BOULDER, Colorado — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum's longtime supporter and financial backer, Wyoming-based investment manager Foster Friess, told BuzzFeed News he is sticking with the former senator for now, but he has other candidates in mind for if and when Santorum drops out.
"If Rick has to drop off for some reason I’m moving all my support to my wife," Friess joked.
"My position's been to stick with Santorum and leave it at that, and if it comes to a point where I have to make a decision then I’ll make a decision, and yes I definitely do have some favorites, but I must say that I would support any one of the 17 – [Rick] Perry, [Scott] Walker, I was hugely impressed with both of them," Friess said.
Both Perry and Walker have dropped out of the presidential race.
"I’m just so grateful we were able to come up with 17 really competent, qualified, wonderful human beings to run for president," Friess said.
There have been some indications of who else Friess may support: He sent an email in August telling people about upcoming events in Wyoming with Ted Cruz and Ben Carson.
Friess was almost single-handedly responsible for keeping Santorum going in the 2012 election by bankrolling his super PAC, the Red, White and Blue Fund. Though Santorum was the runner-up in the last Republican primary, he has struggled to gain any traction this time and was in the "undercard" debate for the third time on Wednesday.
Asked if he had a ballpark amount in mind for how much money he plans to spend overall this election cycle, Friess said "yes and no," but "it’s a little bit like you’re asking me how much I’m gonna spend for my wife’s birthday present."
Friess told the New York Times earlier this year that "the money I give will be hard to track," and reiterated this point while talking to BuzzFeed News, saying he likely would be giving more to groups that don't have to disclose their donors, like 501(c)4s.
"There’s going to be some groups that are going to be supportive of who I want to support that I won't be the key supporter of like I was in 2012, but it’ll be a little bit harder to track because I was a little stunned with all the notoriety it created — I was getting calls from people running for dogcatcher in Kansas," Friess said. "So I mean, I’m honored to be able to support some of these candidacies but I think if I keep a little lower profile it might be smarter."
Friess said he had lunch with Santorum today ahead of tonight's debate in Boulder.
"I love his team, they’re so committed and they’re in there for the cause," Friess said.