Trump victory breaks donation-victory correlation

By Ovunc Kutlu and Gulbin Yildirim

NEW YORK (AA) - President-elect Donald Trump's victory has broken the decades-old correlation between donations and winning presidential elections.

Republican Donald Trump won the 58th presidential election this past week despite receiving less than half the total amount of donations that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton had raised, data revealed.

In the previous 11 presidential elections, the candidate who received more donations came victorious over his rival, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Policy.

While Clinton received a total of $687 million in donations, mostly from financial sector and tech industry, Trump's total donations amounted to $307 million, the center's data showed.

Stating earlier than he would fund his own campaign, Trump spent $56 million out of his own pocket. Moreover, 40 percent of his donations came from individuals (71 percent for Clinton).

Among corporations that donated the most to Trump's campaign were investment management firm Renaissance Technologies, real-estate developer GH Palmer Associates, clinical research fundraiser Marcus Foundation, nursing home owner and operator Auburn Manor Holding, and Hawaiian Gardens Casino. Total donations for Trump from those five entities totaled $21 million.

Clinton's top five donors were Renaissance Technologies, investment services provider Paloma Partners, capital and asset management firm Pritzker Group, hedge fund management firm Soros Fund Management, and private equity investment firm Saban Capital Group. Their total donations for Clinton's campaign amounted to almost $70 million.

The former secretary of state also received support from the tech industry: executive chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet, Eric Schmidt, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to name a few.

A group of American technology leaders signed a letter in July stating "Trump would be a disaster for innovation", adding they wanted a presidential candidate that would embrace openness to immigrants, a more inclusive country and equality of opportunity.

Trump is known for his firm stance on immigration. He has stated he wanted to put tariffs on imports from China and bring back American tech firms that had moved overseas. Tech stocks in Wall Street posted losses on Wednesday and Thursday after Trump's victory.

The president-elect did not receive donations from Fortune 500 companies during his campaign. Such firms had poured in funds for previous Republican candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Policy data.

While Clinton spent $609 million of her total donations, Trump used $285 million, the data showed. This left $78 million and $21 million funds, respectively.

Unspent funds can be donated to charities, political parties, or can be used for candidates in future elections, according to the Federal Election Commission.