Ray McGuire raises big money for campaign

Ray McGuire and his allies in New York tapped into their deep-pocketed fundraising networks to help raise over $5 million for the former Citigroup executive’s mayoral campaign.

McGuire, who launched his campaign for mayor of New York in December, turned to a group of associates who have known him and several of his allies for years, according to people familiar with the matter.

His fundraising success gives him a war chest that will help him compete with other contenders in a large Democratic primary. Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang announced his run for mayor on Thursday.

“Once we called someone we would say, ‘Even though you donated, we know you know more people than just me and Ray,’ and they got their networks going,” Charles Phillips, former CEO of software company Infor and a chairman of the campaign, told CNBC on Wednesday.

Jon Henes, a partner and corporate restructuring attorney at law firm Kirkland & Ellis, and Laurie Tisch, a philanthropist and a member of the wealthy Tisch family, are two finance co-chairs for the McGuire campaign, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. This person declined to be named as this had yet to be made public.

Tisch, a co-owner of the New York Giants, confirmed to CNBC that she is a finance chair for McGuire’s campaign and has known the Wall Street executive for over 25 years. The two first met while serving on the board of the Whitney Museum, she noted.

Close friends of McGuire’s encouraged him over several months to jump into the race, Tisch said.

“I think it was probably a full year where his friends and people who know him kind of said, it was kind of a throw away line of ‘why don’t you run for mayor,’ Tisch said.

Henes was Sen. Kamala Harris’ national finance chair when she ran for president during the 2020 Democratic primary. Harris went on to become President-elect Joe Biden’s running mate and will become vice president in six days. Henes was also one of former South Carolina Senate candidate Jaime Harrison’s premier bundlers. Harrison, who raised tens of millions of dollars in his ultimately losing bid, is in line to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Multiple members of the Tisch family, which controls the conglomerate Loews Corp. and co-owns the New York Giants, gave the max check of $5,100 to McGuire’s campaign, according to a list of contributions from the McGuire team. Henes also gave the max amount.

The campaign also partially relied on virtual fundraising events featuring other luminaries, such as Mike Kempner, the CEO of public relations juggernaut MWWPR; Charles Myers, the former vice chair of investment firm Evercore; Fred Terrell, a former executive vice chairman at Credit Suisse; Alexis McGill Johnson, the CEO of Planned Parenthood, and Loretta Lynch, the former U.S. attorney general under President Barack Obama.

Kempner and Lynch, who is currently a partner at legal giant Paul Weiss, gave the campaign $5,100. Brad Karp, the chairman of the…