Hundreds of donors who wrote out checks of at least $200 for Republicans in the primary season have peeled away from Donald Trump when it comes to making donations in the final round. Donations from Republicans who find Trump too crazy to support are adding up for Hillary Clinton.
Those crossover donations are adding up. Mrs. Clinton has received $2.2 million from donors to candidates who dropped out of the Republican presidential primary, about $600,000 more than Mr. Trump has received from such donors, the filings showed. …
Mr. Trump has received money from a smaller proportion of his party’s donors than any candidate since 1980, the filings showed.
Whether or not a Republican donor decided to side with Trump in the general corresponds well to the nutso factor of their primary candidate.
For example, 76 percent of Jeb! donors in the Republican primaries deserted Trump for Clinton in the final round. So did 70 percent of John Kasich supporters. But a thousand repetitions of “Lyin’ Ted” and JFK assassination plots didn’t stop 91 percent of Cruz donors from switching their allegiance to Trump. Similar Trump allegiance is there for former supporters of Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, Scott Walker, and of course, Ben Carson.
Still …
In previous years, donors to Republican candidates who dropped out of the race contributed to the nominee in fairly high percentages. But donors to Mr. Trump’s primary opponents are backing him at a historically low rate.
It’s not just Republicans endorsements that are leaving Trump. It’s Republican dollars.