There are the big donors to American elections, and then there are the biggest donors — the ones that can turn around candidates’ fortunes and sometimes even write history.
These are the billionaires who tower over Senate and House races. The corporations digging deep to increase their profits. The dark-money groups that want to keep their sources of cash secret forever.
The 20 biggest donors so far in the midterm elections — some of whom are grouped together because of close familial or business relationships — have combined to shovel a staggering $1.2 billion into federal races this cycle, according to a New York Times analysis of the latest contribution data available.
The lineup shows the rising power of the tech industry and is dominated by Republican-leaning donors, reflecting how the party has steadily built an advantage in midterm money. That edge could keep the party competitive despite a political environment that favors Democrats.
Broadly, these midterm donors fit into a few buckets. Some are motivated by the goals of their industry, others are driven by long-held ideological beliefs and some have chosen to keep their identities a mystery.
Here’s a breakdown of who these donors are and why they’re spending so much on politics:
The crypto industry has grown only more emboldened since the 2024 election, when it helped return President Trump and Republicans to power.
Mr. Trump has embraced the crypto industry — raking in vast sums and raising concerns about corruption — and it has embraced him right back. The billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who are major crypto players, are all over Trump world. Separately, the company that operates Crypto.com has been both a business partner of Mr. Trump’s media company and the single largest donor to the president’s super PAC, to which it has given $35 million.
The industry is working hard to elect a more pro-crypto Congress. At the center of that effort is Fairshake, a bipartisan super PAC whose three principal funders all made this list. Two of them, the crypto firms Ripple and Coinbase, have deep pockets, and know that the eventual return on their political investment could be, and perhaps already is, enormous.
The third big funder of Fairshake, the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has some wider ambitions.
The firm, together with its eponymous founders and their spouses, is the biggest donor this election cycle. The Andreessen executives are part of a group of tech megadonors driven by a broad desire to deregulate the American economy, particularly when it comes to crypto and artificial intelligence. The firm, along with the OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna Brockman, are key donors behind Leading the Future, a super PAC focused on electing politicians who are friendly to the A.I. industry. The Brockmans are expected to donate another $25 million to Leading the Future this year.
Many tech megadonors are broadly aligned with Mr. Trump. But probably none are more active than Elon Musk, who is running his own super PAC that is said to be planning to spend at least$100 million more to help elect Republicans in November. Mr. Musk’s goals go beyond just shaping tech policy, and he donated $15 million to back two candidates in Ohio and Kentucky who resonated with him personally.
The sports betting company DraftKings has the narrowest ambitions. It joined rivals like FanDuel and Fanatics to support a new super PAC focused on expanding legalized sports betting across the country.
Good luck finding out who contributed this $265 million.
That’s how much came from five dark-money groups, or nonprofit organizations that are not required to disclose their donors. Now more than ever, major super PACs lean on money from these nonprofit groups. In fact, in each instance, the nonprofit is led by the same people who lead the allied super PACs.
Democrats transfer money from Majority Forward and House Majority Forward, two dark-money nonprofits, to their main super PACs focused on Senate and House races. And Republicans transfer money from the American Action Network and One Nation, two other dark-money nonprofits, to their own congressional super PACs.
Another conservative dark-money nonprofit, the American Prosperity Alliance, has fueled a super PAC that has become the primary meddler in Democratic primaries. That super PAC, Conservative Americans PAC, has sought to help Republicans in battleground races by elevating Democrats seen as less competitive.
Beyond their donations, these dark-money nonprofits have also spent hundreds of millions of dollars on “policy” ads that praise or attack people who happen to be up for election.
Election after election, certain billionaires sit atop the leaderboards of political givers. They are plugged-in partisans, and ambitious candidates hug them closely because they always seem willing to throw more money at up-and-comers.
Take the conservative megadonor Miriam Adelson. She is already being courted by possible 2028 presidential candidates, even though Mr. Trump has joked that she offered him $250 million to run for an unconstitutional third term. What is not a joke is that Adelson is a huge donor to Trump’s super PAC.
Two major Republican donors — Ken Griffin and Paul Singer — tend to back the same types of socially moderate and fiscally conservative candidates who are hawkish on foreign policy. They are also reliable supporters of the groups yoked to Republican leaders in the House and Senate.
Others are a bit more libertarian and iconoclastic in their political disposition, including Jeff Yass, the Uihleins, and Charles Koch’s company, Koch Inc.
Two donors stand out on this list: The Soroses. That’s because they’re the only longtime Democratic megadonors. Ultrawealthy liberals are now gravitating toward dark-money nonprofits, and Alex and George are two of the few who remain comfortable in the public eye. But they are also the only donors on this list whom Mr. Trump has pushed to investigate for their giving.
