Most of Mitt Romney's biggest donors are sitting out the presidential election

A review of campaign finance records finds that just slightly more than 10 percent of the 22,000 donors who gave $5,000 or more to Romney’s 2012 presidential bid had donated to Trump’s campaign by the end of July. On the other hand, about 1 percent, or more than 260, of Romney’s largest donors contributed to the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The underwhelming financial support from these major donors demonstrates the split Trump’s nomination has caused between the Republican Party’s elite and its voter base. While the real estate mogul has about the same percentage of support from GOP voters as Clinton has from Democratic voters, it’s the Republican donor class that has largely not gotten on board with his candidacy.

Those who supported Romney with big contributions in 2012 but have not donated to Trump include a who’s who of major party donors. Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, hedge fund billionaires Paul Singer and Ken Griffin, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, former Anheuser-Busch chairman August Busch III, Oracle CEO Lawrence Ellison and others like David Humphreys, John W. Childs, Stan Herzog, Robert Rowling and Julian Robertson have so far kept their pocketbooks shut.