Yesterday was submitting day on the FEC, and the highest-spending tremendous PACs within the presidential contest, in addition to teams which might be spending hundreds of thousands to affect voters on down-ballot races, revealed details about their fundraising and spending through the month of July. The disclosures that had been filed yesterday revealed a few of the greatest contributions from rich megadonors that we’ve seen thus far this election cycle.
Right here’s a rundown of a few of the issues that caught our eyes.
Make America Nice Once more Inc.
Timothy Mellon, the billionaire Republican megadonor and scion of the Mellon banking household, contributed one other $50 million to the biggest pro-Trump tremendous PAC on July 15, bringing his complete given thus far to the group this cycle to $125 million. Mellon’s newest largesse made up over 91% of MAGA Inc.’s donations final month. Mellon, the previous proprietor of Pan Am Techniques and Pan Am Railways, has been the one largest donor to federal political teams within the 2024 election cycle, in response to OpenSecrets.
The tremendous PAC additionally obtained $1 million in July from a trio of huge GOP donors: Jacob Helberg, a senior advisor at Palantir and a donor to the Trump 47 high-dollar joint fundraising committee; funding banker Warren Stephens, who had additionally given to Trump 47; and poultry magnate Ronald Cameron of Mountaire Farms; in his first donation to a Trump marketing campaign group after he beforehand backed Trump’s rivals Mike Pence, after which Nikki Haley, for the presidential nomination.
Sugarcane firm Florida Crystals Company, owned by the billionaire Fanjul household, gave $1 million to MAGA Inc. on July 30. Billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss every liquidated 2.7 Bitcoins to donate about $177,000. Throughout July, the tremendous PAC put made about $43 million in impartial expenditures, together with spending tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on TV adverts, together with hundreds of thousands of {dollars} spent on junk mail, sensible TV adverts, and textual content messages.
Future Ahead
The most important pro-Harris tremendous PAC Future Ahead obtained a $20 million switch from its darkish cash arm, Future Ahead USA Motion, on July 29. Future Ahead has already obtained greater than $35 million from the darkish cash group thus far this cycle, however the $20 million it obtained in July is the biggest contribution it has taken from the group thus far.
Assist our two-person nonprofit newsroom observe the cash — the 2024 election is projected to be the costliest ever, and political spending to affect voters is rising. Exterior spending by teams like tremendous PACs has already surpassed $1 billion in response to our associates at OpenSecrets, contributions from “darkish cash” teams are hovering over earlier cycles, and megadonors are bankrolling spending teams with a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. Alongside the deluge of impartial expenditures on elections, federal lobbying spending hit a brand new excessive in 2023.
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One other large donation Future Ahead obtained in July was $5 million from Marc Stad, the founding father of know-how firm investing agency Dragoneer Funding Group. Stad had donated $167,000 to Harris Victory Fund in June, however his $5 million to Future Ahead is by far his largest ever federal political contribution, in response to FEC information.
Sludge has lined Future Ahead’s substantial darkish cash funding this election cycle right here and right here.
