Before he paused campaign activities to remain in South Bend, Indiana, reeling from the officer-involved shooting death of a 53-year-old black man, Buttigieg was scheduled to trek to Los Angeles for a fundraising swing, including an event at the Beverly Hills home of mega producer Ryan Murphy that’s co-hosted by a long list of high-profile LGBTQ Hollywood figures. According to one fundraising source, the event, with tickets starting at $1,500 per person, sold out a month ago and was likely to bring in at least $250,000. It is being postponed.
There’s a reason this group was so eager to meet Mayor Pete. For many of these influential donors, this will be their first ever chance to contribute to a viable gay presidential candidate—something that would have been hard to fathom just over a decade ago, when their choices were a field of top prospects who opposed same-sex marriage, or just over a generation ago, when the Democratic campaign viewed LGBTQ money as too risky to take.
