The Federal Elections Commission released the latest data on who’s donating to presidential candidates, and with that data, new information on which candidates are taking money from Wall Street. Ted Cruz is leading other candidates in large donations from individual Wall Street investors, which was also true when Crowdpac investigated donors in September. After Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton has the largest donation from an individual Wall Street backer.
Ted Cruz has raised $11 million from Robert Mercer, a computer programmer who is the CEO of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. In addition to donating to Cruz’s campaign, Mercer supports the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and Breitbart.com. Robert Mercer is the single largest donor in the 2016 election thus far.
The second largest donation, by oil and natural gas investor Toby Neugebauer, is also to Ted Cruz. Neugebauer is a fellow Houstonian who’s given $10 million to the pro-Cruz SuperPAC “Keep the Promise.”
Hillary Clinton’s largest donor is George Soros, who founded the successful hedge fund Soros Fund Management. Soros is known for his support of liberal candidates and backed President Obama over Senator Clinton in the 2008 primaries. He’s donated $7 million to Clinton so far.
While Cruz and Clinton win over wealthy individuals, Jeb Bush still leads in total dollars raised from donors employed at financial and insurance firms. Crowdpac’s Money Race shows Bush has raised $40 million from the industry, almost double Cruz’s total, despite the support of Mercer and Neugebauer.