based beverage giant whose portfolio includes Miller, a name almost synonymous with Milwaukee, Molson Coors is making equal contributions to each host committee, though the company declined to give a specific amount.
United is taking a similar approach.
“As Chicago’s hometown airline, United is honored to engage in significant events in the city, like the Democratic National Convention at the United Center,” airlines spokesperson Sam Coleman said in a statement.
“We’re also supporting the Republican convention in Milwaukee because both conventions presented an opportunity for our airline to increase our schedules in support of one of our nation’s oldest democratic traditions,” Coleman said, declining to comment on the size of the contributions.
Use of the airline’s namesake arena, which also hosted the 1996 DNC (Chicago’s last major political convention), was made possible not by the company itself but by the joint venture of the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families who co-own the stadium.
City and state leaders approached the United Center in early 2022 about the possibility of hosting this year’s convention, the ownership group said in a statement.
“(Chicago Bulls and White Sox chairman) Jerry Reinsdorf and (then-Blackhawks chairman) Rocky Wirtz not only supported the idea but promptly tasked the United Center senior staff to collaborate with the host committee, including the governor and (then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot), on the bid,” the statement said. “Leveraging the United Center’s experience from the successful 1996 DNC, the senior leadership team joined city and state leaders to promote Chicago in 2024.”
Owners agreed to shut down the stadium for more than two months for convention preparations, which began in earnest Monday, and made a “seven-figure cash contribution,” along with providing “considerable in-kind support.”
The cash contribution totaled $2 million, according to a source familiar with the donation.
The Reinsdorf and Wirtz families have made political contributions to numerous city and state politicians in both parties over the years, though they’ve predominantly supported Democrats.
For some companies, contributing to — and participating in — political conventions offers an opportunity to advance their causes with decision-makers in both parties.
Such is the case for Chicago-based Invenergy, which is active in wind and solar energy but also natural gas.
The company, along with partners, will be the clean energy sponsor for both the DNC and RNC, said Kelly Speakes-Backman, Invenergy’s executive vice president of public affairs.
In addition to supporting an important civic event in its hometown, Invenergy’s presence at the DNC will allow the company to “show support for the historic policies that have been put in place to support deployment and manufacturing of clean energy,” Speakes-Backman said, specifically naming signature Biden administration policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act.
At the RNC in July, meanwhile, one of the company’s partners is the American Conservation Coalition, a conservative environmental group founded in Appleton, Wisconsin.
“We … certainly favor good energy policy over politics any day,” Speakes-Backman said.
Chicago’s status as a union-friendly town was a key component in its selection as DNC host, so it’s no surprise organized labor is contributing to the committee.
While the full scope won’t be known until fall, available public records show support pouring in from groups such as the Service Employees International Union, the United Steelworkers, the United Food & Commercial Workers, the National Association of Letter Carriers, and the American Federation of Teachers.
SEIU’s political education committee, for example, gave $875,000 in March, while the Steelworkers and UFCW each have given $500,000, according to federal campaign finance records.
On the state level, two funds affiliated with the Laborers’ International Union of North America — the LiUNA Chicago Laborers District Council and the Laborers’ Political League-Great Lakes Region — each have kicked in $1 million, Illinois campaign finances records show.
Groups representing Democratic officials at various levels of government, from governors to mayors, also are offering their support.
The Democratic Mayors Association has contributed an undisclosed sum and also will have a presence during the convention to offer its support for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and other party members leading cities across the country, said Virginia Mayer, the group’s executive director.
Both Johnson and Sacks were named Biden delegates by the Democratic Party of Illinois.
The Democratic Mayors Association hopes to bring a contingent of more than 100 current and former mayors to the convention, Mayer said, noting that 13 mayors are serving on three convention committees.
The party’s platform committee, for example, includes Regina Romero, the mayor of Tucson, Arizona, and former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who served as Biden’s infrastructure czar before transitioning to a role on the reelection campaign.
“We’re excited to show off Chicago,” Mayer said. “We are lifting up everything Mayor Johnson is doing.”
A group of mayors also will be in Milwaukee next month to support Cavalier Johnson, the city’s Democratic leader, Mayer said.
But the Democratic Mayors Association isn’t giving the Milwaukee host committee any financial contribution, she said.
