Mitt Romney was not the only person disappointed on Election Day in 2012, and when the GOP’s best hope lost in a landslide, a lot of deep pocketed rich guys lost, too.
Much was made of Mitt Romney losing as well as the poor “return on investment” given those who shelled out beaucoup bucks in an attempt to oust President Obama from the White House.
The rich guy/middle class face-off feel was made even worse when Romney’s infamous “47 percent” video began to make the rounds, and nearly half of Americans heard the candidate tell a room of mega-rich donors that when he got into the Oval Office , it wouldn’t be most of Americans he’d represent.
It didn’t go over very well once exposed.
But Romney’s donors continue to have interests best represented by a neo-conservative candidate… and their big pockets are big targets for the slew of GOP hopefuls as 2016 approaches.
HuffPo reports:
“Interviews with more than a dozen senior donors suggest that the men and women who generated hundreds of millions of dollars for Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign represent the more pragmatic wing of the Republican Party – a group likely to shy away from candidates driven by rigid conservative ideology. But few donors have committed to a contender this early. And Republican heavyweights across the political spectrum are aggressively seeking face time with Romney donors at presidential “cattle call” events around the country and in get-to-know-you meetings in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and elsewhere.”
Romney finance chairman Spencer Zwick recently said that Mitt Romney’s donors are likely to back the bigger contenders as the stakes narrow:
“We built an interesting network of people. A lot of them would be inclined to get involved again… I would love to be heavily involved.”
Mitt Romney himself has been appearing at Republican fund-raising events, cautioning hopefuls to “stay smart.”