00:00Today on Forbes, here are J.D. Vance's Biggest Billionaire Donors.
00:06Donald Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, has always had a dual appeal.
00:12He comes from the Rust Belt, the impoverished southwest corner of Ohio he details in Hillbilly
00:17Elegy.
00:18But he has excelled in the centers of America's elite, at Yale Law School and the VC firms
00:22of Silicon Valley.
00:25He drew on that appeal as a Senate candidate in 2022.
00:28He brought in donations from staples of the Republican donor base, including Elizabeth
00:32Ulein and Kelly Loeffler.
00:34But he also pulled in large sums from tech billionaires like Roku's Anthony Wood and
00:38Oculus' Palmer Luckey.
00:41His partner at the top of the Republican ticket doesn't need much help fundraising.
00:45Trump is pulling ahead in the money race and recently received one of the largest one-time
00:48donations in American history.
00:50But he still won't turn down extra cash.
00:53And some of the biggest billionaire backers of Vance's 2022 Senate run have not yet given
00:58to Trump.
01:00One of those backers is hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, who met with Trump recently but
01:04apparently told the former president he preferred a different VP candidate.
01:08Luckily not all these billionaires feel the same.
01:11Real estate developer Richard Kurtz told Forbes that Vance was a quote, perfect pick and said
01:16he recommended him to Trump earlier this year.
01:19The potential Veep himself might also take some credit for bringing the world's richest
01:23man fully into the magafold.
01:25In the wake of Vance's announcement, the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk
01:29was committing $45 million a month to a pro-Trump PAC.
01:34Musk recently posted on X, in all caps, TRUMP Vance.
01:38He added, quote, resounds with victory.
01:42Here are a few of J.D. Vance's biggest billionaire backers.
01:46At number one is Peter Thiel, whose net worth is $7.9 billion and who has given $15 million
01:52to Vance Groups.
01:54Vance once described a talk Thiel gave as, quote, the most significant moment of my time
01:58at Yale Law School.
02:00He said it helped him realize that he was overly obsessed with obtaining professional
02:04credentials, even though it was Thiel himself, a PayPal co-founder and early investor in
02:09Facebook, who helped provide Vance with one of the first of many impressive resume lines.
02:14Soon after law school, Vance took a job as a principal at Mithral Capital, a VC firm
02:19Thiel co-founded.
02:21He didn't stay long, but the pair's bond clearly endured.
02:24Thiel dished out more than $15 million to support Vance in 2022.
02:29Thiel, a once self-professed libertarian who has published lengthy treatises on political
02:34theory, he backed Trump in 2016, but recently told The Atlantic that he regretted it and
02:39would be staying out of politics in 2024.
02:42That could change with his former employee now on the ticket.
02:47At number two is Elizabeth Ulein, who is worth $6.6 billion and who has given $250,000
02:53to Vance Groups.
02:55The co-founder of the Wisconsin-based Ulein Industrial Supplies Empire, Elizabeth Ulein
02:59is among the most consistent Republican donors.
03:03She's given more than $1 million in each of the last five election cycles, so it's no
03:07surprise that Vance wasn't the only Senate candidate she got behind in 2022, when she
03:11also poured over $3 million into Ron Johnson's Wisconsin campaign.
03:16The Ulein fortune will continue to flow toward Vance in 2024.
03:20She gave $5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC in May.
03:25At number three is Richard Kurtz, who's worth $1 billion and who has given $100,000 to Vance
03:31Groups.
03:32Kurtz is the CEO of the New Jersey-based Campson Corporation, a real estate firm with residential
03:38properties across the Northeast.
03:40He gave $100,000 to Vance's super PAC in 2022.
03:44That same year, he gave more than $200,000 to support Mehmet Oz's Republican Senate bid
03:49in Pennsylvania, routing the gifts through a set of apartment complexes he owns instead
03:54of donating under his name.
03:56Before that, he was no mega-donor.
03:58He rarely gave to presidential candidates, skipped entire cycles, and when he did give,
04:03the money went to both sides of the aisle.
04:06He gave $200,000 to Trump's PAC in April and now appears to be firmly committed to backing
04:12and no longer afraid to sign the checks with his own name.
04:17For full coverage and to see the rest of the list, check out Leo Kamen's piece on Forbes.com.
04:23This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
04:26Thanks for tuning in.
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