Many of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ biggest donors in 2016 have turned away from the Vermont senator during his 2020 campaign for president, contributing instead to the campaign efforts of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic candidates.
Nearly 200 financial contributors who gave Sanders $1,000 or more in 2016 have not donated to his campaign this time around; instead, they have switched allegiance and poured tens of thousands into Warren’s campaign coffers, VTDigger has found in an analysis of campaign finance documents.
Before Sanders announced his presidential bid this year, Yoko and Bruce Allen had donated to the senator during each of his congressional campaigns since 1992. Over those 27 years, their contributions totaled more than $40,000, including $5,500 for his presidential run in 2016.
But this year, the Allens, who reside in Nevada and have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic Party over the years, have donated nothing to Sanders. Instead, they have given $5,803 to Warren’s presidential effort, according to campaign finance records.
Belinda Barcock, of Greenwich, Connecticut, was one of Sanders’ biggest donors in 2016, giving the Vermont senator $47,399 through direct contributions and ActBlue, an online funding tool for Democrats and Progressive candidates.This year, Barcock has not contributed to Sanders, and has given $2,700 to Warren.
During the 2016 election, Barcock and other donors gave well over the legal limit for a campaign contribution, which is $2,700, to Sanders. Though the campaign does refund the money to the individual, in many cases the overage works as a short term loan which the campaign can use and then pay back later.
Other donors who gave more modest amounts to Sanders in 2016, like Thomas McDougal who works for an education nonprofit in Chicago, are now giving to Warren.
In 2016, McDougal felt that Sanders was a superior candidate compared to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. McDougal said he saw Sanders as a more progressive alternative who was “generating more excitement at the time” than Clinton. This led him to give the Vermont senator $2,700 in that election.
But in 2019, with a more crowded Democratic field, McDougal has put his money elsewhere, giving Warren $1,000 so far and not donating any to Sanders.
“I feel that Sen. Sanders’ time has kind of passed and it’s time for someone, at least a little younger than him, to take over,” McDougal said.
“I feel that Elizabeth Warren is a stronger candidate and will make a better president.”
Sarah Ford, a spokesperson for the Sanders campaign, said financial contributors who’ve dropped Sanders for Warren this cycle “represent a minuscule portion of our overall donor base.”
“We are seeing an incredible amount of grassroots enthusiasm from small-dollar donors, many of which are donating to Sanders for the first time or are recurring donors,” Ford said.
In recent weeks, Warren has supplanted Sanders as one of the top two contenders, along with former Vice President Joe Biden, in the field of Democratic candidates for president. In two national polls released last week, the Massachusetts senator leads the pack, ahead of Biden and Sanders who are second and third, respectively.
Even as the 78-year-old Sanders has continued a rigorous campaign schedule, hitting one of the early caucus or primary states on a weekly basis, he has stagnated in both the national and state surveys. He has also shuffled his campaign staff in New Hampshire and Iowa, as he has struggled to grow his base while ceding ground to Warren.
The list of donors who have migrated from Sanders to Warren also includes George Yntema, a retired physicist from Connecticut.
Yntema gave the Vermont senator $1,500 in 2012 and cut him a check for $10,000 in 2016, before switching to Warren in 2019, contributing $2,000 to her campaign and none to Sanders.
Another donor, who lives in Massachusetts and spoke on the condition of anonymity, echoed McDougal, saying he thought Sanders’ time had passed.
“I’m still a supporter of Bernie. If he was 10 years younger maybe it would be different,” said the person, who gave Sanders $2,700 in 2016 but this year has given that amount to Warren instead while contributing nothing to the Vermont senator.
“Being president is a tough job and maybe it’s a little past his prime time and his best sell-by date,” he added.
Some of Sanders’ celebrity contributors have also abandoned him for other candidates.
The film director Darren Aronofsky, who gave Sanders $2,700 in 2016, has not given Sanders any money this election cycle, choosing instead to contribute $1,000 to California Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
Some donors who have contributed to the Vermont senator in the past are still giving him money and also contributing to Warren’s presidential efforts. For example, John Cawley, of San Francisco, gave $14,000 to Sanders in the 2016 campaign season.
This year, Cawley has given $2,800 to both Warren and Sanders.
Likewise, John and Susan Kirk of Needham, Massachusetts, have also given to both progressive candidates in this Democratic primary election.
In 2016, the Kirk family gave $10,800 to Sanders and $1,000 to Clinton. This year, they have donated $8,400 to Warren and $2,800 to Sanders in an attempt to ensure both candidates have full coffers for the long haul.
“It’s very important from our point of view that both progressive candidates stay in the race,” John Kirk said. “ When the forces array against the progressive candidates they cannot decide who to focus on and that’s a good thing.”
“We were all in for Bernie and now we’re all in for both Warren and Bernie,” he finished.
The overlap between Sanders, Warren, and big money donors also includes Paul and Joanne Egerman, also of Needham, Massachusetts.
Since 1995, Paul Egerman, who has been known as a “personal PAC man” for over a decade within the political circles of Boston, and his wife have given more than $8 million to a number of Democratic candidates and political action committees, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
During Sanders’ 2006 bid for U.S. Senate, the Egerman family threw their support behind the progressive Vermont senator, giving his campaign $25,200 during that election.
In 2019, Paul Egerman, who has not given to Sanders since that run for Senate, is Warren’s campaign treasurer. The couple has also donated a combined $5,403 to Warren as of the most recent campaign finance filings.
Though Sanders has lost a significant amount of financial support to Warren in the first nine months of 2019, at the end of the second quarter he reported the most cash on hand of any Democratic candidate with $27.3 million. Warren had $19.8 million.
Sanders has spent most of his cash building up campaign infrastructure in the early primary states, but has also expanded into key Rust Belt areas and Super Tuesday contests. Warren, meanwhile, has focused heavily on New Hampshire and Iowa, where polls show her in a strong position. Warren also just spent more than $10 million in ad buys.
Sanders has long railed against courting big money donors and has targeted small donations to fund his presidential bids in 2016 and again in this cycle. Warren announced earlier this year she too would shun private fundraisers.
The New York Times has reported that in the lead-up to Warren announcing her candidacy for president, she did extensive fundraising at private events as part of her campaign for U.S. Senate. She has transferred $10.4 million from her Senate war chest to her 2020 presidential effort.
Two weeks ago, Politico broke the news that Warren and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will be the two biggest names at a major donor fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in October. This would be Warren’s second time in as many months headlining a DNC fundraiser.
On the campaign trail, Warren has told voters she is running for president to end corruption in the federal government, and has said it is possible with just a few “structural economic changes.”
While Sanders’ talking points of income inequality and corporate greed has hit some supporters as stale, Warren’s message is resonating with progressive voters as well as with contributors that may hold more centrist political views.
“I think Sanders has left an incredible legacy. None of these candidates, including Warren, would even be talking about some of these issues if it had not been for Bernie Sanders and what he did,” said Celia Rabinowitz during a Warren event in Keene, New Hampshire, last week.
But Rabinowitz said that while Sanders may have set the agenda for Democrats in 2020, Warren has done a better job presenting the progressive policies.
“She does have the issues packaged and talks about them in a way that makes them more palatable for people who tend to be slightly more towards the center,” she said.
