Campaign Cash
Ted Cruz is courting campaign cash from the same Wall Street bankers he dismissed as 'crony capitalists'
Next week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is holding a fundraiser at the Harvard Club in Manhattan where the cost of entry is $1,000 apiece; $2,700 will get you a ticket to a VIP reception with Ted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, and $25,000 makes you an event chairman. Cruz's target is Wall Street bankers. He needs their contributions to compete with Donald Trump in the final sprint to the Republican convention, Ben White reports at Politico. And Cruz is not popular on Wall Street, despite the fact that his wife is on leave from a position at Goldman Sachs.
Cruz, who has already taken in $12 million from the financial industry, has criticized Wall Street "crony capitalism" and government bailouts for "rich Wall Street banks," and bankers have noticed. "There are a few reasons Wall Street won't fully back him," a senior investment banker at a blue chip firm told White. "The first is his hard stance on social issues like abortion and gay marriage. The second is his general unlikability and the fact that he probably can't win. And the third is all the bashing he's done of Wall Street despite Heidi and everything else. People remember that."
But Cruz will probably rake in campaign cash on Monday anyway, in part because Wall Street dislikes and fears Donald Trump more — and many don't believe that Cruz would sink down-ballot Republicans as much as Trump would. You can read more about Cruz's Wall Street endeavors, and some choice quotes about Cruz from bankers, at Politico.