Megadonors are flooding this year’s midterm election with record amounts of money, spending billions of dollars to influence which party controls Congress next year. This election cycle, just 40 of the biggest donors gave $2.5 billion through mid-October, a record high for this point in the midterms since the Supreme Court decided Citizens United in 2010.
The sheer scale of money involved is one of several ways the profile of the top 40 donors has changed relative to past midterms. Here are four key trends evident from comparing this midterm cycle to previous ones:
Vastly more money. The donations coming from the top 40 donors for the midterms total more than eight times the amount from the top 40 donors by mid-October in the 2014 midterms (the first full midterm cycle after Citizens United), adjusted for inflation. The cutoff to be in the top 40 has also increased to 10 times what it was four cycles ago, to $25 million.
A dramatic shift toward Republicans and special interests. In 2014, the top 40 favored Democrats two to one, but Republicans’ share of top giving has steadily grown. Donors loyal to the GOP now give more than three times the amount that reliably Democratic donors gave. Giving from special interests that contribute to both parties — such as the artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and online gaming industries — has increased a hundredfold, nearly rivaling that of donors who exclusively favor Democrats.
Out with labor, in with crypto. The dominant sectors have shifted. Labor, once second only to the finance industry in its portion of giving from the top 40, has fallen off the list altogether. Crypto was not represented among the top 40 before 2022, and now the industry is giving at a level that rivals the traditional finance sector.
More secrecy than ever. Top donors increasingly choose to hide their identities. Donations from dark money groups in the top 40 have increased to 13 times the amount in 2014, and they now comprise 27 percent of the giving at that level.
For the purposes of this analysis, donors are the sources of contributions to candidates, parties, and other political committees, as reported on those committees’ filings with the Federal Election Commission. They can be individuals, corporations, or other organizations. Married couples who are both major donors are counted as a single donor, as are companies and their principals. To measure the influence of different sectors, donors were grouped according to the industry or interest they best represent. For example, unions comprise labor, and executives from capital management firms, hedge funds, and the like are grouped under the traditional finance industry.
Giving by the biggest megadonors continues to rise.
In the 2026 midterms, the 40 biggest donors made nearly $2.5 billion in campaign finance contributions through mid-October. The top 40 have given more in every midterm since 2014, and the total from this cycle is seven times the giving of 2014’s top donors, even accounting for inflation.
In fact, the amount that top 40 donors gave through mid-October this year is more than 50 percent higher than the $1.6 billion top donors gave for the entire 2022 cycle, adjusted for inflation.
The price of admission to the top 40 has shot up as well. In 2014, the 40th biggest donor gave almost $2.3 million in 2026 dollars. This year, the 40th donor gave 10 times that, $25 million.
Top donors overwhelmingly back Republicans.
Giving by top 40 donors who exclusively support Republicans in midterms has risen dramatically over the course of the Citizens United era, hitting $1.5 billion this year. GOP donors have dramatically outpaced loyal Democratic donors, who had the advantage in 2014 but this cycle have been outspent more than three to one.
Another striking change is a spike in giving by donors who give significant amounts to both parties, which has shot up to more than one hundred times the level of the last two midterms. The National Association of Realtors used to be the major player in this category, but bipartisan giving in the top 40 is now dominated by cryptocurrency interests, which gave $354 million. Online gambling companies, artificial intelligence companies, and the pro-Israel group AIPAC each gave more than the realtors in this election, as well.
Who the top donors are and what they want has shifted.
The influence of campaign finance on government policy is likely to change as the dominant interests change. The industries and sectors that gave the most among the top 40 have shifted significantly over the last decade.
The most notable change is the arrival of a singular megadonor: the world’s richest person, Elon Musk. This election has seen Musk give more than any donor in any election cycle, $483 million together with one of his companies, United States of America Inc., all to benefit Republicans. He has not previously been one of the top 40 donors in a midterm. Musk’s interests include space rockets, car manufacturing, social media, and AI. His companies hold billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts, and he has inserted himself into policymaking, including by overseeing the DOGE spending cuts and opposing some proposals to regulate AI.
The fortunes of more traditional interests have shifted, too. The chart below shows four sectors that seek to influence policy and how their relative influence has changed. Each of these key interests was one of the dominant sectors at either the beginning or the end of this analysis.
The starkest decline is for labor. Labor unions overwhelmingly give to Democrats. They were once a distant second to the finance industry, providing 14 percent of top 40 donors’ giving in 2014. But their contributions have not kept pace with the rapid rise of megadonor giving. In this midterm, labor has disappeared from the top 40 entirely.
The traditional finance industry has also declined. It was consistently dominant among the top 40 donors in past cycles, with contributors from the industry often seeking decreased regulation but also reflecting ideological diversity. The industry includes Democratic megadonors like George Soros and Tom Steyer, as well as Republicans like Paul Singer and Jeff Yass. In 2014, traditional finance interests accounted for almost half of top 40 giving. Although they have given hundreds of millions of dollars this election, their relative influence has decreased to 14 percent of the top donors’ contributions.
The relatively new crypto industry, which has advocated against strong regulation of its new financial products, has massively increased its campaign giving in recent years. Crypto interests first made the top 40 in 2022. This year, crypto accounts for 14 percent of top 40 giving, tying with the traditional finance industry among the top donors.
The real estate industry has clear interests in policies related to housing, mortgages, and insurance. It has maintained a relatively stable amount of largely bipartisan giving, over $50 million through mid-October in each of the last three midterms. But as big money gets bigger, real estate’s portion of top 40 giving has sunk from one of the biggest, at 10 percent, down to 1 percent.
A great deal of megadonor giving is also connected to the AI industry. Several of the biggest donors, although primarily identified with other industries, have significant investments in AI companies and products. They include Elon Musk, Michael Bloomberg, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and Reid Hoffman, who together have given more than $650 million.
While many of the biggest donors appear to give to further their bottom lines, many also look to advance specific ideological commitments. Musk, for instance, has extensive financial interests before the federal government, but has also framed his support for Republicans around his opposition to trans rights and “woke” policies. Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, owners of a shipping supplies company, are second only to Musk among individual donors, with $147 million in federal donations. Their giving is reportedly motivated by conservative religious values, and they have been major supporters of candidates who questioned the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including $35 million this cycle in support of Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany. Longstanding GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson gave $67 million this cycle. She owns a major Las Vegas casino, but her interests in federal policy appear more focused on support for the current government of Israel than gaming.
Similarly, on the Democratic side, George Soros, financier and founder of the global progressive grantmaking network Open Society Foundations, frames his giving as supporting civil society and the rule of law. He has given $102 million through his company and a nonprofit. Michael Bloomberg, the financial media mogul, gave $61 million through October 14. Much of his giving comes through a group focused on gun regulation.
Top donors hide the sources of their money more than ever.
Dark money groups that hide the sources of their funding are giving unprecedented amounts. The dark money groups that appear on the top 40 list gave $675 million through mid-October, 13 times the level in 2014. Dark money’s portion of the top donors’ giving is consistently rising, too, from 17 percent in 2014 to 27 percent today.
More than half of the dark money from this year’s top 40 donors comes from the four groups affiliated with congressional party leadership. Some of the top dark money groups are known to represent specific interests, like the AI industry, pro-Israel interests, and environmental advocates.
