Are the wealthiest Americans Republicans or Democrats?

Democrats, according to left-leaning Politifact:

How many billionaires support the Democratic vs. Republican parties?

We cross-checked the Open Secrets list of the top 100 individuals donating to outside spending groups in the current election against the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires and found that, as of June 19, there were 22 individuals on the Open Secrets list who were billionaires. Of those 22 billionaires, 13 -- or more than half -- gave predominantly to liberal groups or groups affiliated with the Democratic Party. The other nine gave predominantly to conservative groups. (A list of billionaires and how much they donated can be found here.)

So 13/22 or roughly 60%.

Interestingly the Democratic party as a whole skews towards the wealthy. The New York Times noted in October 2016 that in a recent poll 45% of households making over $100,000 were voting for Democrat Hillary Clinton opposed to 28% of Republicans voting for Trump. Those earning above $250,000 were even more skewed towards Hillary, with 53% planning to vote for her vs only 25% for Trump.

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As someone who grew up in a working poor household with parents who never voted for Republicans, it’s hard to imagine the Democrats becoming the party of the rich, but it has. This Vanity Fair article explains why:

Why Democrats Are Becoming the Party of the 1 Percent

In the US, of the 50 richest families, 28 mainly donate to Republicans and only seven contribute mainly to Democrats. That’s a ratio of 56% to 14%, with the remainder giving to both parties or unknown.

There are 439 billionaires living in the US today. For every 7 Rupert Murdoch, Charles and David Koch, Sheldon Adelson, S. Daniel Abraham, Alice Mellon-Scaifi, Piers DuPont, David Rockefeller the 4 Walton family members, Vincent McMahon and you might have ONE Oprah or George Soros or David Geffen. New money billionaires like Zuckerberg and Brinn and Bezos tend to give to both parties as a practical way to get ‘access’. OLD money tends to hide behind the gates of posh country clubs, quietly supporting the status quo and finding new markets to monopolize, new nations to terrorize, new demographics to exploit and new ways to instill fear into their constituents.

When you get to the ultra-ultra rich (like Gates, Buffet, Zuckerberg, etc.) there are many who try to support humanitarian causes and try to correct problems they see in the world (in other words, liberal causes). But. there are also those like Adelson and the Kochs who think that having tens of billions isn't quite enough and so support Republicans. So at that level, the split may be nearly even. these people are way beyond the 1%—they’re in the 0.001% or greater category.

Keep in mind, though, that since Citizens United, we don't know where most of the money comes from, and most of that unknown money goes to Republicans. However, as you get to those below that range—in the top 1% to 10%—you’ll find that the scale skews decidedly toward the Republican party.

If you have any doubt as to which party is helped most by those who are not wealthy, think of voter suppression efforts. Think of which party is making big pushes to suppress as many votes as they can. Then think of who the vast majority of those suppressed voters are. That should make it absolutely clear which party is the party of the rich.

Billionaires are billionaires; In this day and age, getting to be a billionaire generally requires a lot of exploitation of the working people. It CAN be done honestly and in a way that benefits those working people, but the EASIER way to do it is to abuse them … overwork them, underpay them, fleece their wages, rob their pensions, et cetera. Those who are willing to engage in this kind of short-sighted sociopathy to get THAT rich… are also willing to exploit which every party (or both) that helps them do it.

To that end, both parties are tainted, but the republican party is essentially now a fully-owned subsidiary of billionaires, while they simply have inroads with but haven’t completely taken over yet the democrats. If they think that’ll work, they’ll do that, too… so it’s not really an us vs. them accusation.

You will find outliers on both sides, but, as a generality… excessively concentrated wealth tends to lean republican in terms of self-identification.

Sorry I do not have a link, but I read an article that looked at the differences between the wealthy and their politics.

Those who came by most of their wealth by their own hard work, like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, etc tend to be Liberal. Liberal rich also tend to be under 50.

Those who inherited “old money” wealth tend to be conservative- Trump, The Koch brothers, etc, and they tend to be over 50.

Also, the majority of the rich have absolutely nothing against having their taxes raised. It is just one small group of 1%ers who are heavy financial backers of the Republican Party who are screwing things up for everyone.