During his 2016 campaign, Donald J. Trump staged a takeover of the Republican Party, including by portraying wealthy political donors as the cause of corruption and spreading a populist message that appealed to working-class voters.
Eight years later, one of his key decision points in choosing a running mate is his connection to the super-rich.
As the selection process draws to a close, with an announcement expected within two weeks after months of suggestions and misdirection, Republican candidates are trying to convince Trump they have the financial backing that could turn the race around.
There are even more factors that can ensure a good match. Trump is said to be considering candidates with discipline on the campaign trail who won’t steal his precious spotlight and would do well in a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
But the money certainly matters — and some Republican donors with direct access to Mr. Trump have left unmistakable fingerprints on his process. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, for example, emerged as a top candidate late in the selection process after persistent lobbying from Steve Wynn, the billionaire former casino magnate close to Mr. Trump. Mr. Wynn has also played a role in persuading other donors, such as Elon Musk, to step up their support for the campaign.
Many vice presidential candidates, including some outside candidates aware of the financial dynamics, have responded, boasting — and sometimes exaggerating — about the amount they could raise for the ticket. In some cases, this posturing has drawn derision from some Republican donors, who feel they are being used as pawns in a war among themselves.
But the most successful financial battle came from the three contenders who are thus far seen as the top candidates for the job: Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
Mr. Burgum, a former software executive who sold a company to Microsoft, has an estimated net worth of at least $100 million, according to Forbessuggesting he could be pouring some of his fortune into the race. He spent more than $10 million on his own short-lived, long-shot presidential bid last year.
He has also tried to demonstrate his fundraising potential for Mr. Trump by luring wealthy new donors to the president’s corner. On Tuesday, Mr. Burgum hosted a video conference with donors at which the campaign charged $10,000 just to join the call, and $25,000 to participate in a question-and-answer session, according to a copy of the invitation.
Tom Siebel, a billionaire in technology, wrote his first check to Mr. Trump — for $500,000 — because Mr. Burgum was running for the Republican ticket. Dick Boyce, a longtime Republican fundraiser in Silicon Valley and former chairman of both Burger King and Del Monte Foods, said he also made his second donation to Mr. Trump — a $100,000 contribution — in part because of his consideration of Mr. Burgum, a classmate at Stanford Business School.
“I tend to do more with Doug in the vice position, and the complementary nature of him and Trump would also give a lot more people confidence,” Mr. Boyce, a former partner at Bain & Company, said in an interview. “The vice president is someone you can imagine as president, not someone who can run a particular state, and sometimes that gets lost.”
Then there’s Mr. Vance. A former venture capitalist, Mr. Vance hosted a $12 million fundraising event in Silicon Valley this month as part of an effort to show he can attract donations from the tech industry.
Despite those efforts and Mr. Vance’s rise in Trumpworld, Mr. Vance’s biggest donor remains a conspicuously out of touch: Silicon Valley megadonor Peter Thiel. Mr. Thiel, who invested $15 million in an effort to get Mr. Vance elected to the Senate in 2022 and employed him, said definitively Thursday, for the first time, that he would not be a major financial supporter of Mr. Trump, as he had been in 2016. And it didn’t sound like appointing Mr. Vance to the ticket would change that.
“If you put a gun to my head, I will vote for Trump,” Mr. Thiel said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “I’m not going to give money to his super PAC.”
Mr. Rubio, who built a formidable fundraising operation for his own 2016 presidential campaign, could be an attractive option for Republican donors and groups who have helped raise more than $100,000. $146 million in a bid to nominate former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s last remaining opponent in this year’s primaries.
Ms. Haley’s supporters include some prominent Republican holdouts in the billionaire class, such as hedge fund titans Paul Singer and Kenneth Griffin.
And then there are outside candidates, such as Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who has aggressively sought to position himself as a darling of the donor class, claiming support from, among others, Mr. Singer and Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle. A week ago, Mr. Scott hosted a rally in Washington for supporters of his new policy group that, according to three attendees, was vague about its purpose.
They said the event was an open expression of support among wealthy Republican donors. Speakers included billionaires such as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, billionaire investor Bill Ackman, oil developer Tim Dunn and Marc Rowan, the CEO of the investment firm Apollo Global Management.
Some donors tied to the event are angry about the way the Scott team and the news media have implicitly she placed them as supporters of a Trump-Scott ticket, according to a person close to these donors. In reality, this person said, many people signed up for Mr. Scott’s event under the impression that he will likely become the next powerful chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. An aide to Mr. Scott declined to comment.
According to two attendees, Mr. Scott did not speak much explicitly about the vice presidency, or even about Mr. Trump, at the event. And while he has attracted big potential donors, many of Scott’s big supporters privately say they are pessimistic about his chances in the veepstakes.
