A prominent Mitt Romney donor has shifted his support to President Barack Obama in the wake of Obama’s decision to speak out in favor of same-sex marriage.
Bill White, an openly gay financial consultant from New York who had donated the maximum $2,500 to Romney, wrote a letter to the former Massachusetts governor explaining his decision to back Obama.
“I feel that I no longer wish to support your presidential campaign and ask that you please return the maximum contribution that I gave to you last year,” White wrote according to CNN. “You have chosen to be on the wrong side of history and I do not support your run for president any longer.”
“I believe that you will do as you now say and try to force a constitutional amendment which would attempt to make my own legal and blessed marriage null and void,” White added.
White is a well-known independent, who has donated in the past to both Presidents Bush as well as President Clinton. In a series of interviews, he stressed that his decision to cut ties with Romney was more personal than political.
“I am not an activist. I am a registered independent voter and a fairly conservative guy,” White toldReuters. “But I am married and that’s that. You should be able to marry who you love.”
“I feel like he’s declared war on my marriage,” he said to CNN. “And I could just sit back and not say anything. Or I could do something about it. And I’ve chosen to do something about it.”
President Obama recently defended his support for same sex marriage as “the right thing to do,” but it has also won him some serious financial rewards. In addition to stealing a maximum donor from Romney, the issue helped Obama raise $15 million in Hollywood last week.
