The Hidden Venmo Economy of Campaign Staffers When Their Boss Quits

[Mme. Defarge]

The race is over. The race to the bar is on.

When Senator Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the presidential race on Thursday, it was a devastating blow for her supporters and the 1,000-some staff members she had hired from coast to coast. But within hours, hundreds of alerts began popping up on their phones: emojis of whiskey pours, clinking champagne flutes, sloshing beer mugs, martinis and red wine glasses.

Plus, cash. Lots of cash.

Welcome to the unseen and surprise Venmo economy of collapsed campaigns in 2020, where political operatives have been, for months, sending drinking money digitally to their friends, former colleagues and rivals using the money-transferring app.

“It’s like a Candygram but in 2020,” said Lily Adams, the former communications director for Senator Kamala Harris. “But better and far more useful.”

The practice has spread unexpectedly and unplanned from campaign to campaign, like a viral video with a life of its own: $10 here, $25, even $100. It peaked this past week as Ms. Warren followed Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg, Senator Amy Klobuchar and Michael R. Bloomberg to the exits.
Drinks soon followed at the bar.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/us/politics/venmo-2020-campaign-staff.html