VoxFairfax is indebted to the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) for its continued publication of data concerning the Commonwealth’s political landscape. On May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), VPAP published a visual tracking data of individual donors to the presidential campaign of the 45^th president and those who now have donated to one of the five GOP candidates for governor. The party nomination was voted upon in convention last Saturday, May 8. (This is being written on May 5, before the convention, but we believe these data are still of considerable interest.)

VoxFairfax has rearranged the VPAP data to provide a somewhat different perspective of the data about former (or current as the case may be) Trump donors and their gubernatorial preferences at this point. 

The popular Trump/Donor winner by nearly a factor of three over her nearest competitor is Amanda Chase. The state senator’s “Trump in heels” self-characterization buttressed by “pistol-packin” images likely contribute to the lead in this inspiring cohort. Chase is credited with only two contributions over $5,000 of her 211, which depresses the average to $338 per donor. Chase has said that the public can rely on her for accurate election results. The Big Lie rears its ugly head in the Old Dominion!

Kirk Cox leads his nearest popular competitor by nearly 2.5 times. His average donor contribution is $1,654, exceeding the total average for four of the five second only to Youngkin. Cox recorded two contributions of $25,000 each, two over $10,000, and three at $5,000.

Pete Snyder, with 31 Trumpers, averaged only $659 per donor and had the second lowest total haul among the five. Only one contribution was $5,000.

Glenn Youngkin was the frontrunner for average donation amount at $5,820 per. His pot was pumped by two contributions of $50,000, three over $10,000, and four at $5,000, to make him the big buck leader in total.

Sergio de la Pena stood at the bottom of the Trump donor totem pole with only 20 contributors averaging $590 each but ahead of Chase’s. One $3,400 contribution was recorded.

The data are not very meaningful in terms of the party convention but suggest that the passion for Trumpism may not be a factor. There have been some interesting endorsements which do draw attention but do not have much effect, to wit: 

Amanda Chase was endorsed by Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.

Pete Snyder was endorsed by Ken “Cooch” Cuccinelli and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Glenn Younkin had over $200K spent against his campaign by right wing PAC Patriot Trust Leadership. That investment was countered by an endorsement from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

The VA GOP established 39 voting stations across the Commonwealth, as some 53,000 party registrants have indicated an intention to participate (now including Orthodox Jews, allowed to vote early). Final results are likely to take a week or more to tabulate. Whether the Wizard of Mar-a-Lago had any influence on May 8 remains to be discerned. Observer interest was high, as will be post-mortems.

In 2017, some 350,000 Republicans voted in the gubernatorial primary.  State party officials have dubbed the May 8th enterprise a “disassembled” (literally, taken apart) convention for the 53,000 registrants.  One might conclude democratic participation was taken apart.

Categories: elections, Issues, Local, political parties, politics, republicans, State

Tags: gop gubernatorial fund raising, trump donors