Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, And Kamala Harris Reportedly Have The Most Billionaire Donors
A new report by Forbes reveals the Democratic presidential candidates with the most billionaire donors. According to the report, 67 billionaires donated to the 20 Democratic candidates that hit the debate stage last week as of July 15 — the last filing deadline with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
The report reveals that Pete Buttigieg tops the list with 23 billionaire donors. After Buttigieg, Cory Booker is 2nd with 18, and Kamala Harris is 3rd with 17. Michael Bennet is 4th with 15, Joe Biden is 5th with 13, and John Hickenlooper is 6th with 11.
Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, and Jay Inslee have between 5 and 10 donors. Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard both have one thanks to Twitter CEO Jack Doresey, while Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro, Bill De Blasio, and Tim Ryan have none.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, a CNBC report revealed that Wall Street has begun throwing money behind their favorite candidates thus far. FEC records reveal that at least 15 bank executives from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Citigroup donated to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg during the second quarter.
Per New York Magazine, the Democratic Party’s highest-profile donors met for dinner in early April and expressed fear at some of the current candidates. In particular, Sanders and Warren are reportedly not favorites amongst Wall Street. According to one banker at the dinner, there is a “tremendous fear” that candidates with the closest ties to the financial industry, such as Booker and Gillibrand, are not doing well in polls.
Number of billionaire donors by candidate:
Pete Buttigieg: 23
Cory Booker: 18
Kamala Harris: 17
Michael Bennett: 15
Joe Biden: 13
John Hickenlooper: 11
Beto O’Rourke: 9
Amy Klobuchar: 8
Bernie Sanders: 0— Luke Savage (@LukewSavage) August 6, 2019
“I mean, honestly, if it’s Bernie versus Trump, I have no f**king idea what I’m going to do,” said a Democratic hedge funder who went unnamed. “Maybe I won’t vote.”
“Wall Street for Trump is the reverse Bradley effect,” said hedge-fund manager Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as Donald Trump’s White House communications director. The theory he is referring to suggests that voters overstate their support for non-white candidates when it comes to polls.
“They all secretly love him, but because of their clients and the polarity, they don’t want to say it out loud.”
Of the people at the dinner, Harris was reportedly a favorite of many. Her decision to pass on prosecuting OneWest CEO, Steven Mnuchin — currently Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury — during her time as California’s attorney general is apparently one of the reasons behind her favorability among the Wall Street circle.
