The cavalry is here, and megadonors on both sides of the aisle are donating large sums of money to politicians and outside groups in what is expected to be the most expensive election ever.
Businessman Timothy Mellon, a major donor to super PACs supporting both former President Donald Trump and an independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., upped its May donation by giving $50 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC backing Trump’s bid, on the last day of the month. The date of the contribution shown in the report was the next day Trump’s conviction in New York.
The gift was the largest federal individual campaign contribution so far this election cycle, pending the remaining reports due Thursday, and one of the largest of all time. So far, Mellon has given more than $100 million to political organizations. And a donation to MAGA Inc. made up most of it The group raised $68.8 million in May.
After a massive fundraiser in May fueled by supporters’ reaction to his conviction, the Trump campaign told NBC News that the political apparatus — which includes the campaign, the Republican National Committee and its proxy committees — ended May with $235 million in cash. in hand. That’s more than the $212 million the Biden campaign said it had among its groups by the end of May.
When some worried that then-Vice President Joe Biden would be unable to defeat his more progressive Democratic challengers, billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a 2020 presidential candidate, rallied to help re-elect Biden. Bloomberg gave $19 million to Biden’s top super PAC, FF PAC The Washington Post reported on this he gave $929,600 more to Biden’s co-financing committee. (This group does not need to submit new reports until the end of this year.)
Also in May, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each donated $12.5 million to cryptocurrency super PAC Fairshake.
Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, GOP megadonors and offspring of the Uline shipping and packaging company, gave a combined $10 million to MAGA Inc.
Two regular Democratic megadonors, businessmen James Simons and Fred Eichaner, teamed up to create a super PAC that boosted House Democrats by $6.5 million. (Simons also gave $6.6 million to FF PAC, and Eichaner gave $2 million to the group.)
And billionaire Miriam Adelson, who Politico reported recently Plans to help pro-Trump super PAC Donate $1 million to super PAC supporting GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
As prominent donors opened their pocketbooks 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 “unemployed.” Federal campaign finance records show Scheide has been a small dollar donor so far.
The numbers are just a glimpse of the incredible sums of money funneled to campaigns and outside groups before the fall. Biden and Trump have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for their political operations, with primary federal and state races expected to draw hundreds of millions more.
Ad tracking firm AdImpact independently predicted ad spending last year It will exceed 10 billion dollarsa record sum that doesn’t even include the 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 a donation by businessman Timothy Mellon to a pro-Trump super PAC. It wasn’t the day Trump was sentenced in New York, but the day after.