California Primary: Donors Cut Off Presidential Candidates — Report

A report in the Los Angeles Times ahead of the California primary has indicated that after spending tens of millions of dollars on presidential candidates who have dropped out of the race, local donors are boycotting the remainder of the race.

“[M]ost are no longer opening their checkbooks but rather observing the intraparty nomination fight from the sidelines, frustrated by the turns the race has taken,” the Times’ Seema Mehta, Anthony Pesce and Kurtis Lee wrote Monday.

“More than 15,000 donors saw a candidate they favored leave the race, and of those, only about 1,200 have given to a candidate still competing, or to the effort to stop GOP front-runner Donald Trump from winning the nomination,” they note.

That spells bad news for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who need local support to mount their effort both to stop Trump from winning California, and from winning by a wide enough to claim an overall 1,237-delegate majority.

That is not to say the donors are prepared to accept Trump. One donor contacted by the Times was so incensed by the mere mention of Trump that he hung the phone up on the reporters when asked to state his views on the Republican presidential frontrunner.

Rather, the Times suggests, donors are investing in House and Senate races — that is, races outside California, where the race to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is currently dominated by the two leading Democratic candidates.

Many donors, the Times suggests, would prefer Kasich, who is also endorsed by the last Republican governor of the state, Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, with just one state — Ohio — in the win column, investing in Kasich is seen as a gamble.