Wall Street mega-donors clobbered by Democratic sweep

{"text":[[{"start":10.32,"text":"Wall Street billionaires who threw their fortunes behind Republicans suffered a crushing defeat, raising questions about the ultra-wealthy’s ability to sway elections."}],[{"start":20.2,"text":"Hedge fund managers and other major investors — including longtime Republican donors Paul Singer and Ken Griffin — collectively spent more than $330mn on the US midterm elections, according to an FT analysis, as they pushed for Republicans to hold control of Congress. Many of the candidates they backed were in favour of low taxes, scant regulation and supporting Israel."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":45,"text":"Democrats retaking control of the House and Senate on Tuesday night served as a rebuke against the preferences of US mega-donors, who had largely thrown their weight behind conservative candidates."}],[{"start":56.8,"text":"Sixteen of the country’s 20 biggest donors backed conservative candidates, according to an analysis previously reported by the FT."}],[{"start":64.84,"text":"Among the largest recipients of hedge fund money was the Senate Leadership Fund, the Republicans’ fundraising arm for the upper chamber, which received cheques for $17mn from Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, $14.5mn from Singer, $10mn from Griffin, and $1mn from Apollo CEO Marc Rowan. The Republican Senate fund directed over a third of its $463mn spent across the country through Oct. 15 to support Ken Paxton, who lost the Texas Senate race by over 12 points."}],[{"start":97.84,"text":"Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz additionally contributed $12mn to Maga Inc, Donald Trump’s personal political spending committee which directed much of its funds to support Paxton. Schwarzman additionally contributed $10mn to the president’s Super Pac."}],[{"start":113.8,"text":"GOP strategists said the staggering losses, including in states with historic Republican strongholds such as Kansas and South Carolina, could force wealthy backers to reassess how they deploy money in the next election."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":127.04,"text":"Wall Street’s heavy hitters had been tentatively optimistic on election night. One hedge fund manager who spoke to the FT on Tuesday evening said he thought bettors on Kalshi were underestimating the odds that Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman could unseat incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul in the New York gubernatorial race."}],[{"start":146,"text":"Dan Senor, chief public affairs officer for Singer’s hedge fund Elliott Management, appeared upbeat on Tuesday morning shortly after voting at his local New York polling station. He told his social media followers he had voted for Republicans across the ballot — in races for governor, attorney-general and Congress — and urged people to get to the polls early."}],[{"start":168,"text":"Roughly 24 hours later, Senor had a different tone: the results had been a “stunning political blow for Republicans”, he posted on X. His latest podcast episode, recorded on Wednesday morning, was titled “A Blue Tsunami”."}],[{"start":182.16,"text":"Hedge fund managers who regularly attack Democrats and their policies on social media, such as Dan Loeb and Bill Ackman, were uncharacteristically quiet on Wednesday. Ackman contributed $1mn to a Super Pac for Vivek Ramaswamy, who lost the Ohio governor race, as well as $100,000 to a Pac associated with the Club for Growth and more than $100k to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Loeb directed most of his contributions to United Democracy Project, the Aipac-aligned Super Pac."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":213.4,"text":"Susquehanna’s Jeff Yass and his wife Janine’s $30mn in donations to support Ramaswamy’s campaign were among the largest contributions from a finance executive. Singer, Griffin, and Schwarzman also spent more than $6mn collectively supporting Pine Tree Results, a committee backing Republican Susan Collins, who lost her Senate seat in Maine after representing the state for nearly 30 years."}],[{"start":237.72,"text":"“Even though I don’t expect to see a change in the level of contributions, the donor class is going to learn some lessons from this,” said Michael Strain, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute."}],[{"start":248.96,"text":"Representatives for Griffin, Loeb, Singer and Ackman declined to comment."}],[{"start":253.56,"text":"Hours after Democrats secured the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, fissures within the Republican Party began to appear."}],[{"start":261.96,"text":"Vice-president JD Vance said GOP voters would come back to the party if it did four things: ended the war against Iran, prioritised the cost of living, “put America first” and changed its relationship with Israel, citing his conversation with a pollster."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":272.64,"text":"Billionaire investor Cliff Asness, a major GOP donor who gave $2mn last month to a Super Pac aligned with Senate GOP leader John Thune, said in a social media post that Vance’s first, second and fourth points amounted to: “‘blame the Jews”."}],[{"start":290.04,"text":"The clash is an early sign of how mega-donors have begun to distance themselves from the Trump administration. Asness said Vance should have mentioned how the Trump tariffs affected prices, that the president picked “two utter losers” in the South Carolina and Texas Senate races, and the impact of “ridiculous, blatant corruption.”"}],[{"start":308.16,"text":"Not to mention, he added, “the cruelty, insanity and downright bizarreness of focusing on ballrooms and Republican male asses while Rome was clearly burning”."}],[{"start":318.32,"text":"At a conference hosted last month by market maker Citadel Securities, Griffin, the firm’s founder, predicted Trump would have “some challenges” on election day partly because the Iran war had been “very unpopular”."}],[{"start":329.92,"text":"Griffin spent on Republican races nationally, including US Senate candidates Jon Husted in Ohio and Collins in Maine, both of whom lost. Yet some of his favoured candidates won, including Byron Donalds in Florida’s governor race, whose Super Pacs had received at least $10mn from Griffin."}],[{"start":347.72,"text":"Ian Vandewalker, senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, said the surge of wealth in the US had enabled certain groups to have an outsized sway on elections, which risked undermining basic tenets of democracy. Although many mega-donors were disappointed this week by the results, Vandewalker did not think the setback would alter how much they gave in 2028."}],[{"start":368.1,"text":"“If you have a hammer, you’re going to keep trying to hit nails every time an election comes around,” he said."}],[{"start":379.08,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793936063_7421.mp3"}