Finances exceed Trump and Biden contributions as political donations hit records
With the rest of the US economy plummeting in 2020, presidential politics is a growing industry.
Spending for the presidential election alone is expected to reach $6.6 billion, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tallies political donations to campaigns and political action committees supporting campaigns by individuals giving more than $200 and by the PACs. The previous record, in 2016, was $2.4 billion.
Contributions affiliated with the finance, insurance and real estate sectors to both candidates topped other industries as of Oct. 16, according to CRP data, with Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s donation narrower than that of the 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton on President Donald Trump.
Biden’s campaign and groups supporting him have raised $101 million from donors in finance, insurance and real estate, according to data from CRP, a nonpartisan research group. That compares to $59.9 million in industry donations for Trump and groups that support him.
“Minorities, women and young employees are pushing for a new direction” on Wall Street, said Larry Sabato, a politics professor at the University of Virginia who also directs the university’s Center for Politics, in an interview. .
With a lead of $43.5 million to $5.7 million for Biden, the communications and electronics sector’s favoritism of Democratic presidential candidates has only intensified over the years, said Mike Hettinger, president and founding director of government relations firm Hettinger Strategy Group, in an interview. The sector includes Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. as well as software developers Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp.
“Tech is far more politically active today than it was even eight years ago and has a clear frontrunner, far more than it was even in 2012,” Hettinger said.
On the other side of the spectrum, energy-affiliated donors flocked to Trump by a margin of $15.6 million to $3.7 million, a huge gain for the president in the 2016 cycle. “We continue to believe that the 2020 election could create a binary outcome for fossil fuels and green energy,” energy policy analysts at ClearView Energy Partners LLC told clients in a 24 election update. September. “The two presidential candidates are not just pursuing radically different goals; they also face radically different windows of action.”
The health sector raised about $22 million more for Trump than for Biden, according to the CRP, but the majority of contributions to Trump came from a single $37.5 million donation from the Las Vegas-based billionaires , Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, which was awarded to the Adelson Clinic for addiction treatment and research.
