Gay Billionaire Joins the Rubio Campaign
This is not breaking news being that forward.com published it last fall and Quarz last night. However since there is talk about Rubio’s younger escapes this is relevant to know.
When an important gay person decides to go GOP with a candidate that opposes gay marriage and any bill or law offering LGBT security in their jobs in the private sector it becomes news to be reported.
Actually it does make sense for a Republican that has a need to stay Republican and has no candidate that is publicly gay friendly. One has to assume that when someone as smart as Paul Singer is going to be giving money to a candidate he most know something in private the candidate wont say in public. Besides the other GOP candidates like Cruz who cannot be trusted, chained to the Evangelicals and extra right and Trump who is a loose cannon and will go anyway that assures him a win.
Paul Singer, a billionaire hedge fund manager and Republican mega-donor from New York, is about to be named as the national finance chairman for Marco Rubio’s campaign, according to the New York Post.
Singer’s new gig is a sign, says Politico’s Mike Allen, of “the GOP’s Wall Street establishment coalescing (a little late, guys) around
Rubio’s bid to derail Trump’s march to the nomination.”
But the move could be risky for Rubio, since Singer is a high-profile supporter of marriage equality, which is anathema to many Republican primary voters.
Singer, who has a gay son, is part of a group of conservative Wall Street hedge fund managers who are vocal supporters of gay rights. In 2011, Singer and other donors urged Republican state senators in New York to support the passage of same-sex marriage legislation, raising vast sums money for their re-election. In 2012, he launched the American Unity super PAC for pro-gay rights Republican donors, and in 2013, the adjacent American Unity Fund, an advocacy and lobbying non-profit. The group aimed to spend $40 million this election cycle. “The Republican Party can be more of a big tent and this issue is part of that,” Singer told the New York Times in 2013.
Singer is reportedly worth upwards of $1.9 billion, and he scored a major non-politics victory yesterday (Feb. 29) when he prevailed in a 15-year legal battle. Singer’s Elliott Management and several other creditors managed to secure $4.65 billion from the Argentine government following its massive sovereign debt default.
He initially threw his support behind Rubio in Oct. 2015, and has since become one of the campaign’s top donors. He has also worked tirelessly to rally his network of wealthy associates to the Rubio cause.
In a letter circulated to dozens of high-income Republican donors in October, he described Rubio as the only candidate who can “navigate this complex primary process, and still be in a position to defeat [Hillary Clinton].”
Neither the Rubio campaign nor Singer have confirmed the appointment as of yet. According to the New York Post, a source close to Singer said that the rumors are “not accurate.”
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