EXCLUSIVE: As Hakeem Jeffries treks to Los Angeles for a big-ticket fundraiser, a number of Hollywood donors are staying on the sidelines out of fatigue, frustration and even fear over the ability of the Democratic party to stand up to Donald Trump.
“I’m not interested, skipping it,” one usually very dependable Dem check-writer said of Jeffries’ event Wednesday hosted by Hope Warschaw.
“The Democrats are all about the midterms, great. But that’s next year, they’re blowing it against Trump now,” the producer added of the party’s leadership and its opposition to the chaos and of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. “A lot of that is on Hakeem, Schumer, Pelosi and the rest of them.”
Out on the West Coast last month to talk with Silicon Valley Democrats, Jeffries’ fundraiser tonight has tickets going from $10,000 a couple to $100,000. With the man who would be speaker accompanied by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzanne DelBene (D-WA), all proceeds raised will go to the Jeffries Victory Fund, which hands out money to the DCCC and others.
A reliable ATM for Democrats, some Hollywood donors are disappointed with where the party has been, or rather not been, over the past two months.
“Why is there no plan, no strategy besides showing up on MSNBC?” another longtime Tinseltown supporter fumed. “Trump said what he was going to do, even if they thought only half of it could happen. They should’ve been prepared, they should {be] protecting people, vets, from Trump and Musk.”
In fact, according to a number of sources Deadline has spoken with, not only are the usual suspects not showing up to the New York Democrat’s event with activist Warschaw tonight in Los Angeles, but a number of them also declined invitations to the more exclusive inmate dinner Jeffries had set for this evening.
In addition to feeling that Democrats in Congress lack fight and spine against the hard-right Project 2025 agenda and Elon Musk’s DOGE attack on the federal bureaucracy, several well-heeled donors say they feel “betrayed” by the party’s 2024 campaign.
“They told us [Kamala] Harris was going to win, they told us they had the votes, and then they lost every single swing state,” a top publicist with a number of clients who were active on the Harris/Walz campaign told Deadline. “We were lied too, or misinformed at best, and we got Trump again.”
On the other hand, James Costos, a longtime Democratic fundraiser and activist, said there have been several non-listening and strategic planning calls with party leaders, including Jeffries and Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin. The leaders provided insights into what they were doing behind the scenes and publicly, he said, adding that he was pleased by the “warming the engines” approach.
“The Democrats are finally playing a multidimensional chess game, and everything being played out isn’t on the ‘public’ playing field,” Costos said. “Democrats who are complaining are playing a spectator sport. Complaining to the media isn’t how we win. That’s a losing position.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) walks back towards the senate side of the building at the U.S. Capitol on March 14, 2025 (Kent Nishimura for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Kent Nishimura for The Washington Post via Getty Images
In the Senate, the decision last week by Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to vote for the Republicans’ continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown has been met with widespread derision and disbelief – – even by Trump himself. In the end, 10 Democrats voted with Republicans for measures that allowed the deep spending cuts CR to move forward.
As calls for the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to begin a 2028 primary race against the four-term Schumer have been heard and more Democrats have openly asked the 74-year-old Senator to step aside, Jeffries is in an ever more difficult situation – with donors, voters and fellow elected Democrats.
This week, as Schumer undertook a slimmed down media tour for his latest book, Jeffries confirmed on March 18 that the two New Yorkers spoke over the weekend about their difference of opinion on the GOP CR and going forward. “Sunday we had a good conversation about the path forward, particularly as it relates to making sure we all speak with one voice in the effort to stop these Medicaid cuts from ever being enacted into law,” Jeffries said at a Brooklyn event Tuesday.
“Talk is cheap and easy,” one industry donor responded to Jeffries’ words of March 18. “I want to see them take the fight to Trump, not just roll over.” Initiatives like the revamped Democratic Daily Download don’t seem to be making much inroads to voters or donors.
“It’s a joke,” the donor said bluntly. “A bad joke, not funny or effective.”
Fundraising sources said that they expected that the Jeffries event to do well, given Warschaw’s longtime activism in the party and that Los Angeles donor circles extend well beyond those in the entertainment industry.
At this point at previous presidential races, there is typically a fair degree of so-called donor fatigue, particularly after a stinging loss. There also is in the impact of one of the devastating January fires, one of the worst disasters to hit the region, as many donors focus on recovery or rebuilding their own homes.
Mathew Littman, a partner at HowLitt who leads a group of creative professionals engaged in Democratic politics called The Working Group, said, “I think people in the entertainment industry are very, very frustrated by what is going on in D.C.”
Littman, who spoke at a Democratic House issues conference in Virginia last week, said that “one thing that Democrats are not doing is messaging 24/7,” noting how much Trump and Elon Musk are on social media and elsewhere commanding attention.
“You are not going to get people enthusiastic unless they see you fighting,” he said.
He credited Jeffries for holding his caucus together for the funding vote, and acknowledged Schumer’s concern that a government shutdown would threaten to cut off the budget for the federal judiciary, where Democrats are seeing some success in blocking Trump’s actions. But Littman said that Democrats signaled that they would wage a fight on the budget and “that did not happen.”
That said, he noted that it was important to not get too caught up in the consternation. “Instead of going after Elon Musk and Trump. who we should be calling out every day, we are going after Democrats.”
Elections in Virginia and New Jersey later this year and the midterms next year, and the prospect that Republicans will be trying to defend their major with an unpopular president and his chief associate, Musk, he noted.
Rufus Gifford, finance chair of the Harris and Biden campaigns who is now a strategist at Elrod Gifford, said that donors and activists are not “sitting on their hands.”
“I think they are looking to be inspired by a message and a leader,” he said. Gifford added, that “this is not going to be an easy time” for raising money.
“This is absolutely going to be a rebuilding phase, and we are going to have to rebuild trust at every level,” he said. “This is going to require some real convincing of folks that the party is in it for the fight.”
