U.S. Politics

The 2020 Dems Bankrolled by Billionaires

'EAT THE RICH', read the sign taped to the window of a Bloomberg campaign office in Flint, MI. This kind of protest could be aimed at any number of presidential candidates, but Michael Bloomberg is by far the richest of the 2020 hopefuls while also spending the most on his campaign - by a long shot.

Whatever the approach of course, running for president is a notoriously costly undertaking in the United States. Anyone looking to make it across the finish line is going to need some serious financial clout to accompany their policies, principles and personality. The only difference between the candidates each election cycle in this regard is where they source the funding from. As an analysis of Federal Election Commission figures by Forbes has revealed, some are relying heavily on donations from 'the rich' for 2020 while others are focusing more on so-called grassroots support.

With a net worth of over $60 billion, Bloomberg in reality only needs one rich backer - himself. Steyer is also worth over a billion dollars and joins another ten billionaires bankrolling his foray into top tier politics. Ahead of everyone in terms of relying on the largest number of billionaire donors though is Joe Biden - 60 billionaires or their spouses contributed financially to his campaign in 2019.

In sharp contrast is Bernie Sanders who has accepted donations from no billionaires at all. He has however raised over $130 million so far - 56 percent of which came from individual contributions of less than $200 according to OpenSecrets.org analysis. Looking at the top three of this infographic by means of comparison, Biden has raised 36 percent via small donations, Buttigieg 43 percent and Klobuchar 38 percent. For Bloomberg of course, this figure is 0.0 percent.

Description

This chart shows the number of billionaires (or their spouses) that donated to Democratic presidential candidates in 2019.

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Estimated net worth of the richest U.S. presidential candidates from 1992 to 2020 (net worth in million U.S. dollars)
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Total amount fundraised among U.S. 2020 presidential election candidates, as of October 15, 2020 (in million U.S. dollars)
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Donations by tech entrepreneurs who gave at least 1 million U.S. dollars to presidential campaigns in the United States in 2024
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Total spending of presidential candidates in major political parties in the United States from 1984 to 2024 (in million U.S. dollars)
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Amount raised by U.S. 2020 presidential election candidates via loans and transfers in October 2020 (in U.S. dollars)
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Largest recipient of campaign donations by oil & gas companies in the United States in the 2019/20 election cycle* (in U.S. dollars)

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