How Donald Trump’s Wealth Helps Him With Republican Voters

Donald Trump chose the right party when he decided to run for the Republican presidential nomination.

A CBS News poll released Tuesday showed that registered Republicans are more likely than their Democratic counterparts to back candidates who are spending their own money on a campaign.

According to the poll, almost one-third of registered Republican voters said they prefer a candidate who “pays for their campaign by using their own personal wealth,” while only about one-fourth of registered Democratic voters who said the same.

There was a similar gap over candidates who seek political donations, with fewer registered Republicans preferring candidates who raise money from donations. But similar majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents said it doesn’t matter to them how candidates fund their campaigns.

Trump has played up the independence that self-funding gives his campaign.

“I don’t need anybody’s money,” he said at his campaign launch in June. “I’m using my own money. I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich.”

According to data from the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, 49 of the 69 candidates who spent at least $1 million of their own money in races for the U.S. House and Senate between 2010 and 2012 were Republicans.

The poll showed Trump leading the Republican field with 24 percent support, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who had 13 percent.