Harris’s Brother-in-Law Forges Business Ties—but Makes Left Nervous Tony West, top Uber executive and campaign adviser, is drawing scrutiny as he courts Wall Street and donors By Catherine Lucey Ken Thomas and Emily Glazer The Wall Street Journal/October 4, 2024 WASHINGTON—When the International Brotherhood of Teamsters deliberated its presidential endorsement, the conversation drifted to a key person in Vice President Kamala Harris https://www.wsj.com/topics/person/kamala-harris’s orbit: her brother-in-law Tony West. In the private meeting, union officials expressed a wariness about West’s role as a top executive with Uber Technologies and his involvement in a $200 million effort to pass a California ballot initiative https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-voters-exempt-uber-lyft-doordash-from-having-to-reclassify-drivers-11604476276?mod=article_inline in 2020, according to two people briefed on the executive board’s discussions. The initiative sought to allow companies like Uber and Lyft to continue to classify drivers as gig workers, limiting some benefits. One person briefed on the discussions said the conversation focused on the implications for truck drivers and union workers of a top Harris confidant coming from Uber. “That led to a conversation about who she might side with when it comes to gig and the tech industry, which is a concern for working people,” the person said. West, who has known the vice president since the 1990s through his marriage to her sister, Maya Harris, has emerged as a powerful adviser to the Democratic nominee’s campaign and a regular passenger on Air Force Two. He has wooed executives and donors, cultivating her blossoming relationship with the business community https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/kamala-harris-campaign-ceos-investors-68e1bda1?mod=article_inline. He is also, critics say, a source of potential conflicts of interest should Harris win the presidency. And while West wasn’t the primary reason Harris failed to win backing from the Teamsters—the union decided to remain neutral https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/teamsters-union-wont-endorse-in-2024-presidential-race-2e9a1ac2?mod=article_inline—the fact that he was referenced indicates concerns in labor and progressive circles that he could push Harris in the wrong direction on issues they care about. “I don’t begrudge West and the Harris campaign for trying to have business outreach going on. But you don’t simultaneously see an outreach to those wanting to unrig the economy,” said Faiz Shakir, a longtime adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). Postelection plans Currently on leave from Uber to volunteer on the campaign, West told colleagues in August in an email that he intended to return to the company after the election. A person familiar with his thinking said, “He will return to Uber. He has made clear he has no plans to join a Harris administration.” Through a campaign aide, West declined an interview. Still, many in Washington and corporate circles have speculated that Harris would want West in her administration. A 1967 antinepotism statute is in place, but in 2017 the Justice Department issued an opinion clearing the way for Jared Kushner to work in the White House on behalf of his father-in-law, former President Donald Trump https://www.wsj.com/topics/person/donald-trump. Even if West remains on the outside, there are worries about his influence. Few Democrats will speak openly because of their shared mission of defeating Trump, but some note that if West stayed at Uber, he would be viewed as having a direct line to the president. “There definitely are issues if he is given a senior job,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a progressive watchdog group. But he added: “I am very skeptical that the Harris administration would want to invite such obvious comparisons to Jared Kushner.” The quiet conversations about West come as liberals in the party are closely watching Harris for any signals on how she would approach corporations after President Biden https://www.wsj.com/topics/person/joe-biden gave priority to an antitrust agenda. Of key concern to progressives is keeping Lina Khan in place as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, where her focus on Wall Street dealmaking https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-regulators-take-a-harder-look-at-wall-street-deals-11660555801?mod=article_inline has frustrated many top executives who are in touch with West. During the Teamsters’ September meeting with Harris, a board member asked Harris for a commitment that she would keep Khan in place at the FTC, according to people familiar with the exchange. Harris declined to make any promises, saying she needed to win the election first and then discussed her efforts to address price gouging. Larry Cohen, a former president of the Communications Workers of America, said that while Harris relies on West as a close relative, she must make clear “that she’s not relying on him on American labor law.” Patrick Gaspard, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, has known West since they both worked on President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. “When he is in her ear, the Tony West I know is going to carry with weight and measure the interests of working people, even as he’s giving her a sense of the entreaties of the business community,” Gaspard said. Potential conflicts Family members have drawn scrutiny during the past two presidential administrations. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and Kushner both worked in the White House as unpaid advisers. Since leaving, Kushner has sought to profit from his Middle East diplomacy efforts https://www.wsj.com/articles/jared-kushners-new-fund-looks-to-profit-from-his-middle-east-diplomacy-11645709017?mod=article_inline. Biden’s son Hunter Biden has been investigated over his foreign-business dealings and was found guilty of gun charges in one legal case and pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in another. West’s relationship with Harris goes back to California: Maya Harris and West attended Stanford Law School, graduating in 1992, and dated as they were beginning their careers. The couple married in 1998 and he has long played a role in Kamala Harris’s political career. uring the vice president’s races for district attorney of San Francisco and as California’s attorney general, West was by her side. After Harris was elected to the Senate in 2016, West served as a co-chair of her transition and helped conduct interviews of staff members, both for her official Senate office and later as she prepared to enter the Democratic primaries in 2019. In July, after Biden informed Harris that he intended to withdraw his candidacy for re-election, West called her close allies to inform them of the news. And in the days that followed, West traveled with Harris as her fledgling campaign took shape and helped with her vice presidential selection alongside former Attorney General Eric Holder, whom he contacted about the process. Once Harris appeared to have secured the Democratic nomination, West took an unpaid leave of absence from Uber “to volunteer…in his personal capacity” effective Aug. 17, the company said in early August. That week, West spoke briefly at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, declaring: “I know she’ll fight for you. She’ll fight for all of us.” West also currently serves on the board of directors of Ro, a healthcare company, and BXP, a publicly traded developer. A conduit to business Within the campaign, West is viewed as an asset on donor outreach and the business community. In September, he courted Wall Street and other executives in New York City and attended a star-studded Harris fundraiser at the opulent Cipriani 42nd Street event venue. Over two days, West and Brian Nelson, a top Harris policy adviser, convened small meetings focused on technology, small business, healthcare, law and economics to help introduce or reconnect West and Nelson to business leaders, according to attendees. Among the guests at those sessions were JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon https://www.wsj.com/topics/person/jamie-dimon and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, as well as Lazard CEO Peter Orszag and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, according to people familiar with the meetings. The attendees said the meetings, each with half a dozen to a dozen people, focused on hearing what business leaders think about policy matters, sometimes casually around tables. One participant said West was viewed as helping “get things done but doesn’t overstep his bounds.” The attendees said they see West as a part of Harris’s inner circle who can speak on her behalf and said he presented himself as a senior conduit. They said the question of whether West would join a Harris administration didn’t come up in the discussions. Mark Cuban, the celebrity entrepreneur and Harris backer, praised West as a smart communicator. He dismissed criticism from the left of West’s business ties. “I think that is all meaningless. The goal is to win the election. Not play party politics,” Cuban said. When Harris prepared to deliver a speech in Pittsburgh last week describing her economic philosophy, West was among a team of top economic advisers who briefed leaders of think tanks and former administration officials, according to people familiar with the discussions. And as Harris raised money in California last week, West convened some donors for private meetings in Los Angeles, the people said. During the Obama administration, West served as an associate attorney general in the Justice Department, acting as the third-ranking official under Holder. After a stint at PepsiCo, West joined Uber in 2017 as general counsel, where his hiring was viewed as an effort to clean up the company after reports of a toxic workplace culture. He received nearly $10.4 million in compensation with the company in 2023 and has earned a total of $40.6 million in total compensation since 2020, according to company filings. Passing the ballot initiative to preserve Uber’s right to treat drivers as contractors was a priority for West in the summer of 2020 as Harris joined the ticket as Biden’s running mate. For a time, the California fight briefly pitted Harris and West against each other. She joined many unions in the state in opposing the initiative known as Proposition 22, which passed with 59% of the vote. Harris also has been backed by most major unions, including some of the unions at the forefront of the opposition to the ballot initiative, including the Service Employees International Union. (On Thursday the International Association of Fire Fighters, which backed Biden in 2020, said it would make no endorsement this year.) But the close bond between Harris and West was never in question. During an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in 2019, West was questioned about the clashing family views on ride-share workers. Asked if it caused dissent at home, he said, “No.” On his sister-in-law, West said: “As a family member, she makes me proud. As a citizen, she gives me great hope.” Corrections & Amplifications California’s 2020 ballot initiative, Prop 22, sought to allow companies like Uber and Lyft to continue to classify drivers as gig workers, limiting some benefits. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the initiative overturned a law that sought to classify those drivers as gig workers. (Corrected on Oct. 4) https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/kamala-harris-brother-in-law-tony-west-cf54d828?mod=itp_wsj
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