These are the real estate donors spending big in the presidential campaign
Biden and Harris’s industry supporters open their wallets
By
Research by
Aug 1, 2024, 7:00 AM
Real estate professionals prefer to let their money do the talking.
Presidential election issues touch on key provisions of the tax law, housing initiatives and immigration policy, and the war in Gaza is also influencing which candidates industry players back up and down the ballot.
Many industry titans have thrown their support — and dollars — behind Donald Trump, despite some supporting other Republican candidates in the primaries.
In the past, Trump has counted his real estate colleagues and friends, including developer Richard LeFrak, Related Companies’ Steve Ross and his in-laws at Kushner among his top supporters. In July, Midtown Equities’ Joseph Cayre, as well as the Chera and Wynn families, hosted a fundraiser for Trump in Deal, New Jersey. Charles Kushner, Ben Ashkenazy, Joe Moinian, Steve Witkoff and John Catsimatidis were listed as co-hosts. Hosts pledged $500,000 each, co-hosts $250,000, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Meanwhile, some of President Joe Biden’s biggest industry supporters backed away from his campaign following his debate performance in June, and most quickly fell in line for Vice President Kamala Harris after the president announced July 21 that he would not seek reelection and endorsed her. Some Dems had also focused instead on key congressional and local races.
All told, the real estate industry had contributed more than $7 million to Harris’ — formerly Biden’s — campaign and almost $11 million to Trump’s as of mid-July, according to OpenSecrets.
The Real Deal studied donation activity, both from filings with the Federal Election Commission and reporting on public sentiment from local industry leaders, to highlight notable participants in the election fight ahead. Individuals’ donation amounts are approximate and based on donors who indicated in filings that they work in the real estate industry.
New York
Steve Witkoff
$437,410 to Trump-connected entities and the Republican National Committee
The bond between Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump was forged by a ham sandwich.
It was 3 a.m., and Witkoff, then a real estate attorney for Dreyer & Traub, was working on a case. He ran into Trump while fetching food for himself and his colleagues.
“He didn’t know who I was,” Witkoff testified in November while serving as an expert witness in Trump’s civil fraud trial. “He didn’t have any money with him, and I was ordering from a local delicatessen for the people who were on my team. He asked me if I would order him a ham and Swiss sandwich.”
The 1980s “sandwich incident,” as Witkoff described the exchange during the trial, was a foundation for a decades-long friendship.
“I would say that he has been a really good friend to me and my family, particularly after the death of my son,” Andrew Witkoff, in 2011, he said. “I am a good friend of his right on back.”
“Good friend” translated to, among other things, Witkoff donating $276,000 to Trump’s election committees and related super PACs last year. He has contributed at least $437,410 to Trump and connected entities since 2021.
“This is well beyond real estate for me.”
Witkoff also lent moral support to the former president during his criminal hush money trial in Manhattan, and brokered peace between Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over lunch at his Shell Bay Club in Hollywood, Florida.
In late July, he told TRD his support for Trump “is well beyond real estate for me.”
“On the lists of concerns that I have, I just don’t have time to think about how the industry is decimated today,” he said. He is hopeful Trump will combat inflation and bring “strength” back to foreign policy.
— Kathryn Brenzel
Jeff Gural
$571,300 to Act Blue, a PAC that supported Biden and now Harris
Forty years ago, Jeff Gural held a fundraiser for Biden in his office at Newmark.
At the time, Biden was running for re-election to the U.S. Senate.
Gural, chair of GFP Real Estate, continued to support him, backing his failed 2007 run for president. He gave Biden’s campaign more than $12,000 in 2020 and has given more than $100,000 this year. Biden even tapped Gural to serve on the Public Buildings Reform Board.
But soon after the June debate, Gural’s support wavered.
“Obviously, Biden’s debate performance was very disappointing, and I think he has to reassess whether or not he feels he can serve for another four years,” he said. “We are both the same age, and I know that I’m slowing down and you can’t beat Father Time.”
As more Democrats began calling for the president to step aside, Gural said he would hold back on his support for Biden and support efforts to replace him on the Democratic ticket.
“I love Joe, and he has done a great job, but he needs to leave on a high note, and the risk of electing Trump is just too scary,” he said.
He thinks Trump’s 2017 policy that capped deductions for state and local taxes hurt New Yorkers and hopes that a Democratic president will push to let that provision expire. Asked how he felt about real estate executives citing the rise of antisemitism in the U.S. as a reason for supporting Trump, Gural dismissed the argument.
“I think the only people who will support Trump are simply wealthy people who want their taxes lowered,” he said. “The rest is nonsense.”
— Kathryn Brenzel
Jonathan Gray and Stephen Schwarzman
Schwarzman and his wife gave $1.7 million to WinRed
Gray has focused on congressional races
By November 2022, Stephen Schwarzman had had enough of Trump.
The Blackstone CEO, one of Trump’s wealthiest financial backers, announced that he would back a different Republican in 2024.
“It is time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders, and I intend to support one of them in the presidential primaries,” Schwarzman told Axios at the time.
But in May of this year, the billionaire megadonor changed his mind. Two months after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s final major challenger, dropped out of the race, Schwarzman indicated that he would in fact champion Trump.
He told news outlets that the “dramatic rise of antisemitism has led me to focus on the consequences of upcoming elections with greater urgency.”
Jonathan Gray, Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, had helped raise more than $4 million as a bundler for Biden as of 2020. He co-hosted a fundraiser for Biden last year and was a guest at a White House state dinner in honor of the prime minister of Japan in April.
In recent months, Gray has been more focused on congressional races, giving $120,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $125,000 to a PAC tied to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in March.
—Kathryn Brenzel
South Florida
Ken Griffin
$5 million to PAC that backed Nikki Haley, latest donations unknown
In November 2022, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin urged Trump to step aside to give Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a chance on the national stage.
“I’d like to think that the Republican Party is ready to move on from somebody who has been for this party a three-time loser,” he told Bloomberg at the time.
He later lent support to Nikki Haley, donating $5 million to her campaign.
Even once Trump was the nominee, Griffin did not automatically back him, indicating that he would wait until a running mate was announced, but in the weeks since Trump tapped Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, the billionaire still hadn’t publicly backed a candidate. He has, however, donated $10 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has “one goal,” according to its website: “to build a Republican Senate majority.”
In the meantime, Griffin paid $45 million for a stegosaurus skeleton.
— Kathryn Brenzel
Patrick Carroll
Dollar amount unknown; enthusiasm unlimited
Bundling hundreds of thousands of dollars in presidential campaign contributions is something any national real estate mogul can do. But tycoons who fully embody the ethos of their preferred candidate are a rare commodity. Patrick Carroll is one of them.
The multifamily syndicator embraces making America great again and the prospect of Donald Trump returning to the White House.
In February, after playing golf with the former president, Carroll tattooed Trump’s mugshot on his inner right forearm and couldn’t wait to tell his idol. In a post on his Instagram account, a video clip shows Carroll on his cellphone talking to Trump, who is on speaker. Carroll’s 1.2 million followers heard Trump gushing.
“I love that tattoo,” Trump said. “I want a piece of that arm. I wish I looked so handsome and so mean. You have to be mean nowadays with these maniacs we are dealing with.”
“I’ll wear you for the rest of my life,” Carroll said. “I am so proud of what you are doing for the country. We need it.”
“I’ll wear you for the rest of my life. I am so proud of what you are doing for the country.”
“You have a very talented artist,” Trump replied. “Tell him I said it.”
A month later, Carroll posted another video showing off his Trumpian bona fides. Aboard his boat, docked behind his Miami Beach home, Carroll wore a MAGA baseball cap, a towel draped over his shoulders and a shotgun in his grip. The apartment king fired off a few rounds that he later claimed were blanks. The incident landed Carroll in a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, followed by a weekend stint in jail on a criminal charge of firing a weapon.
During the last night of the Republican National Convention, Carroll posted a Photoshopped image of him standing next to Trump and proclaimed himself a victim of political correctness: “Trump talked about how he’s been harassed, had his business and family targeted, etc through his ‘enemies’ via the court system. Exactly what happened to me; cancel culture, family law, petty lawsuits, etc…enough is enough.”
—Francisco Alvarado
Texas
Harlan Crow
$172,000 to Republican primary candidates, latest donations unknown
Despite his best efforts to fly under the radar, developer Harlan Crow has emerged as the highest-profile political donor in Texas real estate. His various gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas grabbed headlines last year, but recently he has spent heavily on a bevy of elected officials, too.
He lit $172,000 on fire supporting candidates in the Republican primaries not named Trump. Crow’s leading recipient was former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — the Crow Holdings chair donated $100,000 to Christie’s PAC. He also gave $60,000 to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and her associated PACs, and $6,600 to Ron DeSantis.
Two Republicans widely seen as presidential hopefuls, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (now a Senate candidate), received $5,000 and $6,600, respectively. Then, perhaps as a bank shot to hurt President Biden’s campaign, Crow gave $3,300 to the independent candidate Cornel West, who has criticized Biden from the left, and No Labels 2024, which at one point floated a Joe Manchin candidacy.
Crow’s political sympathies appear to have skipped a generation. His nephew George Billingsley and Billingsley’s wife, Lindsay, together have donated more than $336,300 to ActBlue, a major Democratic PAC.
— Jess Hardin and Joe Lovinger
H. Ross Perot Jr.
$2.5 million to Republican House and Senate campaigns
Like Crow, H. Ross Perot Jr. donated to several Trump rivals in the primary. Haley and her PACs received $181,600, while Christie got $156,600. Perot also donated $11,600 to DeSantis and $6,600 to Larry Hogan as Senate candidate, as well as long shot Asa Hutchinson. He even sent a $3,300 lifeline to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez in his short-lived bid for the White House, just 20 days before he ended his campaign.
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick received $100,000 from Perot in his race to take one of the Democrats’ most vulnerable Senate seats.
Perot does not appear to have donated directly to Trump or his PAC, but last year, Perot gave $247,800 to the Republican National Committee, which is co-chaired by Trump’s daughter-in-law. The majority of his donations have gone towards Republican Senate and House campaigns and committees.
— Joe Lovinger
Mehrdad Moayedi
$137,000 to WinRed and the Republican National Committee
This year, prominent Dallas developer Mehrdad Moayedi, founder of Centurion American, purchased a jet worth nearly $10 million from former President Trump.
In addition to flying Trump, he’s spending to get the Republican nominee elected, donating $137,000 to party causes.
Moayedi is at the helm of numerous large-scale master-planned developments across North Texas, including in Celina and Grayson County.
— Jess Hardin, Quinn Donoghue and Joe Lovinger
Elon Musk
$45 million a month to a Trump super PAC allegedly pledged, then revoked
On July 16, the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk planned to donate around $45 million a month to America PAC, a new committee supporting Trump’s re-election campaign.
However, Musk later called that report “fiction,” though he has nonetheless endorsed the former president. In recent years, Musk has expanded his companies’ footprints in Texas, launching rockets from Brownsville and planning a utopia in Bastrop County near Neuralink and the Boring Company offices.
The mercurial serial entrepreneur and multibillionaire announced plans to shift the headquarters of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, from Northern California and spacecraft developer and operator SpaceX from Southern California, according to a post on X by Musk that cited California’s progressive policies as impetus for the move.
— Jess Hardin and Joe Lovinger
Los Angeles
Geoffrey Palmer
$365,000 to the Republican National Committee, plus $2 million to Trump and Trump PACs
One of Los Angeles’ largest landlords, Geoffrey Palmer, has renewed his support for Trump and the GOP in the lead-up to the presidential election.
Palmer, who runs GH Palmer Associates, has donated $365,000 to the Republican National Committee this year, plus $2 million to Make America Great Again, a PAC supporting Trump, and directly to Trump’s campaign. GH Palmer owns more than 15,000 apartments across Southern California, according to its website.
Palmer made his mark as a Trump supporter in 2016 — at one point before the election, he was the single largest donor to the campaign after handing over $2 million to Trump’s Rebuilding America Now PAC.
—Isabella Farr
Thomas Safran
$300,000 to the Biden Victory Fund
An affordable housing developer in Los Angeles, Thomas Safran has donated $100,000 to Biden’s presidential campaign, plus $41,300 to the DNC, since the beginning of the year. He has donated thousands of dollars more to state political efforts — for example, $1,215 each to Democratic Party PACs across the country, including the Iowa Democratic Party and the Utah State Democratic Committee.
Safran, who runs Thomas Safran & Associates, has built more than 6,300 units of affordable and market-rate housing in Southern California, both in and outside the city of L.A.
— Isabella Farr
Robert Zarnegin
$50,000 to the Republican National Committee, plus more to related PACs
Beverly Hills developer and landlord Robert Zarnegin, the CEO of Probity International, poured $25,000 into the House Freedom Action, a PAC that backs “strong conservative candidates to Congress,” according to its website.
Zarnegin, whose firm built the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and owns retail space on Rodeo Drive, also donated $20,000 last year to Trump-supporting committees and has given $6,600 to support U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, a Trump ally who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for alleged sexual misconduct.
— Isabella Farr
Bay Area
The Friend family
About $60,000 to the Biden-Harris ticket or ActBlue
Eugene Friend was well-known in both politics and real estate in San Francisco, having turned the profits from his family’s clothing store into some landmark buys, like the city’s Flatiron Building on Market Street. He served on several city commissions and boards, spending over two decades on the Recreation and Park Commission. A SoMa rec center is named in his honor. He gave often to both Jewish and city nonprofits; then-Sen. Dianne Feinstein called his 2005 death “a great loss.”
Donald and Robert Friend followed in their late father’s footsteps, both in the family business, Howard Properties, and in their support for Jewish and political causes.
Robert Friend died last fall, just short of his 80th birthday, but before that he gave $750,000 to the United Democracy Fund, a pro-Israel Super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where he was a board member.
His brother Donald gave $250,000 to the UDF, as well as $18,000 to the Biden Victory Fund and about the same directly to AIPAC. He has also made donations to the Harris campaign, the biggest being $18,000 late last year.
He also donated $10,000 to Gavin Newsom’s campaign for governor and made smaller donations to the ActBlue fundraising platform.
Donald’s son Jason gave $12,500 to ActBlue and over $31,000 to AIPAC, and his wife, Alina, gave another almost $9,000. Donald’s other son, Benjamin, gave AIPAC about $40,000, as well as $2,000 to ActBlue.
—Emily Landes
Wayne Jordan
About $1.2 million to Biden Victory Fund and Harris Victory Fund
Wayne Jordan is an Oakland-based real estate investor, developer and owner of multifamily and commercial properties. He started his family-owned firm, Jordan Real Estate Investments, in 1998. Most of his properties are in Oakland, but he has branched out to office properties in San Francisco and in 2015 bought 215 acres in Sonoma for a vineyard and housing development.
Along with his wife, Quinn Delaney, Jordan founded the Akonadi Foundation in 2000; its emphasis is on grants to racial justice and gun control advocacy groups. The couple gave $4 million to the ACLU in 2008 and were strong supporters of Barack Obama, hosting fundraisers for him in their Piedmont home. Jordan gave about $550,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in February, and previously gave $250,000 to the Biden Victory Fund. He did not reply to a request for comment about whether he would be putting his support behind Vice President Harris, but last October he gave $250,000 to the Harris Victory Fund, followed that up with a $500,000 donation in May and made another donation for $250,000 in June.
This year, he’s also given $150,000 to the Black Men Vote PAC, which is dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black men in politics, and $100,000 to the American Bridge PAC, an opposition-research hub. In addition, he’s given $50,000 to the Hakeem Jeffries Victory Fund, $50,000 to the Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund and $25,000 to the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund. He also gave Newsom’s campaign about $65,000 in March 2023.
He has also donated smaller five-figure sums to various Democratic PACs as well as direct contributions to the campaigns of local Bay Area Dems like Rep. Barbara Lee. But he also put his money behind Stacey Abrams’ run for governor of Georgia, New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich and Will Rollins, who is hoping to flip California’s 41st District in Riverside County this November.
—Emily Landes
Robert Challey
$85,000 to WinRed and $300,000 to House candidates
Robert Challey is chair of the board of the Park Place Group, an East Bay-based development and investment company. A North Dakota native, he also owns properties in the Fargo area, though his primary residence is in the upscale East Bay city of Danville. He and his wife, Sheila, have given $85 million to his undergraduate alma mater, North Dakota State University, for its arts programs.
A rare Republican donor from the Bay Area, Challey has given to individual candidates in the past, including $11,000 to support Rep. Mike Garcia’s successful efforts to flip California’s 25th District in northern L.A. County in 2020. Challey also gives to broader Republican causes. He gave $200,000 to Take Back the House 2022 and $100,000 to the Protect the House campaign in 2023. He gave over $200,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and just over $85,000 to WinRed, the Republican version of ActBlue. In June, he gave $10,000 to GOP Winning for Women 2024, which supports female Republican candidates.
— Emily Landes
Chicago
Alfred McConnell
About $260,000 to ActBlue
In Illinois, a blue state, most of the top-dollar real estate donors have given to Democratic candidates and organizations. That includes Elzie Higginbottom, founder of affordable housing development firm East Lake Management ($142,323), and Beal Properties’ Bill Silverstein ($130,600).
A lesser-known real estate professional and top Democratic donor is Alf McConnell, a multifamily developer with a recent focus on affordable senior housing. McConnell has spearheaded projects in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New York, Colorado and California through his company Liberty Mortgage and Development.
A former Republican, McConnell has donated over a quarter million dollars to ActBlue since January 2021.
“I am basically a conservative person, and I used to be a Republican, but the Republican Party of today is not the Republican Party of yesterday,” McConnell said.
He said he keeps his business and his political donations separate and has never asked for favors from candidates he backs. He does, however, bring his knowledge of the market into his consideration of whom to vote for, he said.
“I am basically a conservative person, and I used to be a Republican, but the Republican Party of today is not the Republican Party of yesterday.”
“If you cut the taxes to the very wealthy, then you’re going to put more of an economic burden on the middle and lower class, and therefore they won’t have the money to spend to buy the goods and services that owners of businesses produce,” McConnell said in discussing why he has decided to support the Democratic Party.
Before Biden dropped out of the campaign, McConnell told TRD that he was hopeful the president would make way for a younger nominee with stronger polling numbers.
“I’ve been developing for over 50 years. And a few years ago, I vowed that I would stop developing. In other words, I’d step back,” McConnell said. “Why doesn’t Biden step back?”
McConnell, who is of a similar age to Biden, said the president seemed to be “having trouble giving it up” but that “it sounds like he might be ready to pass the torch.”
“If I were him, I would be concerned with my legacy,” McConnell said.
After Biden announced on July 21 that he would pass that torch, McConnell said he would support “almost any” Democratic candidate nominated in Biden’s place.
“I’m basically supporting a Democratic platform and not necessarily an individual,” he said.
—Kelli Duncan
Judd Malkin and Neil Bluhm
About $250,000 to Democrats combined
Judd Malkin and Neil Bluhm, two of Chicago’s most prolific real estate investors, with a track record dating back to the 1960s, are about to watch their dollars go to work in their hometown as the city prepares to host the Democratic National Convention.
The co-founders of JMB Realty — which helped give an early-career leg up to multiple future Blackstone executives, including Jon Gray — have each donated big bucks to the Democratic National Convention committee, while Malkin has also supported various Democratic candidates across the nation.
Malkin gave $41,300 to the DNC Services Corporation in April, the maximum for individuals donating to national party committees. Bluhm chipped in $123,900 to the Democratic cause last year, the most allowed at that time for the party vehicle he supported.
Bluhm was one of Biden’s biggest donors, having spent more than $1 million to support his campaigns in the past, and Malkin chipped in to support Biden’s run for the White House in 2020. While Bluhm couldn’t be reached for this story and Malkin declined to comment, a person close to Malkin said he was perked up by Biden’s decision to step aside and support Harris’ bid for the presidency.
“He sees the nation has some enthusiasm for the change,” the person said. “He loves Biden and thinks he has done a wonderful job. It’s gracious of him to say it’s time for someone else to take the reins.”
— Sam Lounsberry
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