Joe Biden’s Campaign Is Awash in Wall Street Cash

Joe Biden has adopted the anti-Wall Street rhetoric of some of his former rivals for the Democrat nomination, but that has not stopped him from collecting an enormous war chest of campaign cash from the financial sector.

Biden on Tuesday said that America “wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers and CEOs, it was built by the great American middle class.”

Securities industry employees, a close proxy for Wall Street, have donated $29,703,244 to Biden’s campaign or to political committees supporting his campaign for the presidency, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The sector is the second-largest source of campaign contributions to Biden’s campaign, coming only after Democrat Party and left-wing organizations.

Donald Trump, by contrast, has only received around $6,320,861.

Biden has also received far more campaign cash from employees of J.P.Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs than his Republican rival, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. For example, Biden has taken more than 6 times as much money from J.P. Morgan Chase employees than Trump.

Employees at those four firms have donated a total of $508,259 to Biden’s campaign, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Morgan Stanley was the biggest contributor to Biden of the group, with donations totaling $171,274.

Trump has received just $27,981 dollars from Morgan Stanley employees. J.P. Morgan employees have contributed $23,942. Bank of America employees given $40,448. Goldman’s contributions add up to a grand total of $4,211, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. A total of $96,582, less than one-fifth of Biden’s take.

Political contributions from Citigroup were unavailable at the time of publication.

The campaign cash from the big Wall Street banks have poured into Democrat coffers in the 2020 election cycle. Slightly more than 58 percent of Goldman’s contributions to Congressional candidates have gone to Democrats. More than 62 percent of Morgan Stanley’s contributions went to Democrats. Bank of America was nearly even, with 49.9 percent going to Republicans and 49.6 percent going to Republicans. J.P. Morgan favored Democrats by nearly 60 percent to 30 percent, with 10 percent going to independent candidates.

This is not a function of just giving to the majority party. Goldman’s contributions favor Democrats in the House and Republicans in the Senate, while Morgan Stanley’s and J.P. Morgan’s favor Democrats in both. Bank of America contributors favor Republican candidates for the House and Democrats in the Senate.

When measured by contributions to all federal candidates, all four skew Democrat. J.P. Morgan’s contributions are the most tilted, with 73.4 percent going to Democrat candidates, and Bank of America’s the least, with 58.5 percent going to Democrats. Morgan Stanley tilts 67.9 percent Democrat. Goldman lean is 61.28 Democrat.

This is a further shift leftward by Wall Street from the last election cycle, when between 50 percent and 52 percent of the contributions through mid-year 2017 from J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America went to Republicans. Those banks sent between 37 percent and 45 percent of the contributions to Democrats.