Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are the most popular presidential candidates among the Koch brothers' conservative donor network, each receiving contributions from more than 12 percent of 190 donors and their families,
the Hill reports after analyzing records.
The billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch, oversee the most influential group of conservative donors and activists in the United States. And, according to the Hill, the network will play an influential role in the 2016 presidential election.
The powerful network has yet to settle on a candidate for president, however, after front-runner Donald Trump referred to Republicans who attended the Koch's summer donor retreat as "puppets," the networks dislike for the real estate mogul has become apparent.
Out of the 190 attendees of Koch donor conferences, records show that not one contribution has been made to Trump's campaign.
One donor, billionaire Stanley Hubbard, noted: "This idea of 'I don't need to have any funding, I’ll fund myself,' that scares the hell out of me.
"That’s like a dictator. I think that any politician should have to answer to their constituents. … I don’t think it’s healthy to have somebody who doesn’t answer to anybody."
While members of the network plan to spend at least $300 million, so far they have spent $22 million "supporting everyone from foreign policy hawks Rubio and Lindsey Graham to Medicare-defender Mike Huckabee to establishment candidate Bush and Tea Party favorites Cruz and Rand Paul."
While the media and Democrats tend to paint a "shadowy" picture on the motives of the Koch network, Koch donor Chris Rufer, a 66-year-old libertarian, told the Hill that if the public could see inside the donor events, they would no longer hold such a negative opinion.
"If [the biannual donor conference] was televised, people would have tears in their eyes, [because of] what is trying to happen and what his motivations are," Rufer said.
"Being Lenin, Hitler or Hillary or Bush. … It all ends up with the power being in these few elites. Charles [Koch] is against elites."