Billionaires spent record amounts during 2024 federal election – report

Billionaires spent record amounts during the 2024 federal election, according to a new analysis from Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of more than 420 national, state and local organizations advocating for economic reforms.

The report’s findings show that during the election cycle that put Donald Trump back in the White House and seated Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, just 100 extremely wealthy families invested $2.6bn – an amount more than double what billionaire donors contributed just four years prior.

The steep upward spending trends and the eye-popping amounts speak to the shifts in political power granted to the affluent and corporations in the wake of Citizens United v FEC, the supreme court’s 2010 decision that enabled unlimited campaign donations. There are limits on direct donations to political candidates, political action committees and political parties, but the creation of Super Pacs in the aftermath of that decision have opened opportunities for the surge in spending.

In the 14 years since the Citizens United ruling, billionaires have poured 160 times more funds into campaigns according to the ATF report.

“The money-for-power exchange that was always hidden in the back rooms of American politics has disturbingly burst into the open in the second Trump administration,” said David Kass, ATF’s executive director in a written statement included with the report. “Elon Musk and some of the world’s wealthiest families spent record amounts to secure trillions in tax breaks and deregulation, using cuts to vital services like healthcare, education, and nutritional support to pay for it.”

The ATF analysis found most of the support was thrown behind GOP causes and candidates, with 70% of the funds coming from the top 100 contributing billionaire families going to Republicans.

Musk, who has spent the weeks since Trump’s inauguration slashing the federal workforce as the head of the so-called “department of government efficiency”, set new standards of financial influence by bankrolling candidates and causes; his Super Pac spent roughly $200m to secure Trump’s second term.

He was joined by several Silicon Valley executives who collectively added more than $194m more to campaign coffers during the US presidential election, according to a Guardian analysis published late last year, and others who were also offered roles in the new administration after investing in 2024 campaigns.

Linda McMahon, a former wrestling promoter and business executive who now serves as the secretary of education, gave $25m with her husband. The commerce secretary Howard Lutnick contributed more than $21m to Republicans.

While attention has been focused on spending in the presidential election, large sums were also given down-ballot to help secure a Republican stronghold on the government. Billionaire spending in three key Senate races – Montana, Pennsylvania and Ohio – constituted roughly half of expenditures in each, according to the ATF report.

The money has continued rolling out. Musk is now throwing cash at a candidate for Wisconsin’s state supreme court.