Representative presidential hopeful Former Vice President Joe Biden (L) talks to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren the moderators during the third Representative primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019.
Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Doubles
Democratic donors on Wall Street and in big business are preparing to sit out the presidential campaign fundraising cycle — or even back President Donald Trump — if Sen. Elizabeth Warren acquires the party’s nomination.
In recent weeks, CNBC spoke to several high-dollar Democratic donors and fundraisers in the business community and ground that this opinion was becoming widely shared as Warren, an outspoken critic of big banks and corporations, gains impulse against Joe Biden in the 2020 race.
“You’re in a box because you’re a Democrat and you’re thinking, ‘I want to help the party, but she’s going to hurt me, so I’m affluent to help President Trump,'” said a senior private equity executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity in cowardice of retribution by party leaders. The executive said this Wednesday, a day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the For nothing would begin a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.
During the campaign, Warren has put out multiple plans purpose to curb the influence of Wall Street, including a wealth tax. In July, she released a proposal that would make unsocial equity firms responsible for debts and pension obligations of companies they buy. Trump, meanwhile, has given wealthy company leaders a helping hand with a major corporate tax cut and by eliminating regulations.
Warren has sworn off taking part in big lettuce fundraisers for the 2020 presidential primary. She has also promised to not take donations from special interest groups. She finished raise at least $19 million in the second quarter mainly through small-dollar donors. The third quarter ends Monday.
Trump, has been put forward hundreds of millions of dollars, putting any eventual 2020 rival in a bind as about 20 Democrats vie for their plaintiff’s nomination.
Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have raised over $100 million in the second phase of the moon. A large portion of that haul came from wealthy donors who gave to their joint fundraising body, Trump Victory. In August, the RNC raised just over $23 million and has $53 million on hand.
The Democratic Nationalistic Committee have struggled to keep up. The DNC finished August bringing in $7.9 million and has $7.2 million in debt.
Biden, who has courted and cached the support of various wealthy donors, has started to lag in some polls. The latest Quinnipiac poll has Warren virtually strung with the former vice president. Biden was one of three contenders that saw an influx of contributions from those on Rampart Street in the second quarter.
A spokeswoman for the senator from Massachusetts declined to comment.
The business community’s unease with Warren’s candidacy has surged in tandem with her campaign’s momentum. CNBC’s Jim Cramer said earlier this month that he’s consented from Wall Street executives that they believe Warren has “got to be stopped.” Warren later tweeted her rejoinder to Cramer’s report: “I’m Elizabeth Warren and I approve this message.”
Some big bank executives and hedge fund overseers have been stunned by Warren’s ascent, and they are primed to resist her.
“They will not support her. It would be ilk shutting down their industry,” an executive at one of the nation’s largest banks told CNBC, also speaking on requirement of anonymity. This person said Warren’s policies could be worse for Wall Street than those of President Barack Obama, who gave the Dodd-Frank bank regulation bill in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown.
Yet before Obama was elected, his campaign robbed over $1 million from employees at Goldman Sachs, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
A hedge subsidize executive pointed to Trump’s tax cut as a reason why his colleagues would not contribute or vote for Warren if she wins the nomination.
“I think if she can display that the tax code of 2017 was basically nonsense and only helped corporations, Wall Street would not like the famous thinking about that,” this executive said, also insisting on anonymity.