Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign made “tak[ing] on corporate landlords and cap[ping] unfair rent increases” a top policy priority, putting her at odds with her top donors and one of her longtime aides, who all oppose rent control in Harris’s home state of California. 

Jonathan Gray, the billionaire president of Blackstone, has donated approximately $500,000 to elect Harris as president. His company is one of the largest owners of single-family homes in America, and has spent millions of dollars via offshoots to oppose rent control measures in California. 

One of the operatives that Blackstone-affiliated groups works closely with is Ace Smith, a Democratic Party operative, who worked in senior roles on Harris’s winning campaigns for attorney general and for U.S. Senate, to oppose California ballot measures that would limit rent increases. Smith has “been working closely with corporate landlords and their front group, the California Apartment Association, to ensure that the real estate industry can keep charging wildly inflated, unfair rents,” according to the Los Angeles Progressive.

Smith is currently working to oppose Proposition 33, a ballot initiative facing voters this cycle. Recent polling suggests that the measure is a slight favorite to fail; its supporters drew flak for falsely claiming that Harris supports the measure.