Bush Beats Trump! And Other Insurance Political Giving News
Monumental views on insurance and risk in the nation’s capital? Surely we jest. Well, we will take an occasional dip into the Potomac waters to poke fun, but overall we hope this reporting on insurance and risk as seen from the nation’s capital will be worthy of reflection.
The results are in: Republican Jeb Bush lost the presidential race but won the insurance money race in 2016.
For the 2016 presidential race overall, candidates raised $1.5 billion while outside groups raised another $615 million on behalf candidates, according to the nonprofit research group, the Center for Responsive Politics.
Insurance industry contributors gave about $23.5 million to 25 different U.S. presidential candidates.
The Center for Responsive Politics, based in Washington, D.C., tracks money and lobbying on elections and public policy, and maintains a database of contributions that shows which candidates were favored by various industries, as well as which groups were the most active in donating in 2016.
Bush, former Florida governor, an early favorite for the nomination who dropped out during the primaries, came in first in the insurance sweepstakes in 2016 with $11.8 million.
Other insurance donations included $5.7 million to Sen. Marco Rubio, another Republican; $16,00 to Gary Johnson, Libertarian candidate, and $10,000 to Jill Stein, Green Party candidate.
Insurance contributors gave $726,00 to Donald Trump—almost double what they gave Bernie Sanders.
Bush’s insurance lead was enhanced by $10 million from one donor, C.V. Starr, owned by Hank Greenberg. His Starr Companies overall gave $15 million to federal candidates in 2016.
2016 Presidential Candidate Recipients of Insurance Contributions
Source: Source: The Center for Responsive Politics.
The numbers reflect both dollars raised by the candidates as well as dollars raised by outside groups that backed the candidates.
By the way, the insurance contributions were up over the 2012 presidential election, during which insurance contributions to presidential candidates totaled about $7.4 million, with Mitt Romney getting $4.7 million and Barack Obama, $1.7 million.
Donald Trump was an unusual presidential candidate in many ways, including that he vowed to fund much of his campaign himself and in the amount of free publicity he received.
Trump’s his chief opponent, Hillary Clinton, outraised him in funds. Whereas Clinton raised $564 million and outside groups supporting her took in another $206 million, Trump raised $333 million and outsiders raised only $75 million to back him. Bernie Sanders raised $228 million and accepted no outside money.
Among Trump’s Republican rivals, Bush raised $34 million while outside groups raised $122 million for him. Marco Rubio raised $52 million, with another $111 million coming in support from outside groups. Ted Cruz raised $90 million and outside groups got him another $54 million.
There was another way to give to Trump. Among the $1 million donors to the Trump Inauguration was Henry R. Kravis, co-founder and co-chairman of the investment firm KKR that includes Alliant Insurance Services in its portfolio.
A total of 137 insurance political action committees also gave about $29.4 million to various House and Senate candidates in 2016. Thirty-six (36) percent went to Democrats and the rest to Republicans.
According to opensecrets.org, the top insurance political action committees active in the 2016 election, giving to presidential, House and Senate candidates, were
Top 50 Insurance PAC Contributors in 2016 Election
Based on data released by the Federal Election Commission on February 08, 2017.
Source: The Center for Responsive Politics.