Trump's Donors Aren't Just Abandoning Ship, They're Turning To Democrats

At least 15 people who wrote big checks to fund Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in 2017 have not only stopped supporting him, but have defected and have contributed to Democrats.

According to a report from the Daily Beast, these former Trump donors have given to a number of Democratic candidates, including Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.

The most notable of these donors is Jennifer Pritzker. In 2017, she contributed $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration, but since then has shifted her support to former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. As the world’s first openly trans billionaire, Pritzker said the Trump administration’s repeated attacks on the LGBT community has made her “frustrated.” It was the ban on transgender military service members, however, that proved to be the biggest breaking point, Pritzker said.

Pritzker has traditionally donated to Republicans in the past, but “anti-transgender platforms are causing me to evaluate my party support,” she wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post.

Another longtime Republican donor, Chrysa Demos, has only donated to former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign this election cycle. She previously pitched in for Trump’s inauguration and had backed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in his 2016 bid for the presidential nomination.

While some of the other inauguration donors have donated to both parties in the past, some appear to be sticking to Democrats this time around.

This isn’t the only group of former Trump and Republican backers pivoting away from supporting his reelection.

Last month, a new super PAC named the Lincoln Project was launched by conservatives unhappy with both Trump and the direction the Republican party has taken. Headed by George Conway, husband to White House advisor Kellyanne Conway, the group will aim to flip disaffected Republicans and right-leaning independents to support anyone but Trump. They’ll also be targeting the seats of Congressional Republicans who’ve supported Trump.

Although there is an increasingly visible group of anti-Trump conservatives emerging across the country, they are still largely in the minority. Nowhere is the partisan divide more clear than when it comes to the impeachment of Trump, with Republicans largely opposed and Democrats largely in favor.