Jeb! Bush is a favored candidate of the Koch donor network.
The infamous
Koch brothers haven't yet given money to any presidential candidate, but the millionaire and billionaire donors in the political network they've built have been busy little donor bees, giving
more than $22 million dollars to presidential candidates so far. According to
The Hill, the 190 donors in the Koch network have given to many of the Republican candidates—but not Donald Trump. The leading recipients:
The most popular presidential candidates among the Koch brothers’ conservative donor network are Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, who each received contributions from more than 12 percent of 190 donors and their families in records analyzed by The Hill.
Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz and Scott Walker — who quit the race in September — are the next three most popular, respectively. [...]
In terms of total money spent, Cruz, Walker and Huckabee, in that order, received the most, but their totals are skewed by generous single donors.
New York hedge fund manager Robert Mercer gave Cruz’s super-PAC $11 million, Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks gave Walker’s super-PAC $5 million and Arkansas poultry tycoon Ronald Cameron spent $3 million on Huckabee.
It seems like the race for ultra-rich Republicans is as unsettled as the race for regular old Republican primary voters. But it's striking that not only are Koch donors unanimously shunning Donald Trump, they don't seem super excited about current second-place candidate Ben Carson, either. It'll be interesting to watch the primary race develop given this seeming split between the big money and the base voters.
And, of course, we're all waiting to see which way the Koch brothers themselves go.