Billionaire hedge fund founder Ray Dalio finds himself inadvertently in the midst of a key congressional race that might decide the stability of energy within the Senate in November’s midterm elections.
Dalio, who’s co-chair of Bridgewater Associates, is private pals with each Republican candidates vying for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat: Dr. Mehmet Ouncesand former Bridgewater CEO David McCormick.
Dalio referred to as McCormick and Oz “two good pals of mine and two nice males who’ve lived and personify the American Dream in several methods,” in a LinkedIn publish he printed in January concerning the Pennsylvania Senate race. A latest Franklin & Marshall School ballot exhibits the race is large open, with McCormick holding a small lead within the GOP main.
The carefully watched main race on Could 17 and later basic election to switch retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey this fall might play a key function in figuring out the stability of energy within the Senate. Prepare dinner Political Report marks the seat as a toss-up. And with the Senate at the moment break up 50-50, such contests are essential in figuring out which occasion will management that chamber in 2023 and past.
Dalio, who has an estimated internet price of $20 billion, hasn’t donated to a political marketing campaign for the reason that 2016 election cycle, based on marketing campaign finance disclosures. He is just lately got here beneath hearth for his comments on CNBC about China’s human rights abuses, evaluating their authorities’s authoritarian rule to a “strict mother or father.” Dalio tried to make clear his remarks on Twitter.
Ouncesand McCormick are every publicly vying to distance themselves from Dalio’s pro-China feedback and are campaigning as pro-Trump America First candidates, regardless of their very own previous ties to China.
McCormick, who resigned in January, reportedly instructed employees whereas he was nonetheless Dalio’s CEO that he disagreed together with his boss’s views on China. In the meantime, TV host and longtime doctor Ouncesand and an excellent PAC that is supporting his marketing campaign have been blasting Bridgewater in marketing campaign advertisements over its work in China.
But Ounceshas lengthy benefited from Dalio’s monetary assist for his many charitable initiatives, a evaluate of tax disclosures exhibits. A consultant for Bridgewater declined to remark past Dalio’s LinkedIn publish.
Ouncesand Dalio have been working collectively on philanthropic efforts for years, though the doctor disagrees with the billionaire hedge fund founder on the difficulty of China, Brittany Yanick, a spokesperson for Ouncess marketing campaign, confirmed to CNBC in an announcement.
“Dr. Ounceshas supported philanthropic efforts with many individuals, together with Mr. Dalio. Dr. Ouncesdisagrees with Mr. Dalio about China, however Dr. Ounceswould by no means throw a pal beneath the bus simply because he has determined to run for workplace,” Yanick mentioned in an e-mail on Tuesday.
The Dalio Basis, which Ray Dalio runs, has donated over $1.5 million to Ouncess basis, HealthCorps, since 2011, based on 990 disclosure studies reviewed by CNBC. Ouncesfounded it over 10 years in the past with the objective of “saving lives by addressing well being inequities in at-risk communities by instructional management, programming, and repair studying,” based on their web site. Ouncesis at the moment listed on the web site as chair emeritus.
The Dalio Basis’s newest identified contribution to HealthCorps got here in 2019 for $100,000, based on tax filings from that yr.
Different paperwork present that HealthCorps obtained two separate checks price $325,000 in 2012 and 2013 from Dalio’s basis. The muse has, in some years, donated over $100 million in grants to varied charities, together with repeatedly to the one as soon as chaired by Oz.
Additional ties between Dalio and Ouncesreturn to a partnership Ouncessaid he had with the hedge fund govt, Netflix Chair Reed Hastings and Huffington Put up co-founder Arianna Huffington. That charity partnership, referred to as TisBest, additionally seems to have as soon as included McCormick and his spouse, Dina Powell McCormick, who’s an govt at Goldman Sachs. Representatives for Netflix and Thrive International, Huffington’s firm, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Hastings has been a serious donor to the Democratic Get together, together with greater than $1 million in donations to the Senate Majority PAC in the course of the 2020 election cycle, based on knowledge from the nonpartisan Middle for Responsive Politics. The tremendous PAC backs Democrats working for Senate seats.
Huffington has additionally been concerned with Ouncesand Dalio’s charitable work. She was pictured alongside each males at at 2014 town hall for the David Lynch Basis, a nonprofit that makes use of transcendental meditation to assist eradicate trauma and poisonous stress for at-risk populations. The muse’s web site quotes Dalio from the occasion saying “If there’s stress, I will simply break off and go into the meditation. It can simply wash off of me.” Oz, Huffington and celeb chef Mario Batali have been among the many audio system.
Ouncessaid he additionally partnered with Dalio, Huffington and others to provide away 20,000 $50 TisBest Philanthropy Charity Reward Playing cards to individuals who might then donate these funds to the charity of their selecting, based on a December 2020 publish on Ouncess Fb web page.
