According to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice, twenty-one American families donated more than $783 million to political campaigns and PACs during the midterm election cycle, surpassing the total amount contributed by 3.7 million small donors and demonstrating that candidacies are directed by a handful of wealthy people.
The pattern is the opposite of the funding sources from 2010, when small-dollar donors out-contributed the top 100 donors by close to a 3-to-1 margin. Not coincidentally, 2010 was also the year the Supreme Court destroyed protections for buying elections when it issued the Citizens United ruling, allowing unlimited financial contributions to political efforts by so-called “dark money” groups that hide their funders. Total spending during the election is estimated to have surpassed $8.9 billion.
Democratic benefactor George Soros was the top donor during the cycle, contributing more than $128 million, primarily to groups and PACs, not individual candidates.
Of the largest 25 donors during the 2021-2022 cycle, seventeen favored Republican causes. Billionaire Peter Thiel virtually funded the campaigns of two Republican Senate candidates–loser Blake Masters in Arizona and winner JD Vance in Ohio, both former associates of Thiel.