After bashing Wall Street during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Ted Cruz will be taking checks from many financial industry executives on Monday at the Harvard Club in New York City — as many see him as a lesser evil to Donald Trump.
"There isn’t any enthusiasm for Cruz, but people don’t fear him the way they fear Trump," a Manhattan fixed-income manager recently
told Politico. "To use a Wall Street term, there is less 'beta' with Cruz, less volatility risk, less chance of him doing something crazy that destabilizes markets and the economy."
To stop Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination, Cruz needs to spend heavily in New York — with 95 delegates at stake in its primary on Tuesday — and in other states. And that takes money.
Cruz's campaign had $8 million on hand at the end of February, Politico reports, though advisers said he raised $12 million. So far, Wall Street has contributed $12 million to Cruz's effort.
Still, that's not going to be enough — and, hence, the Manhattan fundraiser. The Texas senator is a Harvard Law School graduate.
According to Politico, here are the financials for the event: General admission is $1,000; to meet Cruz and his wife, Heidi, who is on leave from Goldman Sachs, will cost $2,700 a head; each host committee member must raise $10,800; and the event chairs have to collect $25,000 each.
The thought of Cruz taking money from Wall Street amid his bitter attacks, however, leaves some financial industry executives wary.
"Wall Street wants a consensus builder, a negotiator, a meet-in-the-middle builder," Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund manager, told Politico. He has backed such former 2016 candidates as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
"The problem Ted has is, if you are blasting the business community and Wall Street alone for the financial crisis, that is completely unfair because it was a combination of forces that caused it," Scaramucci said.
Others just don't like Cruz, though most won't tell Politico on the record.
"I couldn’t do it because I just don’t like the guy," said Ken Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot. He now is a Wall Street investor who supports Ohio Gov. John Kasich. "I don’t like the way he presents himself and I don’t like the way he isolates himself.
"One of the problems in Washington is you have to get things done — and I don’t think he’s proven that he can work in that environment," Langone said. "I don’t like the man. I’m not a fan."
Alice Stewart, a Cruz spokeswoman, called the comments unfair.
"When he is talking about 'New York values,' he is talking about liberal political values that Donald Trump has supported with tens of thousands of dollars in contributions over decades," she told Politico.
Stewart described the senator's message as not anti-industry but instead that "government shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers."
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