Read the full report here.

INTRODUCTION

Just 150 billionaire families alone spent almost $1.4 billion on the 2024 election cycle by the end of August, according to a new study by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) that shows the attempted big-money takeover of American democracy is accelerating. That eye-popping figure already exceeds the amount contributed by nearly 700 individual billionaires in the entire 2020 campaign, with over two months of traditionally expansive spending left to go before Election Day 2024 that will undoubtedly push the total even higher.

And billionaire clans have plenty more to contribute. Because they are so incredibly rich—the collective net worth of these top political spenders is estimated to be roughly $2.3 trillion —political spending even at this elevated level is no strain on their finances. On average these billionaire families have each made $9.2 million in political contributions, just 0.06% of their total wealth. For the median American family, 0.06% of their net worth is roughly $120, a relatively modest contribution. Another way of looking at it is that this tiny group of billionaires has the political spending power of 11.5 million ordinary families. 

This latest ATF study, part of a multi-year series on the political influence of billionaires, focuses particularly on spending in key Congressional races. Another report focused on the presidential race–where the bulk of the billionaire money is going–will be issued closer to Election Day to capture a bigger share of the total ultimately spent. 

The current report also continues ATF’s recent policy of looking past the political spending of individual billionaires to include the contributions of close family members, since, with few exceptions, members of ultra-wealthy clans tend to work towards the common goal of preserving the family fortune. Our first report taking a family view revealed that as of early May this year the top-giving 50 billionaire clans had already made $600 million in political contributions. (Even though the current study includes 100 more families, spending by billionaire clans is heavily concentrated among a few high-spending families–just the top four are the source of over a quarter of the cash–so the two snapshots are roughly comparable.)

Based on their share of contributions to political committees active in the seven most competitive U.S. Senate races this year, billionaires spent $77 million supporting GOP candidates in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Democrats in those races benefitted from nearly $11 million of billionaire spending. This lopsided partisan split is well explained by the two parties’ opposite positions on taxes paid by the rich: Republicans want to reduce them while Democrats want them raised. 

The contribution totals shown here are undoubtedly an undercount, since thanks to another giant loophole in the campaign-finance system a lot of political spending is anonymous. Billionaires can funnel donations through so-called “dark money” groups, which use the money both to fund their own political advocacy and to contribute to candidates, parties and PACs. 

KEY FACTS

• As of August 28, more than two months before Election Day, 150 billionaire families had already spent nearly $1.4 billion on the 2024 elections–more than billionaires spent over the entire 2020 campaign. Billionaire spending in the current year is sure to grow rapidly in the final weeks of the 2024 campaign. 
• Billionaire family spending on the seven most competitive U.S. Senate races favors Republican candidates over Democratic ones by a 7:1 margin. Billionaire families spent nearly $78 million supporting GOP candidates versus around $11 million spent in support of Democrats.
• Across all political races, nearly two-thirds (65.6%) of billionaire money backed Republican/conservative candidates while about a quarter (26%) supported Democrats/liberals. The remaining roughly 8.5% was mostly contributed to pro-Israel and pro-crypto-currency super PACs that backed candidates from both parties and outside spending groups supporting former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
• The biggest billionaire-family political spenders as of August 28 were the banking-fortune Mellon clan, which has already spent over $165 million; the family of hedge-fund founder Ken Griffin ($75.6 million); the family of another hedge-fund manager, Jeff Yass ($75.4 million); and the container-industry Uihleins ($74.2 million). These four families alone are responsible for more than one-quarter (28.5%) of all the billionaire political spending collected in this report. 
• Among the top 15 billionaire families—accounting for $750 million of political spending—ten of them mostly backed Republicans, three of them mostly backed Democrats, and two of them directed their money towards pro-crypto currency candidates. 

Three of the top four recipients of billionaire-family political cash that are focused on congressional races support Republican and conservative candidates: Americans for Prosperity Action–founded by the billionaire Koch brothers to back conservative candidates–had pocketed $70 million; the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main super PAC backing Republican House candidates ($68 million); and the Senate Leadership Fund, which performs the same task for GOP Senate hopefuls ($58 million). The Senate Majority PAC, which supports Democratic Senate candidates, had received $51 million from billionaire families.

Read the full report here.