Ted Johnson is a writer based in Washington who covered politics for Variety and the Los Angeles Times. He also is a contributor to SiriusXM's POTUS Channel.

Before he paused campaign activities to remain in South Bend, Indiana, reeling from the officer-involved shooting death of a 53-year-old black man, Buttigieg was scheduled to trek to Los Angeles for a fundraising swing, including an event at the Beverly Hills home of mega producer Ryan Murphy that’s co-hosted by a long list of high-profile LGBTQ Hollywood figures. According to one fundraising source, the event, with tickets starting at $1,500 per person, sold out a month ago and was likely to bring in at least $250,000. It is being postponed.

There’s a reason this group was so eager to meet Mayor Pete. For many of these influential donors, this will be their first ever chance to contribute to a viable gay presidential candidate—something that would have been hard to fathom just over a decade ago, when their choices were a field of top prospects who opposed same-sex marriage, or just over a generation ago, when the Democratic campaign viewed LGBTQ money as too risky to take.


This year, LGBTQ donors have helped seed the early stages of Buttigieg’s campaign, and the narrative has been one of nearly all-in support from the LGBTQ community. “As Buttigieg Builds His Campaign, Gay Donors Provide the Foundation,” ran one story in the Times. This week, the Victory Fund, which supports and promotes LGBTQ candidates, is expected to give Buttigieg its endorsement, its first in a presidential primary. But some well-known LGBTQ donors in Hollywood offer a picture that that’s more nuanced: Many in showbiz are still keeping their options open.

As historic as Buttigieg’s candidacy might be, a number of Hollywood’s most prolific LGBTQ donors aren’t ready to commit to him exclusively just yet. Many of Hollywood’s influential base of bundlers and donors are backing multiple candidates, spreading their money around, contributing to other politicians with whom they have longtime relationships and who have their own long track record on LGBTQ issues, like Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.

Most of all, bundlers are looking for the candidate “who has the best plan and strategy to beat Donald Trump,” as one activist put it. And that is still an open question.

If Buttigieg can indeed run the table on this group of big pockets, it will be a big win for him. LGBTQ support has proven to be an important and influential part of Democratic presidential politics. In 2012, a Washington Post analysis showed that about one in six of President Barack Obama’s top campaign bundlers were openly gay. The influence of LGBTQ organizations also was apparent in last year’s midterms, as the Human Rights Campaign spent $26 million in organizing and advocacy in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada.

There’s no lack of enthusiasm for Buttigieg the candidate among Hollywood’s LGBTQ community—one influential donor told me he’s impressed by the way he answers questions in an authentic and interesting way “you can’t prep”—but as a newcomer to politics at this level, he’s also surrounded by questions. A number of the donors I spoke to wonder whether he can draw African-American support critical to winning the nomination, and they want to see how he scales up his campaign operation quickly, particularly in early states. One prominent bundler is looking to the debates next week for clarity, after which it may be a “whole different playing field.” A key for Buttigieg is building out his coalition, and “if he can’t figure that out, that is a trouble spot in his campaign,” says another donor.

Other donors believe that, given his youth and status as the mayor of a city smaller in population than Burbank, California, their support for Mayor Pete is an investment in a future star of the Democratic Party—just not necessarily the nominee in 2020. “A lot of folks are investing beyond 2020 in Pete Buttigieg,” says one prominent donor.

Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Milk,” the biopic about pioneering activist Harvey Milk, met one-on-one with Buttigieg in Dallas in early May, and he came away impressed, more so than with any other candidate he’s met in person. They chatted about Milk’s ability to unite gays and lesbians with white working class union truck drivers as part of the Coors beer boycott in the late 1970s. Black said that Buttigieg has “very similar instincts” as Milk, and he plans to host a fundraising event for him. Buttigieg’s candidacy, Black told me, “sends an incredible message that there’s nothing you can’t achieve as an openly gay person,” he says.

But, Black says, that doesn’t mean he’s decided that he’s voting for Buttigieg. “I haven’t and I won’t for some time decide on who I will vote for in the primaries,” he said.

He says that it’s too early, and notes that other candidates in the field, including the record number of women running, would also represent a historic first in the White House. “I think that LGBTQ people ought to be equally inspired that we have so many women running and other people who, with a win, would lift up a group that has been treated unfairly and unequally in our country historically.”

He’s not alone.

Murphy, best known for co-creating “Glee” and “American Horror Story,” was to host the event for Buttigieg this week, but he has already hosted other candidates at his home, including a recent fundraiser for Kamala Harris. As California’s attorney general, Harris declined to defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8, as it was challenged in federal court, and as a senator she co-sponsored the Equality Act.

Biden’s first major Hollywood event was held in early May at the home of one of Hollywood’s top gay power couples, James Costos, a former HBO executive and ambassador to Spain, and designer Michael Smith, who also attended a Buttigieg event a few days later and co-hosted a fundraiser for Cory Booker. The Biden event, aimed at drawing gay and straight donors throughout the industry, reportedly raised around $700,000.

Biden earned the loyalty of many LGBTQ donors in 2012, when at a private entertainment industry gathering he first announced that he favored same-sex marriage—ahead of his own boss, President Barack Obama, who had said his views on the issue were “evolving.” Just weeks later, Biden announced his support publicly on “Meet the Press,” compelling Obama to announce his support just a few days later. Rufus Gifford, finance director for Obama’s 2012 campaign and later U.S. ambassador to Denmark, says that Biden will do well in drawing LGBTQ support: “There is loyalty towards him.” One bundler said that Biden’s role in moving the Obama administration forward on same-sex marriage will be “a big advantage, if voters will remember that.”

Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), introduced Buttigieg at a recent HRC dinner as a trailblazer who is “changing hearts and minds across this nation.” But Griffin also had kind words for other 2020 hopefuls: “There is an incredible group of candidates who have been decades long champions fighting for our community and fighting for marginalized communities across the board.” HRC has not yet endorsed a candidate, and it is unclear when they will. The group will be hosting a candidate forum at UCLA on Oct. 10.

Of course, Buttigieg has something that some of the other old Hollywood favorites don’t have: A fresh face—and Hollywood loves a fresh face. So far, he’s taken full advantage of that curiosity factor. Three months ago, many in the industry wouldn’t have been able to pick him out of a crowd. But after a stand-out CNN town hall in March, some viral social media moments and an appearance on “The Ellen Show,” he then connected with influential figures like film executives Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, and Oprah Winfrey. He seemed to get that this kind of contact was essential to building support in an industry that thrives on personal relationships. In March and April he introduced himself to many in the industry through “meet and greets”—not fundraisers per se, but gatherings meant to provide face time with the candidate. One in late March was organized by George Heller, a manager at Brillstein Entertainment Partners, who says that the in-person meetings helped erase doubts that Buttigieg could take on Trump. “He is going to disarm the president and not get in the mud with him,” Heller says.

Greg Louganis, the Olympic diver and LGBTQ activist, met with Buttigieg for coffee back in March and told him that it was “a little early” to endorse. As he has seen the campaign play out, though, he now says he’s “really sold” on the candidate. “What stands out to me is he is a presidential candidate who just happens to be gay,” he says, adding that he likes Buttigieg’s message of “hope and positive energy.”

Buttigieg’s Los Angeles schedule was to include five other events, including a fundraiser co-hosted by Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, and a luncheon with several organizers who raised for Obama’s campaign, including Nicole Avant, who helped lead Obama’s 2008 fundraising and is the former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.

Of these, the event at the home of Murphy and his husband, David Miller, got the most attention. Its cohosts included a list of well-known names in the industry, such as producer Greg Berlanti, CAA partner Bryan Lourd, actor Matt Bomer and his husband, publicist Simon Halls, along with political consultant John Gile, a prominent LGBTQ fundraiser in Los Angeles. Another co-host was Fred Karger, an activist and former actor who in 2012 became the first openly gay person to run for a major party nomination when he waged a quixotic bid for the GOP nomination.

Even as others are waiting before giving their official endorsement, Karger says he’s going all in for Mayor Pete. He thinks it’s essential for the LGBTQ community to rally around Buttigieg, including major civil rights groups, as this is “a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

It’s an especially big milestone considering that, 30 years ago, presidential campaigns actively rejected LGBTQ money. In 1988, political strategist David Mixner and three other Los Angeles activists planned to raise $1 million for nominee Michael Dukakis from the LGBTQ community, a move Mixner later wrote “would make us a serious player in presidential politics.” When Mixner went to a Dukakis fundraiser with the plan, though, he was told that accepting such money would be “too risky” for the campaign.

Four years later, Bill Clinton, a friend of Mixner’s, embraced gay community support. The turning point came in May 1992, when Clinton headlined an LGBTQ fundraiser for his campaign at the Hollywood Palace Theater, telling those gathered, “I have a vision, and you are part of it.”

Since then, Democratic presidential candidates have actively courted Hollywood donors—gay and straight—in the early stages of their campaigns. Typically, the money and endorsements divide pretty quickly. At this point in the 2008 presidential cycle, Hollywood Democrats already had largely split into Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards camps. The money is certainly important, but so are the high-profile endorsements themselves, which help drive attention and momentum.

This cycle, though, with so many donors courting Hollywood’s LGBTQ support, the money pool is taking a more cautious approach. Some of the donors see this wait-and-see attitude towards Buttigieg as a sign of progress: Just because Buttigieg is gay doesn’t necessarily mean that he will have the automatic exclusive support of the community.

But others are worried that, by spreading themselves thin at this point, donors could miss an opportunity to make a big impact. Mike Rose and Ruben Rodriguez, two entertainment industry technology entrepreneurs, were scheduled to host Buttigieg at their home for another event this week which has been rescheduled for July 25. They are all in for Buttigieg. Rose thinks that this cycle “it’s clearly time for generational change,” and Buttigieg’s mayoral experience is a contrast to jaded Washington partisanship. Citing the need for the campaign to organize in early states, Rose says that he’s been urging prospective LGBTQ donors that “you need to make a decision sooner rather than later, because early money helps much more than later money.”

Tammy Billik, a Hollywood casting director who signed on to co-host two of the Buttigieg events, says she feels it “is important for us to support him as far as we can. … He checks a lot of boxes, not just of what the gay community is looking for but what the straight community is looking for.”

But, on the other hand, she says that a lot of women in the LGBTQ community “really would like to see a woman in the White House. … We all felt like we had the winner last time, and so the amount of disappointment from the women in my community was great. It was so stunning.”

“If there is an opportunity for a woman,” she says, “I think that for many of us that may supersede the opportunity to elect a gay man.” She says that she doesn’t know yet when she will decide, but so far Buttigieg is the only candidate she’s “maxed out” to, or given the maximum of $2,800 an individual can give to a candidate.

Gifford says that Buttigieg’s been a “remarkable breath of fresh air” to the donor community, and “there is kind of a feeling that he is saying what he thinks. There is something to be said about that.”

The challenge will be to expand his base of support, and to translate an impressive fundraising base into votes, Gifford says. But Buttigieg has made the leap from political longshot.

“He’s viewed now not just as an LGBTQ candidate, but as someone who has an actual shot of winning the nomination.” Gifford has maxed out to Buttigieg—and three other candidates.