Wall Street’s biggest banking executives have picked their horses for the 2020 Democratic primary, and former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg are their favorites.
The three candidates combined have gotten campaign contributions from at least 15 bank executives, including the likes of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America, according to filings with the Federal Elections Commission.
The donations are but a fraction of the big money the candidates brought in during a three-month time frame, but they do provide clues as to where the Wall Street bigwigs will place their support.
The first voting of the 2020 primary will begin in February with the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3, followed by the New Hampshire primaries, which will whittle the field down considerably.
Noticeably absent from the list of Democrats Wall Street is behind are two other front runners, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who have both called for breaking up big banks and eliminating tax loopholes for the wealthy, in addition to wealth taxes to pay for things like free college, erasing student loan debt and more.
Of course, Biden, Harris and Buttigieg also have taken shots at Wall Street, vowing to close the wealth gap and prop up the middle class without unveiling specific proposals or plans.
Biden told donors at a party Wednesday in Detroit they shouldn’t expect another tax cut like the one they received from incumbent President Donald Trump.
Biden was a senator for 30 years in the bank-friendly state of Delaware, and he said “the country wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers.” Under former President Barack Obama, he was a big supporter of Dodd-Frank banking regulations. However, none of his proposals so far have included breaking up big banks or regulating the finance industry in general.
In all, Harris raised $12 million in the second quarter, Biden raised $21.5 million and Sanders $18 million. Buttigieg led the field with $24.8 million.