Democrats Cool on Wall Street Donors, and the Feeling Is Mutual
The wealthy are finding themselves shut out of the top 2020 campaigns.
Wealthy donors have long played a central role in Democratic presidential politics: filling campaign coffers, jockeying for influence, and dispensing often unwanted advice to candidates and their staffs. But that system may be in jeopardy.
“In this primary season, a paradigm shift has taken place where grassroots donors are much more important to a candidate’s success,” says Robert Wolf, a major Wall Street fundraiser for Barack Obama who founded 32 Advisors, a strategy and investment firm. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, both of whom have spurned donations from private, large-dollar fundraisers, together raised about $50 million in the third quarter, with tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang adding $10 million more, 99% of it in increments of $200 or less. That’s more than the total brought in by the six other candidates who’ve qualified for the Nov. 20 Democratic debate, all of whom have followed the standard fundraising playbook. (One of them, billionaire investor Tom Steyer, is largely self-funding his campaign.)