Hillary Clinton’s cash flow from Wall Street firms and executives could evaporate if she picks Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as her running mate in this year’s election.
The news Web site Politico cites “a dozen interviews” with unidentified Democrat donors in the financial services industry that argue the presence of Warren in the second spot on their party’s ticket will result in termination of a significant source of Clinton’s campaign funds.
“If Clinton picked Warren, her whole base on Wall Street would leave her,” said an anonymous source identified by Politico only as a “top Democratic donor who has helped raise millions for Clinton.” “They would literally just say, ‘We have no qualms with you moving left, we understand all the things you’ve had to do because of Bernie Sanders, but if you are going there with Warren, we just can’t trust you, you’ve killed it.’”
One of the few people that was willing to go on the record in the article—Charles Geisst, a Wall Street historian at Manhattan College—stated that Warren’s anti-banking rhetoric is the ultimate deal-killer for placing her in the vice presidential position.
“It’s very clear that Wall Street guys don’t like her because she has been a lot more effective than most in communicating an anti-Wall Street message that has been part of the Democratic Party for 80 years, since the 1930s,” said Geisst. “It’s not so much that Wall Street doesn’t like her personally, most of them don’t even know her, but they don’t like anyone that espouses that particular ideology.”
The Center for Responsive Politics has noted that Clinton and groups backing her campaign have raised $289 million this year, with the securities and investment industry providing over $28 million. Last week, however, Warren engaged in a dramatic spat with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White, charging that White’s agency has failed to adequately protect the needs of investors.
Yet another source, only identified as a prominent hedge fund manager who has raised millions for Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton before her, questioned whether the increased buzz about a Clinton-Warren ticket could be taken seriously.
“First of all, they don’t particularly like each other,” the unidentified hedge fund manager stated. “The absolute predicate for a vice presidential nominee is they have to understand they are No. 2 both during the campaign and once you take office, and I just don’t think Elizabeth Warren is that type of person.”
