Kamala Harris will become the first presidential candidate since 1984 to turn down an invitation to the black-tie event.
Vice President Kamala Harris has announced she will not attend the Al Smith charity dinner this year, breaking with a tradition that goes back to 1960. Former President Donald Trump says he will attend the event.
A Harris campaign official confirmed she will skip the dinner to focus on campaigning in battleground states.
The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner—the “Al Smith dinner”—is an annual fundraiser hosted by the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and traditionally attended by both major presidential candidates. In addition to raising millions every year, the chic fundraiser has come to symbolize underlying unity and the ability to put aside political differences for one night, in the name of good cheer.
Set for Oct. 17 at Manhattan’s New York Hilton Midtown, this year’s dinner is sold out. Last year over 900 people attended the black-tie event, where a table for 10 can go for as much as $250,000.
In 2023, the Al Smith dinner raised $7.1 million for a variety of causes including education, health services, family resources, special needs and foster children.
The event is named after four-term New York governor and Democrat presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith, defeated by Herbert Hoover in 1928. Smith was the first Roman Catholic nominated for U.S. president by a major political party.
The fundraiser debuted in 1946 when then Archbishop of New York Cardinal Francis Spellman established the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation. The tradition of inviting presidential candidates began with the 1960 race between John F. Kennedy—a Catholic—and Richard Nixon.
New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Monday he hopes Harris will change her mind and attend the event, which bills itself “A Party for All Parties.” Dolan spoke to reporters at the Elizabeth Seton Children’s Center, one of the charities that benefits from the Al Smith dinner.
“We were looking forward to giving the Vice President an enthusiastic welcome,” Dolan said. “She speaks very much about high ideals and how it’s good to get away from division and come together in unity and all, and that’s what the Al Smith dinner is all about. We haven’t given up yet.”
“This hasn’t happened in 40 years since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation, and remember, he lost 49 out of 50 states,” Dolan said.
“We hope she’s here,” he added. “It’s a grand evening, and it’s an evening of fun and friendship with an extraordinarily noble goal.”
Dolan said that while the event is sponsored by the New York Archdiocese, it is attended by people of various faiths, and “people who say they don’t belong to any religion whatsoever,” and the causes that it supports are not just Catholic causes.
“It’s really tough to tag it down as a ‘Catholic’ event,” he said.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump called it “sad, but not surprising, that Kamala has decided not to attend.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Republican candidate Barry Goldwater received no invitation in 1964, although President Lyndon B. Johnson was invited.
In 1984, Walter Mondale declined an invitation to the event; Ronald Reagan was present.
Notably, in 1980, Jimmy Carter—who supported legalized abortion although he was personally opposed—was booed by the crowd, possibly a factor in Mondale’s decision to skip the event.
In 1996, the Archdiocese did not invite either presidential candidate after then-president Bill Clinton vetoed a ban on partial-birth abortion. In 2004, neither candidate was invited, again due to concerns that John Kerry’s pro-abortion stance would stoke division at the fundraiser. Kerry, a Catholic, dissented from the Catholic church’s teaching on abortion.
The dinner has traditionally offered the candidates an opportunity to roast each other. During the 2016 dinner, Trump joked with Hillary Clinton about legal troubles she was facing at the time over her private email servers: “Just before taking the dais, Hillary accidentally bumped into me, and she very civilly said ‘Pardon me.’” The joke drew a hearty laugh from Mrs. Clinton and the rest of the audience.
In 2020, the event was held online due to COVID-19 concerns, and did not feature the usual back-and-forth ribbing.
The Associated Press and Aleteia contributed to this report.