{"id":43686,"date":"2026-08-14T05:55:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43686"},"modified":"2026-08-14T05:55:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:55:31","slug":"2028-presidential-candidates-quietly-visit-the-hamptons-for-major-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43686","title":{"rendered":"2028 Presidential Candidates Quietly Visit the Hamptons for Major Fundraising"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It was a hot August day, and the patrons of 75 Main in Southampton were trying to figure out who on earth was the man wandering up and down Main Street cosseted by several armed security guards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The VIP, it turned out, was Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate challenging Kathy Hochul in the New York gubernatorial race, and like so many politicians and presidential hopefuls this time of year, he had ventured out to the Hamptons for a fundraiser. (The following weekend, Hochul herself would make the trip to 75 Main for a bipartisan breakfast hosted by billionaire supermarket tycoon John Catsimatidis.) This Friday, Blakeman will campaign with President Donald Trump before attending a fundraiser with Steve Witkoff, Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">This is what August looks like in an election year out on the East End of Long Island. \u201cEver since the Bill Clinton days, all the politicians come because that\u2019s where the money is,\u201d Catsimatidis tells <em>Vanity Fair.<\/em> The Hamptons and the ritzy Massachusetts islands to its northeast\u2014Martha\u2019s Vineyard and Nantucket\u2014become a landing ground for political candidates, who parachute in to raise money for their midterm races and test appetites for their future presidential ambitions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cI can\u2019t walk down the street without running into a member of Congress,\u201d says one political fundraiser with a home in Nantucket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">For pols with national profiles, the trip is well worth it. It\u2019s an opportunity for aspiring presidents to meet would-be donors amid the murmuring shade of perfectly manicured hedgerows, and a chance for the wealthy who blow ungodly sums on second-home landscaping to make good on their investment by flexing (and gaining) some clout in Washington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">A series of candidates in the conversation for 2028 have so far made the pilgrimage to America\u2019s summer money meccas. Maryland governor Wes Moore stopped by a Westhampton synagogue on a fundraising swing last month. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro made the trip to the South Fork as well, while Illinois governor JB Pritzker spoke to supporters at the home of a Broadway producer in Sagaponack. Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia is doing his own swing the weekend of August 22 for a lunch at the East Hampton home of jewelry designer Brooke Neidich followed by a fundraiser at the Water Mill estate of Alex Soros and Huma Abedin.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"AssetEmbedWrapper-iJvQnD cOWUYC asset-embed\">\n<div class=\"AssetEmbedAssetContainer-fnduJP iaVSwI asset-embed__asset-container\"><span class=\"SpanWrapper-kFnjvc eKnjjD responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-gaAbQ hXaxHA asset-embed__responsive-asset\"><picture class=\"ResponsiveImagePicture-jKunQM gjCCFj AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-gaAbQ hXaxHA asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Book signing for Hillary Clinton at BookHampton in East Hampton\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-dkeESL cQPiWi responsive-image__image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e1d9e8660aa53b0e6f8c7\/master\/w_120,c_limit\/GettyImages-453719046.jpg 120w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e1d9e8660aa53b0e6f8c7\/master\/w_240,c_limit\/GettyImages-453719046.jpg 240w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e1d9e8660aa53b0e6f8c7\/master\/w_320,c_limit\/GettyImages-453719046.jpg 320w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e1d9e8660aa53b0e6f8c7\/master\/w_640,c_limit\/GettyImages-453719046.jpg 640w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e1d9e8660aa53b0e6f8c7\/master\/w_768,c_limit\/GettyImages-453719046.jpg 768w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e1d9e8660aa53b0e6f8c7\/master\/w_960,c_limit\/GettyImages-453719046.jpg 960w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e1d9e8660aa53b0e6f8c7\/master\/w_1280,c_limit\/GettyImages-453719046.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e1d9e8660aa53b0e6f8c7\/master\/w_1600,c_limit\/GettyImages-453719046.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"100vw\" src=\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e1d9e8660aa53b0e6f8c7\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-453719046.jpg\"\/><\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"BaseText-fEwdHD CaptionText-cQpRdU klhnDX hbiMYj caption__text\">Book signing for Hillary Clinton at BookHampton in East Hampton<\/span><span class=\"BaseText-fEwdHD CaptionCredit-cUgOGk gsdIcD hRFzlA caption__credit\">Sonia Moskowitz\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The trips are ostensibly opportunities to rake in cash from big-dollar donors for the midterm elections, but they often serve an implicit, longer-term purpose as well: building out a national fundraising network to support a future campaign for president. In 2006, Hillary Clinton stopped by East Hampton for a fundraiser billed as backing her Senate campaign, though at the time she led the polls for president. Her Senate fundraising operation ultimately left her with a $13 million war chest she could convert into funding for a presidential run. This strategy wasn\u2019t without costs for Clinton: <em>The New York Times<\/em> <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/09\/04\/us\/politics\/hillary-clinton-fundraising.html\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/09\/04\/us\/politics\/hillary-clinton-fundraising.html&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/09\/04\/us\/politics\/hillary-clinton-fundraising.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published a bruising account<\/a> in 2016 of her \u201cultrarich\u201d fundraising circuit, which included dancing alongside Jimmy Buffett, Jon Bon Jovi, and Paul McCartney at a $33,400-a-head garden party in Sag Harbor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The Hamptons have long offered a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/2015\/06\/hillary-clinton-may-have-a-hamptons-problem\" class=\"text link\">poisoned chalice<\/a> to candidates, and the current political climate has only become more hostile to coastal wealth in the years since. Which explains why campaigns keep these sorts of trips closely guarded. \u201cEverybody is freaked out about people talking,\u201d says one source familiar with the campaign operations of top Democrats who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. \u201cIt\u2019s a higher-anxiety moment than ever before.\u201d They certainly aren\u2019t posting clips of linen-clad candidates schmoozing among the hydrangeas on their social media pages between the rallying cries to fight against the corruption of the elites. \u201cFive years ago, before the AOC revolution, people were proud of being filthy rich,\u201d adds Todd Shapiro, a political publicist who spends time in the Hamptons in the summer. \u201cNow they\u2019re scared to express it. You don\u2019t see the same bling.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a hot August day, and the patrons of 75 Main in Southampton were trying to figure out who on earth was the man wandering up and down Main Street cosseted by several armed security guards. The VIP, it turned out, was Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate challenging Kathy Hochul in the New York&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7dd99e48feeb13aaa6b80b\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/longform-still.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}