A brilliant PAC backing Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. on Monday disclosed major donations from among the nation’s wealthiest business leaders.
The backing underscores the outsized support that Scott enjoys from Wall Street donors, at the same time as polls gauge his support amongst likely primary voters at under 5 percent.
Contributions from just three billionaires, Nelson Peltz, Jeffrey Yass and Stanley Druckenmiller, which haven’t been previously reported, added as much as almost $1 million for the pro-Scott Opportunity Matters Fund Motion PAC in the primary half of the yr, filings with the Federal Election Commission show.
Peltz, a billionaire and one-time Trump backer, hosted a fundraiser in 2020 to support the previous president’s failed bid for reelection.
Between April and June this yr, he gave $80,000 to the PAC backing Scott, who only officially entered the race in May.
Nelson Peltz, founder and chief executive officer of Trian Fund Management, through the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute Priority Summit in Miami, Florida, on Thursday, March 30, 2023.
Marco Bello | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Peltz is a founding partner of investment firm Trian Fund Management and was a supporter of the previous president until Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. More recently, Peltz has reportedly been souring on one other 2024 Republican presidential hopeful, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, because the once promising campaign has faced headwinds since its launch in May.
Yass, a billionaire GOP megadonor and a co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, donated $600,000 to the identical pro-Scott super PAC from March through June, in response to Monday’s filings.
This is not the one time this yr Yass has donated to an effort to halt Trump. He also gave $15 million to Club for Growth Motion, a separate super PAC that’s taking over Trump’s latest run for president.
Druckenmiller, a veteran Wall Street investor, donated $150,000 to the Opportunity Matters Fund Motion in April, the filing showed.
Stanley Druckenmiller, Duquesne Family Office, at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha, Sept. 28, 2022.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
Druckenmiller can be co-hosting a splashy Hamptons fundraiser next month to support Scott’s presidential bid. Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management, is co-hosting the event.
Rowan donated $250,000 to a special pro-Scott super PAC, Trust In The Mission (TIM) PAC, last quarter. Federal Election Commission filings show that he also donated $6,600 to Scott’s campaign for president in June. Ben Navarro, a South Carolina businessman and CEO of Sherman Financial Group, donated $5 million to the identical committee.
Representatives for Yass, Peltz and Rowan didn’t return a request for comment. Druckenmiller and Navarro didn’t return requests for comment from CNBC.
The high-dollar support for Scott comes as Trump continues to dominate the remainder of the sector within the polls. A Latest York Times-Siena College survey released Monday showed Trump winning 54% of likely GOP primary voters, with DeSantis at 17% and Scott at 3%.
But with the DeSantis campaign burning through money and shedding staffers, Scott’s low key operation could offer wealthy donors what they see as the most effective opportunity to counter Trump’s influence on the party.
Scott’s campaign raised $7 million within the second quarter of 2023, and ended the quarter with around $21 million available.
DeSantis still saw donations from notable billionaires, akin to veteran hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. But while his campaign raised $20 million within the second quarter alone, it reported having about $12 million in money available, in response to filings.
