Beverly Hills Home To Trump's Biggest California Donor

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Despite its reputation as a liberal enclave, Beverly Hills has emerged as Trump's top source of cash in California.

According to a Los Angeles Times report tracking total donations town by town, Beverly Hills donated a total of $9,337,672 to the president's re-election campaign, and was one of the few communities on the Westside where he outraised Joe Biden.

Much of that total came from real estate developer Geoffrey Palmer, whose $6,405,200 was the largest individual donation in California. Palmer is a long-time Trump and Republican donor who donated a total of $7,005,400 to the Trump campaign during the 2016 cycle. In September 2019 Trump visited Palmer's Beverly Hills home — which was once home to Burton E. Green, the oilman and real estate developer who helped found and name Beverly Hills in the early 20th century — for a fundraiser.

The city is home to many of Trump's biggest California donors, including real estate developer Robert Zarnegin, who donated $375,000; France and Monaco Ambassador and former Dodgers owner Jamie McCourt, who donated $360,000; Kohl's department store heiress Jana Kohl who donated $348,055; and Barbara Marcus, wife of real estate tycoon Joel Marcus who donated $250,000.

The report did not say how much Biden raised in Beverly Hills, but it did list that his biggest donor in the area is investor Andrew Hauptman, who gave $620,600. And Beverly Hills still remains friendly Biden territory despite Trump's astronomical sums. According to a New York Times report, Biden counted 494 donors in the 90210 zip code as of June, over twice as many as Trump's 210. And if 2016 election results are anything to go by, Biden will still win the city by a comfortable margin. According to another New York Times map listing the 2016 election results of every individual precinct in the country, Hillary Clinton won an average of 60 percent in the city's precincts to Trump's 40 percent. Trump did beat Clinton 51-45% in the precinct centered around Sunset Boulevard and Benedict Canyon Drive.

This year, Biden has still outraised Trump in California $105.5 million to $61.1 million, but Trump has held his own, outraising Biden in 1000 of the state's 1600 zip codes. He raised $22.1 million in Los Angeles County, and did particularly well in Beverly Hills, where he raised a total of $9,337,672.

Biden's biggest donors around L.A. include DreamWorks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who donated $720,600; Seth McFarlane, who donated $700,000; and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who donated $620,600.

Biden tended to outraise Trump on the Westside of Los Angeles and near the coast, though Trump did better inland and in suburbs south, north, and east of the city. Biden outraised Trump in all of Beverly Hills' neighboring zip codes, with the nearest Trump territories in Burbank, North Hollywood, and Marina del Rey.