The cavalry is here and mega-donors on both sides of the aisle are donating huge amounts of money to politicians and outside groups in what is expected to be the most expensive election ever, new documents show.
Businessman Timothy Mellon, who has been a major donor to super PACs supporting former President Donald Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., took his donations to a new level in May, giving MAGA Inc., the super PAC supporting Trump’s bid, $50 million on the last day of the month. The date of the contribution listed in the report was the day after Trump’s conviction in New York.
The donation was the largest single federal campaign contribution so far this election cycle, while remaining reports will be filed Thursday, and is one of the largest ever. So far this cycle, Mellon has donated more than $100 million to political organizations. And the donation to MAGA Inc. represented most of the $68.8 million the group raised in May.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who ran for president in 2020 when some were worried that then-Vice President Joe Biden would be unable to defeat more progressive Democratic rivals, has offered to help Biden’s re-election. Bloomberg gave $19 million to Biden’s main super PAC, FF PAC, while The Washington Post reported that he gave another $929,600 to Biden’s joint fundraising committee. (This group does not need 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 GOP mega-donors and descendants of the shipping and packaging company Uline, gave MAGA Inc. a combined total of $10 million.
Two regular Democratic mega-donors, businessmen James Simons and Fred Eychaner, combined to seed the super PAC boosting House Democrats with $6.5 million. (Simons also gave the FF PAC $6.6 million, while Eychaner gave the group $2 million.)
And billionaire Miriam Adelson, who Politico recently reported plans to help fund a pro-Trump super PAC, donated $1 million to a super PAC supporting Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Although well-known 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 Scheide has been a small-dollar giver thus far.
The numbers are just a glimpse of the incredible sums of money being funneled to 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 state races expected to draw hundreds of millions more.
Advertising tracking firm AdImpact predicted last year that advertising spending alone will eclipse $10 billion, a record sum that doesn’t even include tons more spent on other aspects of campaigning and organizing.
CORRECTION (June 21, 2024, 2:19 PM ET): An earlier version of this article misstated the date of businessman Timothy Mellon’s donation to a pro-Trump super PAC. It was the day after Trump was convicted in New York, not the day after.
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