California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is facing a recall election in two months, has drawn far more support from billionaire donors than any of his opponents — by a compelling margin.
Altogether, 23 billionaires have donated to a California gubernatorial candidate, according to a search of the California Secretary of State’s Cal-Access Campaign Finance database. Of those, 19 have backed Newsom, donating a combined $5.7 million while three have thrown their financial weight behind Republican challenger Caitlyn Jenner. Just one has donated to former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, also a Republican.
California political analysts aren’t surprised by how the support is stacking up.
“Many of California’s billionaires come from the technology sector,” says Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College. “They see Democrats as more sympathetic to science and international trade. They are leery of Republican positions on social issues and immigration.”
Newsom’s largest backer so far is Netflix cofounder and CEO Reed Hastings, whose $3.1 million contribution is 10 times greater than the next largest donation. Ten billionaires in tech —including DoorDash cofounders Andy Fang and Stanley Tang and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt — have also donated to Newsom. New York hedge fund tycoons George Soros and Jim Simons are the only billionaire Newsom donors who live outside of California. Some of the donations went to Newsom’s Stop The Recall campaign, while others have gone to his 2022 election campaign. Newsom took office as governor in January 2019 and, if he is not recalled in September, he could run for a second term in November 2022.
So far, three billionaires have backed Newsom opponent Caitlyn Jenner— the former Olympian and reality TV star — including New Yorker John Catsimatidis, who built a fortune in real estate and owns an oil refinery.
Jenner’s other billionaire donors are Oracle chief technology officer and founder Larry Ellison and Bob Parsons, the GoDaddy founder.
It’s California Reagan, Schwarzenegger and now a Tranny that is looking more like Pelosi every minute. That’s LA LA Land for ya DREAM BIG. Trump wishes he got a break on the West Coast.
Keep the peasants on the bottom while us Billionaires do what we want.