During the 2016 campaign, Donald J. Trump sought to take over the Republican Party by attacking wealthy political donors as corrupt and promoting a populist message that appealed to working-class voters.
Eight years later, one of the key criteria for choosing a vice presidential candidate is ties to the ultra-wealthy.
After months of hints and misdirection, as the selection process nears its end, with an announcement expected within the next two weeks, Republican candidates are trying to convince Trump they have the financial backing that could swing the race.
There are other factors that make for a good candidate match: Trump is said to be looking for a candidate who can be disciplined on the campaign trail, not steal valuable attention and perform well in debates with Vice President Kamala Harris.
But money certainly matters. Some Republican donors with direct access to Trump have left an unmistakable mark on his campaign. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, for example, became a front-runner in the final days of the campaign thanks to relentless lobbying by Steve Wynn, the billionaire former casino magnate who is close to Trump. Wynn also played a role in persuading other donors, such as Elon Musk, to beef up their support for the campaign.
Many vice presidential candidates, including financially savvy outsiders, have responded by bragging, sometimes exaggerating, about the money they can raise for the candidate — in some cases drawing ridicule from Republican donors who feel they are being used as pawns in an internal conflict.
But the most successful fundraising drive has been by three men currently considered the leading presidential candidates: Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
Burgum, a former software executive who sold his company to Microsoft, has an estimated net worth of at least $100 million, according to Forbes magazine, and it's possible he'll put some of that into the presidential race. He spent more than $10 million on his own short-lived and badly defeated presidential bid last year.
Burgum is also trying to demonstrate his ability to raise money for Trump by luring wealthy first-time donors to the president's campaign. Burgum hosted a video conference with donors on Tuesday, with the campaign charging them $10,000 just to join the call and $25,000 for participating in a question-and-answer session, according to a copy of the invitation.
Billionaire tech investor Tom Siebel wrote Trump his first check for $500,000 when Burgum was up for the Republican nomination, and Dick Boyce, a longtime Silicon Valley Republican fundraiser and former chairman of Burger King and Del Monte Foods, said he made a second donation to Trump ($100,000) out of consideration for Burgum, who was his classmate at Stanford Business School.
“I think we would love to do more with Doug as vice president, and the chemistry between him and Trump would give a lot more confidence to a lot of people,” Boyce, a former partner at Bain & Co., said in an interview. “What people tend to forget is that the vice president is someone you can imagine being president, not someone who can make certain situations happen.”
And then there's Mr. Vance, a former venture capitalist who organized a $12 million fundraising event in Silicon Valley this month to demonstrate his ability to draw donations from the tech industry.
Despite these efforts and Vance's rise in Trump circles, Vance's biggest donor remains notably resistant: Silicon Valley megadonor Peter Thiel. Thiel, who has poured $15 million into electing Vance to the Senate in 2022 and previously employed him, said explicitly for the first time Thursday that he won't be a big Trump donor like he was in 2016. And nominating Vance isn't likely to change that.
“If I'm held up at gunpoint, I'm going to vote for Trump,” Thiel said at the Aspen Ideas Festival, “and I'm not going to donate any money to his super PAC.”
Rubio, who ran a powerful fundraising campaign in 2016, could be an attractive option for Republican donors and groups who poured more than $146 million into the nomination of former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Trump's last remaining challenger in this year's primary.
Haley's supporters include staunch Republican billionaires such as hedge fund magnates Paul Singer and Kenneth Griffin.
And then there are outside candidates like Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who has been aggressively positioning himself as a darling of the donor base, claiming endorsements from the likes of Mr. Singer and Oracle founder Larry Ellison. A week ago in Washington, Mr. Scott hosted a gathering of supporters of his new policy group, whose purpose was largely unconcealed, according to three people who attended.
In their view, the event was an open display of support for Trump among wealthy Republican donors. Speakers included billionaires such as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, billionaire investor Bill Ackman, oil developer Tim Dunn and Marc Rowan, CEO of investment firm Apollo Global Management.
Some donors involved in the event resented the way the Scott campaign and media outlets implicitly positioned them as supporters of Trump-Scott, a person close to the donors said. In fact, many attended the event because they believed Scott would be a strong contender to be the next chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, the person said. Aides to Scott declined to comment.
Scott didn't talk much specifically about the vice president or even about Trump at the event, according to two people who attended. Though Scott has attracted big potential donors, many of his most ardent supporters say they are privately pessimistic about his chances in the vice presidential race.