Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D-PA) speaks with guests during a rally at the UFCW Local 1776 headquarters in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, April 16, 2022.
Less than four weeks remain until the Democratic and Republican primaries for Pennsylvania’s vacant Senate seat, which will set the stage for one of the few toss-up races anywhere in Congress in 2022. The big money, which had until recently only trickled in, is now gushing. Huge donations to super PACs of candidates from both parties have begun to conquer the airwaves, a trend that will only grow until general-election day in November.
In one sense, the race looks fairly straightforward. On the Democratic side, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has enjoyed a sizable lead over Congressman Conor Lamb in all available polling. On the Republican side, financier and Bridgewater CEO and hedge fund manager David McCormick looks to have a narrower lead over Mehmet Oz, best known for his role as a daytime TV talk show doctor, who is also endorsed by Donald Trump.
Fetterman is running as a clear economic populist, with a rough-cut persona and a towering 6'8" frame to match. Long a champion of a $15 minimum wage and Medicare for All, Fetterman has built a reputation in Pennsylvania criticizing the excesses of financial capitalism and its role in hollowing out places like Braddock, Pennsylvania, the deindustrialized town that chose him as their mayor in 2005. Frequently, he’s called on the superrich to pay more in taxes—he wants to end the carried interest loophole, which allows hedge fund managers to get away with near-zero tax rates, and has endorsed policies ensuring that millionaires pay no less than 30 percent of their income in taxes and ending inversions and offshore subsidiaries.
Though coverage of the race has focused on those larger-than-life personalities, the most notable development in these final weeks has been the infusion of colossal quantities of Wall Street cash. In both the Democratic and Republican primaries, America’s class of financial managers has taken an overwhelming interest in the seat, and has made generous commitments to playing both sides of the aisle.
In the Democratic primary, the billionaire class is playing an outsized role in propping up Conor Lamb’s sagging electoral chances. According to recently released FEC filings, Lamb’s super PAC, Penn Progress, has been staked overwhelmingly by hedge fund managers and investment barons.
Among the willing: Bain Capital co-chairman (and billionaire) Joshua Bekenstein chipped in $250,000 to Penn Progress. Stephen Mandel, co-founder of the hedge fund Lone Pine Capital (and billionaire) threw in $250,000 of his own. Thomas Hagen, chairman of the Erie Insurance Group (and billionaire) gave $250,000. Randy Peeler, managing director of private equity company Berkshire Partners, gave $100,000; Oaktree Capital co-founder (and billionaire) Howard Marks gave $25,000; Kinderhook Partners managing partner Steve Clearman gave $50,000. Raine Group partner and co-founder Joe Ravitch pitched in $50,000, too. As Sludge pointed out in a recent piece on Penn Progress, the PAC with which Lamb is extremely closely aligned, “Lamb was one of three Democrats to vote for a Republican bill that would make permanent many provisions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts.”
In the Democratic primary, the billionaire class is playing an outsized role in propping up Conor Lamb’s sagging electoral chances.
Penn Progress has, to date, spent almost $2 million on ad buys, dogging Fetterman by any means necessary, hoping to slow his ascent. And while that approach may not actually deliver Lamb the Democratic nomination—it would take a miracle for him to close a gap so large in less than four weeks—any tarnishing of Fetterman’s reputation that would harm him in the general election against a Republican will be triumph enough for Lamb’s financial backers, who are well aware of their betting on a losing horse.
That’s because those same financiers are throwing in huge for one of their own in the Republican primary in McCormick. McCormick has benefitted from a monsoon of Wall Street money, both in super PAC and personal donations.
On the super PAC front, Honor Pennsylvania PAC has raised almost $12 million to clear the runway for McCormick, slamming “Dr.” Oz with a barrage of negative advertising. The top donors to Honor Pennsylvania stem from the same time-honored tradition as Penn Progress’s top donors. Kenneth Griffin, CEO of Citadel Capital (and billionaire), has poured in $2.5 million. Paul Singer, founder of fund manager Elliott Management (and billionaire), has chipped in $1 million. Daniel Sundheim, founder of D1 Capital Partners, is in for $850,000. Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of Blackstone (and billionaire), has contributed $500,000. Paul Tudor Jones, chairman of Tudor Investment Corporation (and billionaire), has contributed $250,000.
To put an even finer point on it: Constance Williams, heir to the Hess Corporation fortune, donated $250,000 to Lamb’s Penn Progress; John Hess, executive of the Hess Corporation, donated $250,000 to McCormick’s Honor Pennsylvania.
That, of course, is not all. As Bloomberg recently reported of the flood of donations from Goldman Sachs employees, “more than 60 executives at the Wall Street giant have given the maximum allowed to support David McCormick.” Chief Executive Officer (and DJ) David Solomon, President John Waldron, and investment banking chief Dan Dees are all in on McCormick; bank-wide, Goldman employees have maxed out personal donations to the tune of $220,000. McCormick’s wife is Goldman partner Dina Powell McCormick, who also held a top post in the Trump administration.
Republicans are obviously looking to recreate the magic they found with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a private equity baron with some Trump adjacency who clobbered fellow investor-class Clintonite Terry McAuliffe in last year’s race.
Lamb continuing to accept the financial backing of this phalanx of financiers is doing little for his own candidacy, and even less for the party’s odds come November. It’s almost impossible to see his path to victory at this point. He is, however, making himself a tool of the Wall Street donor class, giving them an easy jump start on tearing down Fetterman ahead of the general. The biggest, clearest losers in this situation are President Biden and the Democratic Party, which will face an even rougher road as it attempts to pick up another Senate seat in November.
If Fetterman loses in the general, it will be in no small part because of Lamb’s willingness to make himself an agent of Wall Street in tearing down the party’s candidate. Of course, Republicans need little help in what’s going to be an extremely expensive and fiercely fought battle for a state Biden narrowly carried two years ago. If Fetterman is going to prevail, he will have to run a historic gauntlet against the billionaire financier class that looks likely to be particularly active in this midterm cycle. Because of the race Lamb has run, it’s going to be that much harder.
