America’s billionaires spent a record $880 million on the U.S. midterm elections to date, with most of their spending favoring Republicans, based on a recent report.
Billionaire spending is up 44% over the 2018 midterms, and is anticipated to approach $1 billion by next week, based on Americans for Tax Fairness, which analyzed campaign-contribution data from the Federal Election Commission compiled by nonpartisan campaign finance watch dog Open Secrets. While U.S. billionaires poured $1.2 billion into the 2020 presidential elections, their outsized spend within the mid-terms shows just how much is at stake for wealthy donors of each parties heading into Tuesday’s contests.
Their spending also highlights growing concern over the outsized influence of super-wealthy political donors who can now contribute unlimited sums of cash to so-called super PACs, which don’t limit individual donors.
“If we’re going to have a democracy that works for everybody, we’d like to greatly curb the influence of billionaire money in our politics,” said Frank Clemente, executive director at Americans for Tax Fairness.
Billionaires are funding ideologies and parties on either side. Their spending was about three to 2 in favor of Republicans, conservative groups or candidates, based on the report. Their funds accounted for 7.4% of all the cash received from any source by federal candidates, parties and political motion committees (PACs) this election cycle. They accounted for 10% of total money raised by PAC’s to date.
The funding totals don’t include their spending in local and state races.
The highest donor to date is George Soros, who has contributed over $128 million to the midterms. Most of his funding has gone to the super PAC Democracy II, which backs liberal causes and Democratic candidates.
The second largest billionaire donor was Richard Uihlein, the Wisconsin shipping-supply magnate, and his wife Elizabeth, who’ve contributed $67 million to Republican candidates. Their biggest recipients — at over $20 million each — are the Club for Growth Motion super PAC and an excellent PAC the Uihleins created themselves, called Restoration PAC, to fund conservative Senate and House candidates. They’ve given a complete of $3.5 million to a single-candidate super PAC in Wisconsin supporting GOP Sen. Ron Johnson.
Hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who’s becoming increasingly energetic in GOP politics, was the third largest billionaire political funder. Griffin has donated $66 million to date on this federal election cycle, based on the report. He has given to the Senate Leadership Fund and the Congressional Leadership Fund. Griffin, who recently moved to Florida from Chicago and has long battled Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, spent a further $50 million on the unsuccessful GOP primary campaign of Richard Irvin in his run for Illinois governor.
Jeffrey Yass, the founding father of options-trading giant Susquehanna International Group, contributed $47 million. A couple of third of his spending was for Club for Growth Motion, the conservative super PAC that supports lower taxes and fewer regulation.
A relative newcomer to the billionaire political class is Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old crypto mogul. He donated $40 million this cycle, most of it to an excellent PAC he created called Protect Our Future. The super PAC supported Congressional Democratic primary candidates who hold favorable positions on cryptocurrency regulation. Of the 18 primary candidates supported by Protect Our Future, 16 won, based on the report. Bankman-Fried has said he could spend as much as $1 billion within the 2024 elections.
Also among the many top five billionaire funders is Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, a longtime GOP donor. Schwarzman has given $33 million within the midterms, mainly to 2 GOP Congressional super PACs.
The list of major billionaire donors also includes Oracle’s Larry Ellison, with $31 million to his own GOP-focused PAC. Tech investor Peter Thiel has given $30 million, mostly to super PACs dedicated to 2 GOP Senate candidates — J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona.
Michael Bloomberg has spent $22 million, largely on the House Majority PAC funding Democratic candidates and the LCV Victory Fund, an environmental advocacy group. Hedge-fund billionaire Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital has spent $17.7 million on Democratic groups, including the super PAC Future Forward.
