Despite renouncing big-money donations, Elizabeth Warren had racked up at least three billionaire donors by mid-July…
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Most Democratic primary polls show former Vice President Joe Biden maintaining a solid lead, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., continuing to gain momentum among the party’s radical fringes.
But one revealing metric tells a much different story.
Although he is currently polling in the single-digits at around 5 percent, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is leading the pack in what may be Democrats’ most influential identity group, billionaire donors.
Based on the most recent quarterly filing report—as of mid-July—Buttigieg had the direct financial support of 23 well-heeled plutocrats, followed by Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey (18), Kamala Harris of California (17) and Michael Bennet of Colorado (15), according to Forbes.
Biden came in fifth, with 13 billionaires.
The magazine urged caution in divining too much from this statistic since wealthy liberals were likely making the bulk of their contributions through super-PACs, where they could spend unlimited resources in support of candidates as opposed to the direct-contribution cap of $2,800.
Still, some wealthy individuals—like Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda—have pledged only to make individual donations in the interest of transparency, Forbes said.
Among the top Buttigieg supporters are record-label executive David Geffen; media magnate Barry Diller, whose InterActiveCorp includes several online brands and TV networks; and Emily Blavatnik, the wife of Russia-born oil baron Len Blavatnik.
Buttigieg also has attended fundraisers sponsored by Hamilton James of the financial services firm Blackstone, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
Gates is one of several noteworthy billionaires backing Booker. Others include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
Despite a pledge to renounce big-money donors, Warren had notched three billionaires by mid-July. She has been prominently bolstered in the past by billionaire George Soros, presently claiming he will sit out the Democratic primary race.
However, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who continues to poll ahead of Warren, was among the four candidates with no billionaires to his name.
Others were New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro and Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan.
At least one billionaire, hedge-fund investor Tom Steyer, is presumably self-funding his own campaign after having benefited many radical left-wing candidates in the past.