Hillary Clinton’s top supporters are trying to woo the support and money of Jeb Bush’s donors as they try to persuade moderate Republicans that Clinton represents their interests more than Donald Trump.
The top targets for the Clinton campaign include people like New York Jets owner and former Bush finance chair Woody Johnson, according to a report. During his primary campaign, the younger Bush son raised and spent over $130 million running for president, thanks to the help of numerous high profile Republican donors.
The Clinton campaign is reportedly targeting such Republicans, especially those with connections to Wall Street, to help bank roll Clinton’s general election match against Trump.
This news comes as both former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush announced they would not attend the 2016 Republican Convention in Cleveland this summer because they could not support the party nominee. Although Jeb Bush has yet to disavow Trump as the nominee, he routinely criticized Trump on the campaign trail and has continued to do so after he exited the GOP primary in late February.
During campaign rallies, Clinton often makes an effort to reach out to “sensible” or “thoughtful Republicans” who are frustrated by Trump’s campaign. Clinton’s camp has also been spent the past weeks testing out a general election strategy that relies mainly on contrasting Clinton’s comparatively moderate policies with Trump’s more extreme ones.
While the Clinton campaign did not deny the calls to Bush donors were occurring, they also did not indicate they are involved in the efforts. Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin told Politico, “There’s no official outreach from the campaign but I would not be at all surprised if our supporters are doing it on their own.”
