Thread: Trump, Sanders, Buttigieg grab most financial support from San Diego County residents

Trump, Sanders, Buttigieg grab most financial support from San Diego County residents

[PETE BUTTIGIEG
(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)


By LAURYN SCHROEDER, CHARLES T. CLARK
AUG. 19, 2019 12:01 AM

San Diego County residents so far have given nearly $1.3 million to 22 presidential candidates since the end of 2018, with President Donald Trump, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg receiving the most local dollars, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Trump’s campaign has received $353,569 from San Diego County donors, while Buttigieg’s gained $222,457, and Sanders’ pocketed $151,541.

They were followed by California’s own Sen. Kamala Harris, who received $126,119, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who got $87,801 and former Vice President Joe Biden, with $75,729.

The amount given to each candidate may be larger. The FEC requires candidates disclose certain details about donors when their contributions total $200 or more in an election cycle, but candidates also can list donors of smaller contributions.
The FEC data cover a period that ended June 30, which means any local boost candidates received during or after visits to San Diego for the UnidosUS Conference last week were not reflected.
Democratic candidates Biden, Sanders, Harris, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro all spoke at the Latinx-oriented conference which drew thousands.

Trump’s financial showing in San Diego County is stronger than other trends suggest.
Republicans have fallen to third-party status in San Diego County, where their voter registration numbers trail registered Democrats and voters with no party preference.
Trump also lost San Diego County to Hillary Clinton by nearly 20 points during the 2016 election and remains deeply unpopular among many California residents in most polls.
Yet the president possesses clout in certain parts of the county and benefits from being the lone Republican in the field, said Thad Kousser, chair of the Political Science Department at UC San Diego.
“This reminds us that, even as San Diego is rapidly becoming a blue city and county, there is still a lot of pockets of Trump Country,” said Kousser. “Donald Trump is the least popular politician in California, but he still has a core of very strong supporters.”

Tony Krvaric, chairman of the Republican Party of San Diego County, said Trump’s support among Republicans has strengthened since 2016 and helped generate a lot of enthusiasm at the county Republican Party meeting earlier this month, which had a record attendance of more than 800 people.

“In 2016 there was some apprehension among Republicans, but that is largely gone,” Krvaric said. “Then he was unproven and making promises; now he’s largely delivered on a lot of things .... You’re not gonna see a lot of ‘Never Trump’ people.”
On the Democratic side, the fundraising totals from San Diego County also held some surprises.
Most national polls have some variation of Biden, Harris, Sanders and Warren at the top. In San Diego County, the three senators were among the top fundraisers, but Buttegieg performed much better than Biden, receiving nearly three times as much in contributions.
If the table is not displaying properly, view on full page here »

Data show most of Buttigieg’s fundraising lead comes from donations he collected just before a single campaign event in San Diego in May.
In the two months leading up to a private dinner in La Jolla, Buttigieg raised more than $162,000 — nearly 75 percent of the total he raised since January — with $150,000 of it donated in April alone.
“The maximum contribution only comes when you get a chicken dinner with the candidate,” Kousser said. “You’re expecting a selfie if you’re going to give that kind of money.”

Buttigieg raised just $4,550 in January and February, $30,000 in May and $25,000 in June.
Buttigieg also received far fewer individual contributions than his peers, some 542 donations averaging about $410 each.
“Those kind of numbers likely come from a handful of successful events,” Kousser said of Buttegieg’s fundraising, adding that it offers a stark contrast to the way candidates like Sanders have opted to fundraise, relying instead on a network of smaller-dollar donors.
FEC data show 8,730 individual contributions went to the presidential candidates, averaging about $149 each.
Sanders had the most individual contributions among the candidates, some 2,500 donations. He has participated in at least four events in San Diego — none of which were fundraisers — since January, more than most other candidates.
Data show his donations averaged $60, the lowest average among all other candidates with San Diego support.
“People who are raising money in small chunks is a stronger indicator of their grassroots support and the breadth of their support,” Kousser said. “I’d take Sanders’ numbers in a minute.”

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...unty-residents

California: 'resistance' state has donated more to Trump than to most Democrats in 2020 race


This article is more than 1 month old


President has raised $3.2m in California this year, analysis finds – more than Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders

Vivian Ho in San Francisco
Thu 18 Jul 2019 16.33 EDTLast modified on Thu 18 Jul 2019 19.48 EDT



Residents of California, the self-fashioned “resistance” state that has sued the Trump administration more than 50 times, has donated more money to the Trump 2020 campaign than to most Democratic candidates in the 2020 race.

Donald Trump raised $3.2m in California since the beginning of this year, according to campaign finance data analyzed by CalMatters, a not-for-profit news organization focused on California issues.

Trump beat out everybody in the field except for Senator Kamala Harris, who raised $7.5m, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who raised $5.1m.

Harris, who is California’s junior senator, has been leading in donations from the state since launching her campaign in January.

Trump bested even the former vice-president Joe Biden, the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who have strong support throughout the state.

Although affluent donors in Beverly Hills, Orange county and San Diego contributed significant sums – and together constituted a majority of California funds in Trump’s campaign war chest – 92.8% of donations came from small donors contributing less than $100. Many of these small donations came from the central region of the state, which tends to skew more conservative.

Trump’s prowess among small donors in California is striking, with the president besting Sanders in this field. Sanders, who raised $2.2m in California, 89.6% of which consisted of contributions of less than $100, has spoken repeatedly about the power of the people fueling his campaign through small donations.

Immigration, rail funding and lawsuits: why California and Trump are at war

California has remained a staunchly blue state for some time – in total, Californians have donated more than $26m to the more than two dozen Democratic candidates – but Trump’s fundraising figures show the president still has a loyal base in the state.
And though he loves to troll the state and its leaders from his Twitter account, Trump is campaigning in the area.

Donald Trump Jr and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle – who was once the first lady of San Francisco, when she was married to the current governor, Gavin Newsom – were in San Francisco on Tuesday for a campaign fundraiser.

Candidates submitted their second-quarter donation numbers to the Federal Election Commission on 15 July, but the agency is still processing much of the data. Much of Trump’s data is still unavailable.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-2020-election