The cavalry is here, and mega-donors on both sides of the aisle are donating huge amounts of cash to politicians and outside groups in what is expected to be the most expensive election on record, new documents show.
Businessman Timothy Mellon, who has been a major donor to super PACs supporting both former presidents Donald Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., took his giving to a new level in May, giving MAGA Inc., the super PAC that backed Trump’s bid, $50 million on the last day of the month. The date of the contribution noted in the report was Trump’s sentencing in New York.
The donation was the largest contribution to the federal individual campaign so far this election cycle, pending the remaining reports due Thursday, and it is one of the largest of all time. So far this cycle, Mellon has given more than $100 million to political organizations. And the donation to MAGA Inc. made up the bulk of the $68.8 million the group raised in May.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who ran for president in 2020 when some worried that then-Vice President Joe Biden could not defeat more progressive Democratic rivals, pushed to win Biden’s reelection to help. Bloomberg donated $19 million to Biden’s top super PAC, FF PAC, while The Washington Post reported he donated another $929,600 to Biden’s joint fundraising committee. (That group doesn’t have to submit new reports until later this year.)
Also in May, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each donated $12.5 million to Fairshake, the pro-cryptocurrency super PAC.
Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, the Republican megadonors and scions of the shipping and packaging company Uline, gave MAGA Inc. combined $10 million.
Two mainstream Democratic megadonors, businessmen James Simons and Fred Eychaner, formed the super PAC that is giving House Democrats a $6.5 million boost. (Simons also gave FF PAC $6.6 million, while Eychaner gave the group $2 million.)
And billionaire Miriam Adelson, whose Politico recently reported plans to help fund a pro-Trump super PAC, gave $1 million to a super PAC in support of GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
As high-profile donors opened their wallets last month, a $10 million donation came from an unexpected source. Movement Voter PAC, a progressive group, reported receiving $10 million from a Massachusetts man named Jay Scheide, whose occupation is listed as “not employed.” Federal campaign finance records show that Scheide has been a small donor to date.
The numbers are just a glimpse of the incredible sums of money being funneled into campaigns and outside groups ahead of the fall. Biden and Trump have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for their political operations, with key federal and statewide races expected to attract hundreds of millions more.
The ad tracking company AdImpact predicted last year that ad spending alone will surpass $10 billion, a record figure that doesn’t even include the tons more spent on other aspects of campaigning and organizing.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
