Republican Donors Lining Up To Donate To Joe Manchin & Kyrsten Sinema

United States Sens. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona), the most conservative members of their party’s caucus, have spent the last several months hobnobbing with wealthy donors who typically support Republican candidates and lawmakers.

Manchin and Sinema’s hardline opposition to key components of President Joe Biden‘s legislative agenda – be it their opposition to abolishing or reforming the filibuster, Manchin’s chipping away at provisions to combat climate change, or Sinema’s refusal to consider raising taxes on the rich to fund social programs – have turned them into unlikely bedfellows with GOP kingmakers.

Wall Street investor Kenneth G. Langone, a billionaire Republican megadonor, sung Manchin’s praises in a statement to The New York Times on Sunday.

Langone gushed over Manchin’s “guts and courage” and vowed to throw “one of the biggest fund-raisers I’ve ever had” for the West Virginia Senator.

“My political contributions have always been in support of candidates who are willing to stand tall on principle, even when that means defying their own party or the press,” Langone said.

Stanley S. Hubbard, a billionaire Republican donor, first contributed to Sinema in September and is considering throwing some cash Manchin’s way too.

“Those are two good people — Manchin and Sinema — and I think we need more of those in the Democratic Party,” Hubbard said.

Copious amounts of campaign cash have been donated to Manchin and Sinema from donors in the finance and pharmaceutical industries, which oppose the Biden agenda.

Sinema’s spokesman, John LaBombard, rejected the idea that the Senator’s loyalties lie with anyone other than her constituents. “Senator Sinema makes decisions based on one consideration: what’s best for Arizona,” LaBombard said.

Sinema and Manchin have benefited from donations from major Republican donors including James A. Haslam III, who owns the Cleveland Browns, and the Dallas real estate developer Harlan Crow.