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KEY POINTS Executives at Wall Street's biggest banks have begun throwing financial support to their early favorites in the 2020 Democratic presidential field: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg.

All three combined to receive contributions during the second quarter from at least 15 bank executives from Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The donations represent just a fraction of the millions the candidates brought in during the three-month frame. Yet they provide clues about where these donors could place their support as the campaign barrels toward 2020.

Democratic U.S. 2020 election presidential candidates Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden pose during the second night of the first Democratic presidential candidates debate in Miami, Florida, June 27, 2019. Carlo Allegri | Reuters

Executives at Wall Street's biggest banks have begun throwing financial support to their early favorites in the 2020 Democratic presidential field: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg. All three candidates combined to receive contributions during the second quarter from at least 15 bank executives from Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America, according to Federal Election Commission records. The donations represent just a fraction of the millions the candidates brought in during the three-month frame. Yet they provide clues about where these well-heeled donors could place their support as the campaign barrels toward the first voting contests of the season, which begin in February. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the other top candidates in the field of 20-plus, have set the tone in the campaign by calling for breaking up big banks and eliminating tax loopholes that favor the wealthy. Likewise, Biden, Harris and Buttigieg have all slammed Wall Street, vowed to close the wealth gap and pledged to strengthen the middle class. They haven't unveiled specific policy proposals for contending with big banks and Wall Street, however.

Biden, speaking to a gathering of wealthy donors Wednesday in Detroit, warned them that they shouldn't expect another tax cut like the one they received from President Donald Trump. Biden served as vice president under President Barack Obama for eight years during the Great Recession in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Biden, who represented the bank-friendly state of Delaware for over 30 years in the Senate, has also said that "the country wasn't built by Wall Street bankers." He has been a staunch supporter of the Dodd-Frank banking regulations that came about during the Obama years. Still, his recent policy proposals don't mention any of the big banks or the idea of regulating the finance industry as a whole. Harris' campaign website touts her record of taking on Wall Street when she was California's attorney general starting in 2011. At that time, she pulled California out of national negotiations pursuing a monetary settlement from major banks for foreclosed households during the financial crisis. Buttigieg has called for stricter consumer protections, including the revival of enforcement authorities under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Bank executives doling out the cash