Major fundraisers got face time with Hillary Clinton on Friday as the now-presumptive Democratic nominee begins her general election campaign.
Clinton met with 80 of her campaign’s top bundlers at her Washington home. The invite-only event was open to those Clinton supporters who had raised or given more than $500,000 to the campaign, according to Democrats with knowledge of the event.
Clinton is expected to raise $1 billion dollars for her White House effort, a sum that Donald Trump has said he has “no reason” to match.
Donors said the former secretary of state spoke about next steps going forward, including taking on Trump, but they added that Clinton didn’t seem to dwell on the presumptive Republican nominee and instead described the point of her campaign as “helping people restore faith in the political process.”
Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and Dennis Cheng, Clinton’s fundraising director, also spoke about the campaign and the state of its fundraising operation, the donors said.
Multiple donors who attended the meeting described it as a “very warm” and “celebratory” gathering of fundraisers who were clearly elated to have the primary behind them.
At the event, attendees noshed on open-faced sliders, slaw on rice crackers, fried goat cheese and seafood. Included in the crowd were Univsion chief Haim Saban, former U.S. ambassador to Portugal during President Bill Clinton’s time in office, Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, venture capitalist Alan Patricof and longtime Clinton friend Susie Tompkins Buell.
Earlier in the day, Clinton met with Sen. Elizabeth Warren at her home in Washington.
A handful of Clinton’s aides and advisers — including communications director Jennifer Palmieri and adviser Minyon Moore — could be seen walking in and out of the house. Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s lawyer and chief of staff during her tenure as secretary of state, was also seen leaving the event.
Clinton filed paperwork on Wednesday to a new agreement with the Democratic Party, establishing the Hillary Action Fund to begin fundraising for the general election and the party’s convention.
The move will open Clinton’s general election account, allowing people who donated the maximum amount of $2,700 to Clinton’s primary campaign to donate to her general election effort and to funnel money to the Democratic Party in large sums. According to Federal Election Commission rules, donors can now give $100,200 to the convention account and $100,200 to the DNC’s headquarters’ account.
The Clinton campaign reported a sum of $42 million in the bank on June 1, just before the former secretary of state became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee.