The visionary Brooklyn millennial bought HarrisWalz.com in 2020. Four years later, after Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her presidential candidate, the self-described “cybersquatter” made $15,000 selling the domain.
Jeremy Green Etche, 36, a trademark attorney, said he has been “shopping around” on sites such as Name.com and GoDaddy, purchasing domain names linked to potential political campaigns.
“That’s the word you want. [“cybersquatting”]”Other people who buy domain names get mad when I say that, but they say I should use a ‘domain investor,'” Etche told Fox News Digital. “I’m buying domains with politicians’ names on them, which I guess fits the definition of cybersquatting… This ‘Harris Waltz’ brand probably didn’t exist until yesterday.”
“This is an issue that someone could take to domain arbitration,” the trademark lawyer explained, “but it would take time and money to seize a domain from a cybersquatter, so it wouldn’t make sense for a presidential campaign to do it. It would cost over $15,000 and be over for the campaign.”
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Jeremy Green Etche, 36, told Fox News Digital that he bought HarrisWalz.com in 2020 for about $10 and sold it to a Harris supporter for $15,000. (Stephanie Eche)
Etche said he purchased 15 domain names related to Harris in August 2020, pairing her name with “all kinds of plain white guys.” [he] I could remember who was famous at the time.”
Other names in the mix include Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman and Washington Governor Jay Inslee.
Etche said it cost him about $10 to buy a domain name, and he pays back a small amount each year to keep the website running.
That’s mostly speculation, said Etche, a Brooklyn native who is politically active and a member of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Etche said he was a sign dealer when he came up with the idea to buy political domains.
“I’m going to get Obama to sign five books at a time and sell them on eBay for about $500 each,” Etche said. “I thought I could do something similar with Domain.”
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Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, appeared on stage together at a campaign event at Girard College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 6, 2024. Harris selected the 60-year-old Midwestern governor over other candidates, ending weeks of speculation about who her running mate would be. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)
This isn’t the first time Etche’s correct guess has paid off: In 2016, he was the owner of ClintonKaine.com, and also purchased ClintonBooker.com and ClintonBiden.com in case the then-Democratic candidate chose Sen. Cory Booker or Joe Biden as his running mate.
Etche, whose name was Jeremy Peter Green before he was married, said he was living in his basement with credit card debt and wanted to sell the domain name for $10,000.
Etche said he began publishing Harry Potter-themed political fan fiction on the site when the Clinton campaign offered just $2,000. He eventually sold the domain for $15,000 to an anonymous buyer, who turned out to be a member of the Trump campaign who used the site to post anti-Clinton news during the election.
“To be honest with you, I was really depressed when the Clinton campaign didn’t even seriously offer me in 2016,” he said Tuesday. NPR reported. “I’m hoping that the people in the Harris campaign are a little smarter now that they know what happened last time and have a little more grasp on things.”
On Tuesday, Etche sold HarrisWalz.com. Online Marketplace He told Fox News Digital he paid $15,000 to “a seemingly unrelated individual with no ties to either side.”
“The person I sold the domain to said they were a Harris supporter. They were basically buying the domain to stop the Trump campaign from buying it like they did with ClintonKaine.com in 2016,” Etche said.
Now Etche feels like “the greatest political cybersquatter of all time.”
“I’ve had a really strange sense of déjà vu these past few days,” Etche said. “I’m just repeating the same thing that happened eight years ago. It feels so good experiencing it the second time. It feels like it wasn’t an accident last time.”
Etche said he would keep the other Harris-related domains he purchased in case the current vice president is re-elected.
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (right) and Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz attend a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. Harris chose Waltz as her running mate, asking him to build a voting coalition of coastal progressives and Midwestern moderates to keep President Donald Trump from the White House. (Hannah Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“These domains will not only be valuable for the 2024 election, but will also remain valuable if Ms. Harris runs for office in 2028,” Etche wrote on the online marketplace where the domains are currently being sold, “which makes them an excellent investment.”
He also said he has purchased 10 domain names related to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in case she runs for president in the future, and he is predicting Colorado Governor Jared Polis, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth as her potential running mates, asking $9,900 for each domain.
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“I got a bunch of Waltz domains,” Etche said. “The person chosen as the vice presidential candidate is effectively the presidential candidate later on.”
Etche has also purchased Republican-related domain names, with TrumpCotton.com being the front-runner this year.
“These domains have to be purchased a long time in advance. When I was buying domains for this election cycle, J.D. Vance was still just an author. He wasn’t in my sights,” Etche said. “Maybe someone bought them when he was running for Senate. I wish I’d been aware of that.”
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
