By DIANE DENISH
Corner to Corner
© 2024 New Mexico News Services
In the midst of a political upheaval and a new dynamic in the presidential election, the role money plays in political campaigns has a new focus.
Let’s start with mega donors: Peter Thiel, Pay Pal founder and hedge fund giant. Thiel, who was born in Germany, is a naturalized American citizen. In 2017 he was granted citizenship in New Zealand saying, “New Zealand is the future”. He sometimes refers to New Zealand as his “back up country”.
Thiel is a self-described conservative, libertarian, and registered Republican. He has an estimated net worth of $10 billion and funds Republican candidates and PACS supporting Donald Trump.
Vice presidential candidate JD Vance has been tied to Thiel since hearing Thiel speak as a student at Yale Law School. Thiel has fueled Vance’s rapid rise in politics. In 2022 he funded Vance’s Senate race with $15 million. He has introduced Vance to the tech mega investor community cementing Vance’s loyalty to wealthy Silicon Valley CEOs.
Then there is Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, owner of X (formerly Twitter) and SpaceX. Musk was born in South Africa and became a naturalized American citizen in 2002. With a net worth of $191 million, Musk has enjoyed the title of “richest man on earth”.
The day Vance was named Trump’s VP, Musk reportedly pledged $45 million a month to a PAC he co-founded supporting Trump. Musk later tried to walk that back, saying he was “donating at much smaller levels”.
On the Democratic side, we watched as donors withheld funding from President Biden, Democratic candidates and PACS to urge Biden’s departure as the nominee. None have the staggering wealth of Musk and few match Thiel’s wealth.
Actor George Clooney (with a net worth of $500 million), along with Barry Diller of Expedia and IAC (net worth $5 billion), and Reed Hastings of Netflix (net worth 4 billion) made public statements. Other wealthy donors, such as Abigail Disney, heir to Disney money and Tax the Rich activist (net worth $130 million), and Christy Walton, heir to the Walmart fortune (net worth $12 billion) were more private in their concerns.
That’s a few national examples.
At home in New Mexico the Republican candidate for U. S. Senate filed a financial disclosure statement stating she and her husband have a net worth between $21 million and $94 million. Like Thiel, much of her wealth comes from the hedge fund world. She is accused of trying to “buy the seat”, having put in $1.5 million into her campaign.
The Democratic incumbent, Martin Heinrich, doesn’t have the same advantage with a much smaller net worth of $300,000 to $449,000.
The New York Times reported that Heinrich was subject to pressure from donor Tom Strickler, a Hollywood talent agent who threatened to withhold a maximum donation unless Heinrich asked for Biden to step away. This was happening to Democratic congressional and Senate candidates across the country. Heinrich soon went on record praising Biden but also asking for his withdrawal.
So big money in politics is alive and well.
For Democrats, there is a new defense against donors like Musk and Thiel – the little guys and gals.
In the first 24 hours after Biden’s withdrawal, Harris for President raised $81 million from 888,000 donors, averaging less than $100 per person. Some 44,000 Black women raised $1.5 million the first night after the announcement. Since then, Indivisible (which sponsored the White Women Answer the Call) raised $8.5 million from a record 146,000 Zoom call participants, Black Men Vote has raised $1.3 million, and March for Our Lives is approaching $500,000 in money raised from $6,000 18-to-25-year-old voters.
Political history tells us money is important, but it’s not everything. Elections are people-powered and sometimes the little guys and gals fuel the coffers and a victory.