As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie prepared to run for president earlier this year, he canvassed some of Wall Street’s wealthiest donors about whether they would finance a $100 million effort to take on former President Donald Trump, according to a person who heard directly from the GOP candidate.
Since those calls, several business titans have piled cash into Christie’s young campaign for the Republican nomination, with one big exception: longtime Christie ally, Mets owner and hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, according to GOP fundraisers, party donors and a person close to the businessman.
A person close to Cohen told CNBC that Cohen has yet to donate to either Christie’s campaign or the allied super PAC called Tell It Like It Is. This person, like several others cited in this story, declined to be named in order to speak about private matters.
Cohen has no immediate plans to help Christie or get involved with the GOP primary at large, but his intentions could always change, this person added. Wall Street executive and former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci previously told Semafor he expected Cohen to support Christie. Scaramucci, who, like Christie, has become one of Trump’s biggest critics on the right, has said he is backing the former New Jersey governor.
During an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday, Christie teased that prominent people are supporting him. But he did not name them.
“I wouldn’t have gotten into the race unless I had some very significant people,” he said. “But I think what you’re going to find a lot of people who were with Donald Trump before are now with us. Some folks who were other candidates in 2016, like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are now with us,” he added.
A spokesman for the Christie campaign did not return a request for comment. Colin Reed, a spokesman for the Christie super PAC, would not say who has donated to the group so far and only described the funding support as “overwhelming.”
“In the two weeks since…
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