Pete Buttigieg looks to expand massive fundraising advantage in Palm Springs

Sam Metz | Palm Springs Desert Sun

Pete Buttigieg will attend a fundraiser Friday in Palm Springs’ Andreas Hills neighborhood before travelling to Long Beach to attend the California Democratic Party Convention and appear on Saturday alongside seven other presidential candidates in Univision’s “Real America” forum on Latino issues.

Buttigieg has raised $52 million in campaign contributions this year, according to third-quarter campaign filings that cover up until Sept. 30. He’s collected less funds than Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., but earned envy from the rest of the field by outraising all other candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

A Monmouth University poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers published Tuesday put Buttigieg in the top tier of candidates with 22% support, along with Biden (19%), Warren (18%), and Sanders (13%).

But in the Golden State, an October poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California gave Buttigieg 6% of the state’s likely Democratic primary voters, behind Warren (23%), Biden (22%), Sanders (21%) and Harris (8%).

Palm Springs businessman Rich Weissman, who’s co-hosting the fundraiser with his husband J.D. Horn, said he thought support from LGBTQ campaign financiers and organizations had contributed to Buttigieg’s recent rise in the polls, but for him, it was less about identity than electability.

“As an LGBTQ person, I’m proud to be part of this, but the number one thing for me is electability. I don’t want to support an LGBTQ candidate simply because that person’s LGBTQ if they can’t win. That in and of itself is not sufficient,” he said. “I want to wake up in November 2020 and have Trump no longer be president.”

Buttigieg was the only candidate with a major presence at the Greater Palm Springs Pride Parade & Festival in early November. A contingent of more than 200 of his supporters marched in the parade and a booth erected to publicize his candidacy ran out of brochures to distribute, Weissman said.

Palm Springs has more LGBTQ couples per household than any city in California, according to research by UCLA Law School and the Williams Institute, and as the first openly gay candidate to launch a competitive bid for president, Buttigieg has garnered support from a wide swath of the desert resort town’s residents.

A Desert Sun analysis of campaign finance data found that, even before his Friday evening fundraiser, Buttigieg is outpacing all his competitors in raising campaign contributions from residents who live in Palm Springs’ six ZIP codes.

From the start of the presidential campaign, residents living in the ZIP codes 92240, 92258, 92262, 92263, 92264 and 92282 contributed more than $175,000 to candidates running for president. Of that total, $154,000 was funneled to Democratic candidates who are still in the race.

With a more than $90,000 haul, Buttigieg has collected for more than 58% of the funds Palm Springs residents have contributed to Democratic candidates who are still in the race. He’s raised more than four times as much as California Sen. Kamala Harris, who has amassed $23,000 in campaign contributions from people living in Palm Springs’ six ZIP codes.

Buttigieg has done well with small-dollar contributors and people who’ve contributed more than $200 to presidential campaigns. He leads the field in number of individual contributors with more than 600. $60,000 of his Palm Springs contributions have been of more than $200.

Biden and Sanders have both raised about $8,000 in Palm Springs. Warren's and President Donald Trump’s campaigns have raised $12,00 and $14,000 respectively in the city’s ZIP codes.

Beyond Palm Springs, Buttigieg has received endorsements from Victory Fund, the country’s largest LGBTQ political action committee. In June, gay television producing mogul Ryan Murphy hosted a fundraiser for his candidacy at his Malibu estate and he’s since received endorsements from Ellen DeGeneres and West Sacramento’s openly gay mayor Christopher Cabaldon.

As of the end of the third quarter, he had raised more than $7 million in itemized contributions in California, second among Democrats only to Harris’s $11.5 million. The ZIP code where Buttigieg raised the most contributions was West Hollywood.

Weissman said he hopes the fundraiser he’s hosting, which he expects around 300 people to attend, will build off Buttigieg’s success.

“There is no question that Palm Springs — because it’s LGBTQ and because people here contribute to political campaigns — stands out as a place that’s ripe for fundraising for Pete,” he said. “There’s no question about that.”

Sam Metz covers politics. Reach him at samuel.metz@desertsun.com or on Twitter @metzsam.