(Bloomberg) — For two financial advisers just 15 minutes away from each other in South Carolina, betting on blue and red America seemed like a surefire way to make money.
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In the thick of the culture wars, with companies taking stances on guns and abortion, equality and climate change, Jason Britton and Adam Curran both got the same idea: investment funds tailored to people’s politics.
Britton, 47, went after Democrats, launching his exchange-traded fund during the last presidential election to invest in the S&P 500 “without the GOP.” He named his ETF: Democratic Large Cap Core (ticker: DEMZ).
Curran, 41, followed two years later with a fund for “god-fearing, flag-waving conservatives” seeking to avoid “woke” companies. His ETF: God Bless America (ticker with a nod to the South: YALL).
But now, less than a week before Americans pick their next president, neither fund has attracted as much money as their creators hoped. Investors have sunk millions into them, but barely enough to cover the advisers’ costs.
Britton and Curran, who both work in the Charleston area and have never met, are surprised, and predictably disappointed. If nothing else, their blue and red funds show that ordinary Americans — or at least ordinary American investors — can agree on something: In the stock market, money tops politics.
“I thought I was gonna be the guy who got interviewed by Tucker and Beck!” laments Curran, referring to right-wing firebrands Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck.
As Britton, puts it: “The vitriol in political discourse doesn’t correlate with volumes” or money flows.
In a row of colonial-style buildings steps away from Charleston’s waterfront, Curran excludes from his ETF companies that emphasize politically left and/or liberal political activism. It owns shares of Boeing Co. and Charles Schwab Corp., and has outperformed the S&P 500 since it started in October 2022, posting an annualized gain of about 38%.
Just across the Wando River in Charleston County, Britton manages his fund so investors’ money doesn’t end up in “places like Mitch McConnell’s campaign coffers.” His fund invests in companies that mainly donate to Democrats such as Walt Disney Co. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. DEMZ has posted an annualized return of 16% since it started November 2020, trailing the S&P 500.The idea of aligning financial goals with personal values — religious and cultural — has been around for centuries. But politically themed funds have struggled. A firm called 2ndVote Advisers liquidated its two conservative-themed funds last year after failing to gain traction. Another firm’s fund based on Democratic policies shuttered in 2018.
Britton, who grew up in red Indiana, says he’s barely breaking even on running DEMZ, which has $38 million of assets. Curran, who was raised in blue Connecticut, says he’s losing money operating YALL, which has $82 million of assets.
Can Americans find common ground? Britton and Curran have with a few of their stock picks. Both of their funds own shares of Nvidia Corp., which designs most of the advanced chips that power artificial intelligence, Costco Wholesale Corp. and Colgate-Palmolive Co.
Curran says he’s part of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement promoted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Curran says one misnomer about conservatives is that they don’t care about things like clean air and water. He worries about unhealthy foods, issues that resonate with liberals, Britton among them.
“I can’t help but laugh,” Curran says. “I have become a tree hugger.”
Britton, a self-described “deep-dyed-in-the-wool Democrat” and a Christian, says one misnomer about faith and spirituality is that people think it’s only a conservative trait. He says he worries about the mounting national debt. That’s something traditional conservatives often complain about, even as Republican administrations have added to it. The fund manager also says he’s not opposed to people hunting and he’s in favor of a strong national defense.
The country’s two-party political system has made “such strange bedfellows out of everyone,” Britton says.
As of now, the outcome of the presidential election is a coin toss between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
On election night, Nov. 5, Curran plans to go to a party in Charleston hosted by Michael Winklemann, the digital artist known as Beeple. Britton says he’ll be anxiously glued to the TV watching the results roll in.
And, just maybe, Curran and Britton might put aside their political differences and meet one day. Curran says he’d love to have Britton as a guest on his investment podcast, “Retire Y’all Charleston.”
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