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From donors in just the securities and investment sector, Democratic congressional incumbents and candidates have so far received $39.3 million in 2018, compared with $28 million for Republicans. That is a reversal from 2014, when Democrats raised $28 million and Republicans $41.5 million. In 2018, 15 of the top 20 congressional recipients of securities and investment industry cash are Democrats; in 2014, 15 of the top 20 were Republicans.
The totals do not include independent super PAC giving, and the next round of disclosures, which will run through the end of September, will be released later this month.
Despite the balance sheet shifting to the left, Wall Street remains a wellspring of financial support for Republicans. Political action committee money from Wall Street, which makes up about a third of total giving so far, still tilts Republican. And Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of the private equity Blackstone Group and an adviser to Mr. Trump, for instance, has already donated $7.25 million to super PACs benefiting House and Senate Republicans.
In September, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, spoke to a gathering of top Republican Party donors in Manhattan that included some of the billionaire titans of Wall Street. Among them: Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade; Daniel S. Loeb, the hedge fund manager of Third Point L.L.C.; Charles R. Schwab, the founder of Charles Schwab Corporation; and Paul Singer, the hedge fund magnate who runs Elliott Management Corporation.
And this month, Speaker Paul Ryan is scheduled to brief a small group of top New York-area donors at the office of Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chief executive of American International Group, according to an invitation obtained by The New York Times.
But some of the industry’s prominent Republican donors have flipped parties entirely, most notably Seth Klarman, a hedge fund manager and former top Republican contributor, who is now pledging to give as much as $20 million to help Democrats in 2018.