U.S. billionaires line up to bankroll Republicans’ election push

“What you’re seeing is a mild break from expectations,” said Stanford political scientist Adam Bonica, who has studied donations from America’s wealthy since 1980. It is not unusual for top donors to lean Republican, but the balance in this election is “especially skewed.”

The money is flowing through several channels. Some of the largest donors are financing candidates directly. Some are building huge war chests around industries such as crypto. A smaller group of billionaires are using networks of Super PACs to funnel funds into House and Senate races, and intervened in primaries first — where the money had extra influence.

At a time of populist revolt against perceived elites, political money has become more concentrated among the ultra-rich. More than a third of the US$2.8 billion raised for the current 2025-26 election cycle comes from the 20 biggest mega-donors, according to an FT analysis of the most recent filings.

In more than 30 House and Senate contests, more than a third of outside spending came from groups that received at least 80 per cent of their money from mega-donors, defined as people who each gave at least US$5 million.

“We now have a system that is geared towards and depends on these ultra-wealthy mega-donors,” said Brendan Glavin, research director at OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks campaign spending.

These wealthy elites “pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the system and really have an outsized effect,” he said.

Top Republican donors have also donated millions of dollars to Maga Inc, the Super Pac that backed Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. It now boasts a US$400 million electoral war chest.

Special interest groups have also contributed. Crypto entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss donated about US$11 million. Silicon Valley tycoons Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and their spouses have given US$18 million, while OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his spouse donated US$25 million.

Maga Inc has so far spent just US$10.8 million, backing Trump-allied Republicans in Texas, Tennessee and South Carolina. A new group, No Going Back Pac Inc, has booked more than US$89 million in advertising across two dozen House and Senate races since it was formed on September 1, including at least US$10 million deployed since Monday. Although Maga Inc has not confirmed its ties to the group, the two share a treasurer, address and depository bank.

Elon Musk, who spent more than US$250 million on Trump’s 2024 election campaign, is also stepping up his support for Republicans in the midterms.

The world’s wealthiest man gave about US$50 million to America Pac, mostly last year, and the group spent almost all of it by the end of June. The Super Pac launched an US$8 million-plus ad campaign in early September. U.S. media has reported that the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX boss could spend US$100 million on the 2026 race.

The crypto industry has amassed one of the election’s largest political war chests, using its growing clout under Trump to back candidates who support the sector.

Fairshake, a crypto Super Pac, has raised more than US$99 million in individual contributions — nearly all from a handful of companies and investors, including Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen and Horowitz.

The political spending comes as Washington makes crucial decisions on AI, Big Tech and digital currencies, said Columbia law professor Richard Briffault. “There’s just a huge amount that’s financially at stake.”

Fairshake has transferred US$65 million to Super Pacs supporting candidates from both parties — all designed to promote and defend crypto — in races from Illinois to Alabama and Texas.

Some billionaires have also financed multiple Super Pacs, adding another layer between themselves and the candidate they are trying to elect.

The Uihlein family, shipping magnates from the Upper Midwest, almost entirely funded two campaign groups focused on Republican primaries in Wisconsin and Kentucky.

JB Pritzker, Illinois’ billionaire Democratic governor and a potential 2028 presidential candidate, provided nearly 80 per cent of the money raised by a Super Pac that spent close to US$9 million supporting Democrat Juliana Stratton’s U.S. Senate bid.

Citadel chief executive Ken Griffin, another Republican billionaire backer, has used several vehicles to intervene in races around the country. He is the sole backer of Fighting for Wyoming and American Patriots, which supported candidates in Wyoming and Tennessee, and also accounted for about one-third of the funds raised by a group that spent about US$2.8 million opposing the Democratic challenger to Republican senator Dan Sullivan in Alaska.

The concentration of wealthy donors’ money is stark in primaries in safely Democratic or Republican districts, where the party contest can in effect decide who goes to Congress.

Donors might have realised that early spending in those primaries could be more efficient than during a general election, said Stanford’s Bonica.