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GOP Senate Pivotal Race pits former Billionaire CEO Ray Dalio against his friend Dr. Oz


Billionaire hedge fund founder Ray Dalio accidentally finds himself in the midst of an important congressional race that could determine the balance of power in the Senate in the November midterm elections.

Dalio, co-chairman of Bridgewater Associates, is personal friends with both of the Republican candidates vying for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat: Dr. Mehmet Oz and former Bridgewater CEO David McCormick.

Dalio called McCormick and Oz “two good friends of mine and two great men who lived and personified the American Dream in different ways,” in a LinkedIn Posts he published in January about the Pennsylvania Senate race. ONE Franklin & Marshall College’s recent poll shows the race is open, with McCormick holding a lead in the GOP primaries.

The closely watched primaries on May 17 and the subsequent general election to replace retired Republican Senator Pat Toomey this fall could play a key role in determining balance of power in the Senate. Cook Political Report marked the seat as a flip up. And with the Senate currently split 50-50, such contests are crucial in determining which party will control that chamber in 2023 and beyond.

Dalio, who has an estimated net worth of $20 billion, has not donated to a political campaign since the 2016 election cycle, according to campaign finance disclosures.. He was recently fired because comment on CNBC about China’s human rights abuses, comparing their government’s authoritarian rule to a “severe parent.” Dalio tried to clarify his comment about Twitter.

Oz and McCormick are both openly competing to stay away from Dalio’s pro-China comments and are campaigning as the Trump-supporting First America candidate, despite their past relationship with China.

McCormick, who resigned in January, reported told employees when he was still CEO of Dalio that he disagreed with his boss’s views on China. Meanwhile, longtime TV host and doctor Oz and a super PAC supporting his campaign have advertised Bridgewater in campaign ads about their work in China.

However, Oz has long benefited from Dalio’s financial support of many of his philanthropic initiatives, a review of tax disclosures showed. A Bridgewater representative declined to comment beyond Dalio’s LinkedIn post.

Oz and Dalio have been working together on philanthropic endeavors for years, though the doctor disagrees with the billionaire hedge fund founder on China, Brittany Yanick, Oz campaign spokeswoman, confirmed to CNBC in a statement.

“Dr Oz has supported charitable efforts with many people, including Mr. Dalio. Dr. Oz disagrees with Mr. Dalio about China, but Dr. Oz would never throw a friend under a car. bus just because he decided to run for office,” Yanick said in an email on Tuesday.

The Dalio Foundation, run by Ray Dalio, has donated more than $1.5 million to Oz’s HealthCorps organization since 2011, according to 990 disclosure reports reviewed by CNBC. Oz founded it more than 10 years ago with the goal of “saving lives by addressing health inequities in at-risk communities through educational leadership, programming, and service learning,” according to the page. their web. Oz is currently listed on the website as honorary president.

The Dalio Foundation’s latest known contribution to HealthCorps was in 2019 for $100,000, according to tax filings from that year.

Other documents show HealthCorps received two separate checks for $325,000 in 2012 and 2013 from Dalio’s foundation. Over a number of years, the foundation has donated more than $100 million to various charities, including several times to an organization once chaired by Oz.

The further relationship between Dalio and Oz reverts to a partnership. Oz said he was with hedge fund executive, Netflix President Reed Hastings and Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington. That philanthropic partnership, called TisBest, also appears to have included McCormick and his wife, Dina Powell McCormick, who is now an executive at Goldman Sachs. Representatives for Netflix and Thrive Global, Huffington’s company, did not respond to requests for comment.

Hastings has been a major donor to the Democratic Party, including more than $1 million in funding for the Senate PAC during the 2020 election cycle, according to data from the Center for Nonpartisan Reaction Politics. Super PACs support Democrats running for Senate seats.

Huffington has also been involved in Oz and Dalio’s charity work. She is pictured with both men at 2014 town hall for the David Lynch Foundation, a nonprofit that uses transcendental meditation to help eliminate trauma and toxic stress for people at risk. The foundation’s website quotes Dalio from the event as saying, “If there’s stress, I’ll stop and start meditating. It helps me wash away.” Oz, Huffington and celebrity chef Mario Batali were among the speakers.

Oz said he’s also partnering with Dalio, Huffington, and others to give away 20,000 TisBest Philanthropy Cards worth $20,000 to people who can then donate those funds to a charity of their choice. , according to a December 2020 post on Oz’s Facebook page.





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