⁍ Wall Street banks have been leaning left in recent years, increasing the proportion of cash allocated to Democrats.
⁍ Some of that has been prompted by the industry’s bid to rebuild the bipartisan support it enjoyed before the 2009 financial crisis.
⁍ In the 2020 election cycle, campaign contributions from commercial banks and their workers to Republicans and Democrats running in congressional races are split nearly evenly.
– With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, Joe Biden has outraised President Trump in campaign fundraising, Reuters reports. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Biden’s campaign and other fundraising vehicles have pulled in about $3 million compared to Trump’s $1.4 million. In 2012, the first election after the financial crisis, Mitt Romney pulled in nearly $5.5 million from commercial banks and their workers, while Barack Obama pulled in $2 million. Wall Street banks and their workers were the top five contributors to Romney, while no financial firms were among Obama’s top contributors. In the 2020 election cycle, campaign contributions from commercial banks and their workers to Republicans and Democrats running in congressional races are split nearly evenly, at $14 million and $13.6 million respectively. That is a significant shift from four years ago, when Republicans pulled in $18.9 million from the industry, nearly twice as much as Democrats. It was even more tilted in 2012, when Democrats won just 29% of the bank donations pot. Of the top 20 recipients of bank and bank-worker donations this cycle, 10 are Democrats or left-leaning independents, compared with six Democrats in 2012. Stripping out Trump and Biden, the next top recipient on that list is anti-Wall Street progressive and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, with $831,096. While at first blush that seems counter-intuitive, Sanders tops contributions from many industries due to his grassroots following among millions of Americans, including those who work at banks. Focusing only on funds dished out by banks’ dedicated political arms, the picture changes.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-wallstreet-factbox/wall-street-banks-and-their-staff-are-leaning-left-idUSKBN27C1EG