GOP’s Billionaire Donors Dwarf Democrats In Huge Reversal From 2018

The number of billionaire donors to the GOP has been rapidly increasing vs. previous midterm election cycles – dwarfing the amount Democrats have received from their own Democrat donors (and which is largely due to George Soros).

Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO, Citadel (Blake Masters, Reuters)

In particular, Citadel’s Ken Griffin, Blackstone Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Schwarzman and Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison have been ramping up contributions.

The three men, worth a collective $150 billion, are among the 12 top political donors ahead of the elections, according to the most recent data from OpenSecrets. Of that dozen, 10 are backing Republicans in a big way: They’ve spent a cumulative $338 million, up 250% from the 2018 cycle. –Bloomberg

And as Bloomberg further notes, this is a trend which extends to the top 100 political donors – among which some $574 million has gone towards Republican candidates and groups – around 45% more than what Democrats have received.

George Soros is of course the largest supporter of Democratic causes with $129 million in donations – nearly double the largest GOP donor Elizabeth & Richard Uihlein. Other GOP whales include Peter Thiel, Jeffrey Yass and Timothy Mellon.

Several new names appear near the top of this year’s top 100, who combined account for almost 35% of total campaign contributions. Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of crypto exchange FTX, is the second-largest contributor to Democrats, while another FTX executive, Ryan Salame, is backing Republicans. -Bloomberg

“If you look at the people who are giving on the Republican side — Griffin and Schwarzman and the others — they’re all historically Republican donors,” said Chartwell Strategy Group founding partner, David Tamasi. “It’s not like this is their first rodeo with giving. It’s just got more weight behind it.”

Last week we noted that Democrat donors had all but abandoned Florida.

“The Democratic Governors Association spent just $685,000 this election cycle. It gave $14 million to Florida in the past two governor races.
Big outside donor money has almost completely dried up. New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg contributed only $1.5 million to Democrats this cycle. He vowed $100 million to Florida in 2020.
Democrats have collectively raised $29 million in the four non-federal statewide races. Republicans raised nearly $200 million.” — Politico

The boost from GOP billionaire donors will give Republicans an advantage in what Bloomberg suggests is a ‘dead-heat race’ to regain control of the Senate, on top of an expected majority win in the House.

That said, Democrats still top Republicans in terms of overall campaign donations this cycle, outraising Republicans by nearly $191 million in all House and Senate races.