Hillary Clinton released a list of CEO that have endorsed her campaign. And while she claims that at least eight of those CEOs are “Republicans,” she uses the term “Republican” very loosely.
Media outlets called the list “remarkable” for its bipartisanship, but for Clinton, it’s apparently enough to simply give a few thousand in a primary race to be considered a full-fledged member of the GOP. While some donors, like AT&T Jim Cicconi and Prologis’s Hamid R. Moghadam, do have a storied history with the Republican Party (Cicconi served in the Reagan Administration and gave $10K to Jeb Bush), others, like Netflix’s Reed Hastings gave sparingly to conservative candidates only very recently ($2,600 to Chris Christie).
Clinton “Republican” Reed Hastings is one of California’s top Democratic donors, giving more than $8 million to local parties and candidates alone. Before falling mildly in love with the New Jersey governor’s ill-fated Presidential campaign, he poured $88,000 into Barack Obama’s Presidential campaigns.
Costco CEO Jeff Brotman gave Dr. Ben Carson $2,700, earning him a space on Clinton’s Republican roster. But in 2008, he gave that much and more to then-Senator Barack Obama as well.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers’s Brook H. Byers also regularly gives to Democrats. As does Expedia’s Barry Diller. MGM Resorts’ Jim Murren has given more to Act Blue than he gave to Jeb Bush, but he does split his contribution, as do many in the tech sector. Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, for example, gave generously to Obama’s Presidential campaign, but occasionally hedges his bets by giving to powerful Republican leaders like Rep. Paul Ryan.
Basic American Foods’s George Hume is the only other “Republican” who has been solidly red when writing checks.
Also among her top CEOs are major Democratic donors, which makes them less inclined to oppose Donald Trump for his merits and more inclined to support Hillary Clinton for her party affiliation. Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Eric Schmidt of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Warren Buffett, Zynga’s Mark Pincus, and designer Rebecca Minkoff are all known to give in the thousands to Democratic causes.
There are a few names on the list notable for their affiliations as opposed to their giving, however. Laura Ricketts is co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, and belongs to a heavily Republican family (her father-in-law holds major sway in middle-American politics). She might be on the list not because she’s pro-Hillary Clinton but because her family gave thousands to Our Principles PAC, dedicated to taking Donald Trump out in the primaries. Trump even Tweeted fighting words at her husband, Tom Ricketts.