To get the Democrat presidential nomination to contest the 2020 US presidential election you need a lot of financial clout. Who are the billionaires bankrolling the various candidates as we write?
A total of 67 billionaires, including spouses and members of billionaire families, have donated to the 20 Democratic candidates that debated in Detroit last week, Forbes reported.
Bill Gates, the principal founder of Microsoft Corporation and second richest person in the world, has been bankrolling Democrat candidate Cory Booker.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, former Estee Lauder CEO Leonard Lauder, Cox Enterprises heiress Katharine Rayner and Blackstone Group president Jonathan Gray are also helping finance Brooker’s campaign. Forbes stated 18 billionaires are helping fund Brooker.
Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, leads the billionaires lining up to help former Vice President Joe Biden‘s chance of being the Democrat candidate for the White House. Schmidt and real estate moguls Neil Bluhm and Herb Simon are among the other 12 billionaires for Biden.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is the only billionaire putting his money behind Democrat candidates Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang.
Rebecca Pohlad, the philanthropist and humanitarian from the Pohlad family, is the financial backer of Marianne Williamson.
Business magnate David Geffen, now 76, and worth an estimated US$11.1 billion; IAC chairman Barry Diller, and oil baron Len Blavatnik’s wife, Emily, are among the 23 billionaires financially bookending South Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s bid to be the Presidential Democrat canditate.
Star Wars creator George Lucas, Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs, real estate tycoon Eli Broad, agricultural magnate Stewart Resnick, Cox Enterprises heir James Chambers, Stryker Corp. heir Jon Stryker and hedge fund billionaire Marc Lasry are throwing their money behind Kamala Harris.
There are 15 billionaires financially propping up Michael Bennett. They include hedge fund billionaire Jim Simons, cable TV pioneer Amos Hostetter Jr., and Baupost Group CEO Seth Klarman.
Walmart heiress Christy Walton, Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri and Hyatt Hotels heiress Gigi Pritzker are among the 11 billionaires putting their money behind Democrat candidate John Hickenlooper.
Former hedge fund manager John Arnold, investor Robert Bass and Susan Sarofim, the wife of billionaire money manager Fayez Sarofim are the best known of the nine billionaires financially supporting the candidature of Beto O’Rourke.
A number of the Minneapolis-based Pohlad family of billionaires, The Wonderful Company President Stewart Resnick, Blackstone Group CEO and President Jonathan Gray, and hedge fund billionaire Marc Lasry all contributed to Amy Klobuchar’s campaign.
Democrat presidential candidate Jay Inslee’s climate change stance has caught the wallets of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s wife, Connie Ballmer, and Marsha Laufer, the wife of Renaissance Technologies cofounder Henry Laufer.
Brooklyn New York real estate billionaire David Walentas, Reid Hoffman and Jonathan Gray are financial backers of Kirsten Gillibrand.
John Delaney, a noted self-funded candidate, still has the financial clout of billionaires Sam Zell, a private equity investor, and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s wife, Judy Kent.
Susan Pritzker, the spouse of Hyatt heir Nicholas Pritzker, II, has helped fund Elizabeth Warren’s campaign. Billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin is putting his money in to support Democrat Presidential candidate Steve Bullock.
Four candidates New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, Vermont Mayor Bernie Sanders, Housing Secretary Julian Castro, and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan have not felt the need to have the financial backing of billionaires as of August 1.
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