Biden met with billionaire Bucks owner in Milwaukee

During a campaign swing through Wisconsin last week, President Joe Biden met privately with the billionaire owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, Wes Edens, and the team’s head coach Doc Rivers, according to three people familiar with the previously unreported meeting but not authorized to speak about it publicly.

The talk took place at a downtown hotel last Wednesday following an official event at a Milwaukee Boys and Girls Club highlighting the administration’s Reconnecting Communities initiative, a push to direct infrastructure dollars to overlooked communities.

The meeting illuminates an emerging pattern for the president, in which he sets aside time while traveling to hold one-on-one discussions with a range of individuals. That has included a new generation of mega-donors who can extend his financial advantage over presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Edens, 61, a businessman and investor worth an estimated $4.1 billion according to Forbes, has a long history of supporting Democrats. Interestingly, his daughter, Mallory, is reportedly dating New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who has drawn headlines for his friendship with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose independent presidential bid complicates Biden’s path to reelection.

Rivers, 62, is not a billionaire, but also is no stranger to presidential politics. He endorsed Biden during the 2020 campaign in a video alongside Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr that was produced by the anti-Trump group, The Lincoln Project.

The Bucks’ media relations team declined to comment on the meeting.

The sit-down in Milwaukee is not the first such meeting Biden has held to rev up fundraising efforts. During a visit to San Francisco last month, he met privately with Dustin Moskovitz, Puck’s Theodore Schliefer reported this week.

Moskovitz, 39, is a Facebook co-founder who spent more than $50 million on behalf of Biden and Democrats in 2020.

Edens, on the other hand, was not a major player in 2020. Unlike former Bucks’ owner, Marc Lasry, who has given liberally to Democrats, Edens did not make any federal campaign contributions in 2020 before the general election.

He did contribute to the campaigns of former Republican Georgia senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler during their runoff elections, which both lost, swinging control of the Senate to Democrats and giving Biden the ability to enact a more ambitious legislative agenda than his team had planned.

But in December 2023, Edens wrote a $6,600 check to a Biden fundraising committee, according to the FEC database.