And by trampling Wall Street’s favorite candidates in national polls, Trump and Cruz have made vast cash contributions and super-PAC donations look silly. Bankers boast about spending political money just as astutely as they invest at work, but their favorites have struggled. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Ohio Governor John Kasich, two candidates who have worked on Wall Street, have lagged. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is long gone, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio hasn’t broken through.

Hallway Pass

Some Wall Street Republicans refuse to embrace Trump or Cruz. Bill Oberndorf, who co-founded the investment firm SPO Partners & Co. and has contributed more than $1.5 million to Bush super PAC Right to Rise USA, may give more. He can’t stand the prospect of Cruz or Trump in the White House, saying they’re unqualified and have the wrong temperament to be president.

Steve Bartlett, who advises financial companies on regulatory issues and headed the Financial Services Roundtable until 2012, said Trump and Cruz aren’t real conservatives, and he wants Republicans to work to bring them down. “Bad things happen to people that sit and assume that nothing bad can happen,” the ex-congressman said.

His successor at the lobbying group, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, is calmer. He didn’t mix it up with Cruz as the two passed recently in a Washington hallway, when the 2012 presidential candidate offered a quick hello to the 2016 star. They asked each other how they were doing, Pawlenty said, and moved right along.

Both candidates may be attacking his industry on the trail, he said, but neither is naïve about how Wall Street works. Trump has spent his life in Manhattan, “so he’s no stranger to these issues,” and “Cruz’s spouse worked or works for Goldman Sachs.”

Manhattan Money

Investor Rob Arnott, a libertarian who supports Cruz and despises Trump, has a theory about why his moderate peers might accept the billionaire.

“The Republican establishment views Trump as someone sufficiently inept that he’ll need them, and they can control the agenda,” said Arnott, who heads asset management firm Research Affiliates LLC, a sub-advisor for Pacific Investment Management Co. “Their view is: Better somebody who has no obvious core political values.”

There’s also reason to imagine Cruz wouldn’t be so bad for Wall Street. Even though he mocked “New York values” at a debate this month, saying the city is “focused around money,” he’s asked for some of it. It cost $10,800 to be on the host committee when Cruz raised funds at Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell last month, according to Politico.

Cruz has an appreciation of the industry, according to Mike Ference, a lobbyist and partner at S-3 Group in Washington, where his recent clients include JPMorgan Chase & Co. and McGraw Hill Financial Inc.

“He likes to have a populist bent,” said Ference, a senior policy adviser for Eric Cantor when the Virginia Republican was House Majority Leader. “But in reality he understands how the markets work, he understands what makes them move.”

Cape Kidnappers

Christie supporter Joe Grano, who used to run UBS Group AG’s U.S. wealth-management business and now heads business- strategy adviser Centurion Holdings, could adjust to Trump. He’s a good negotiator and wouldn’t be “as dangerous as some people think,” Grano said.

A person involved in government relations at one of the largest U.S. banks, who asked not to be identified, said Trump might be bad overall but wouldn’t come after Wall Street out of the gate like Sanders. Even donors more worried about Trump didn’t focus on his jokes about women, references to Mexicans as rapists or his call to halt Muslim immigration.