Bush Beats Trump! And Other Insurance Political Giving News

By | April 25, 2017

Monumental views on insurance and risk in the nation’s capital? Surely we jest. Well, we will take an occasional dip into the Potomac waters to poke fun, but overall we hope this reporting on insurance and risk as seen from the nation’s capital will be worthy of reflection.

Bush Wins!

The results are in: Republican Jeb Bush lost the presidential race but won the insurance money race in 2016.

For the 2016 presidential race overall, candidates raised $1.5 billion while outside groups raised another $615 million on behalf candidates, according to the nonprofit research group, the Center for Responsive Politics.

Insurance industry contributors gave about $23.5 million to 25 different U.S. presidential candidates.

The Center for Responsive Politics, based in Washington, D.C., tracks money and lobbying on elections and public policy, and maintains a database of contributions that shows which candidates were favored by various industries, as well as which groups were the most active in donating in 2016.

Bush, former Florida governor, an early favorite for the nomination who dropped out during the primaries, came in first in the insurance sweepstakes in 2016 with $11.8 million.

Other insurance donations included $5.7 million to Sen. Marco Rubio, another Republican; $16,00 to Gary Johnson, Libertarian candidate, and $10,000 to Jill Stein, Green Party candidate.

Insurance contributors gave $726,00 to Donald Trump—almost double what they gave Bernie Sanders.

Bush’s insurance lead was enhanced by $10 million from one donor, C.V. Starr, owned by Hank Greenberg. His Starr Companies overall gave $15 million to federal candidates in 2016.

2016 Presidential Candidate Recipients of Insurance Contributions

CANDIDATE TOTAL
Jeb Bush (R) $11,819,572
Marco Rubio (R) $5,712,907
Hillary Clinton (D) $2,458,032
Donald Trump (R) $726,811
Ted Cruz (R) $675,521
John Kasich (R) $518,245
Bernie Sanders (D) $384,898
Chris Christie (R) $279,965
Ben Carson (R) $258,214
Rand Paul (R) $160,574
Scott Walker (R) $150,733
Carly Fiorina (R) $98,804
Bobby Jindal (R) $50,850
Mike Huckabee (R) $41,930
Lindsey Graham (R) $34,005
Martin O’Malley (D) $25,129
Rick Santorum (R) $20,750
Rick Perry (R) $17,800
Gary Johnson (3) $16,464
Jill Stein (3) $10,101
George Pataki (R) $9,700
Jim Webb (D) $4,100
Jim Gilmore (R) $3,450
Lawrence Lessig (D) $1,195
Evan McMullin (I) $642

Source: Source: The Center for Responsive Politics.
The numbers reflect both dollars raised by the candidates as well as dollars raised by outside groups that backed the candidates.

By the way, the insurance contributions were up over the 2012 presidential election, during which insurance contributions to presidential candidates totaled about $7.4 million, with Mitt Romney getting $4.7 million and Barack Obama, $1.7 million.

Overall Race

Donald Trump was an unusual presidential candidate in many ways, including that he vowed to fund much of his campaign himself and in the amount of free publicity he received.

Trump’s his chief opponent, Hillary Clinton, outraised him in funds. Whereas Clinton raised $564 million and outside groups supporting her took in another $206 million, Trump raised $333 million and outsiders raised only $75 million to back him. Bernie Sanders raised $228 million and accepted no outside money.

Among Trump’s Republican rivals, Bush raised $34 million while outside groups raised $122 million for him. Marco Rubio raised $52 million, with another $111 million coming in support from outside groups. Ted Cruz raised $90 million and outside groups got him another $54 million.

There was another way to give to Trump. Among the $1 million donors to the Trump Inauguration was Henry R. Kravis, co-founder and co-chairman of the investment firm KKR that includes Alliant Insurance Services in its portfolio.

House, Senate Giving

A total of 137 insurance political action committees also gave about $29.4 million to various House and Senate candidates in 2016. Thirty-six (36) percent went to Democrats and the rest to Republicans.

According to opensecrets.org, the top insurance political action committees active in the 2016 election, giving to presidential, House and Senate candidates, were

Top 50 Insurance PAC Contributors in 2016 Election

PAC Name Total Dems Repubs
National Assn of Insurance & Financial Advisors $2,128,200 $706,500 $1,421,700
New York Life Insurance $1,993,950 $847,750 $1,145,200
Indep Insurance Agents & Brokers/America $1,461,475 $321,500 $1,139,975
Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers $1,428,500 $556,500 $872,000
AFLAC Inc $1,281,500 $601,000 $680,500
USAA $1,233,000 $316,500 $916,500
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance $970,000 $416,500 $553,500
American Council of Life Insurers $935,500 $378,000 $555,000
Liberty Mutual Insurance $911,550 $344,300 $567,250
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance $781,875 $348,250 $433,625
National Assn of Health Underwriters $718,800 $264,000 $453,800
Prudential Financial $715,750 $392,000 $323,750
National Assn/Mutual Insurance Companies $689,000 $156,500 $531,500
Pacific Life Insurance $670,000 $270,500 $398,500
Association for Advanced Life Underwriting $651,500 $200,000 $449,000
Property Casualty Insurers Assn/America $603,911 $213,500 $390,411
Nationwide $507,150 $182,500 $324,650
Blue Cross & Blue Shield Assn $487,710 $100,050 $387,660
Metlife Inc $477,500 $152,000 $325,500
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance $468,300 $148,750 $319,550
Cigna Corp $439,075 $172,700 $266,375
Farmers Group $402,722 $106,122 $296,600
Metlife Inc $361,000 $164,000 $197,000
TransAmerica $357,500 $154,000 $203,500
Marsh & McLennan $335,450 $140,500 $194,950
Travelers Companies $299,000 $98,500 $200,500
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois $289,000 $98,500 $190,500
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans $270,000 $106,500 $163,500
America’s Health Insurance Plans $265,000 $109,000 $156,000
Principal Life Insurance $259,000 $116,000 $143,000
RGA Reinsurance $256,500 $97,500 $159,000
AXA Equitable Life Insurance $246,000 $81,500 $164,500
Allstate Insurance $245,500 $51,500 $194,000
Unum Group $236,000 $111,500 $122,000
Genworth Financial $201,750 $54,000 $147,750
Assurant Inc $199,000 $69,500 $129,500
Jackson National Life Insurance $198,500 $42,500 $153,000
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of California $190,000 $130,500 $59,500
ACE INA $184,000 $72,500 $111,500
Hartford Financial Services $169,000 $74,500 $94,500
Lincoln National Corp $164,000 $58,000 $101,000
American Insurance Assn $157,000 $32,000 $125,000
Primerica Inc $156,000 $61,500 $94,500
Guardian Life Insurance $156,000 $73,000 $83,000
Chubb INA $149,600 $53,000 $96,600
Doctors’ Co $148,200 $93,200 $55,000
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida $147,488 $58,988 $88,500
Zurich Insurance $138,500 $54,500 $84,000
WellCare Group $131,000 $73,500 $57,500
AON Corp $123,200 $34,500 $88,700

Based on data released by the Federal Election Commission on February 08, 2017.

Source: The Center for Responsive Politics.

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Latest Comments

  • April 25, 2017 at 3:58 pm
    Agent says:
    Polar, perhaps good old Jeb took some of that PAC money in his quest to buy the Florida Marlins baseball team. He wants to follow in his brothers footsteps. Don't think we ... read more
  • April 25, 2017 at 2:40 pm
    Agent says:
    Wow, Ron's candidate Johnson (What is Aleppo) got $16,000. Must have been going door to door with a bucket in his hands.
  • April 25, 2017 at 12:21 pm
    Counterpoint says:
    While I agree that media time does count in some respects as political support (hard to quantify in dollars) I don't think that it is relevant to this specific article. Insura... read more

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