“Billionaires’ new playground”

Axios:

Billionaire DNA is coursing through the U.S. election system like never before, smashing campaign finance records and ushering in a new age of influence.

Why it matters: In an election that both sides see as existential, the moral guardrails for political spending are vanishing. Today’s billionaires are shredding populist taboos, driving news cycles and increasingly shaping the terms of American democracy.

The big picture: 150 billionaire families have spent a total of $1.9 billion in support of presidential and congressional candidates this cycle, according to a report by Americans for Tax Fairness released one week before the election.

  • That’s $700 million (or 58%) more than the $1.2 billion spent by more than 600 individual billionaires during the 2020 election, according to the group’s analysis.
  • Financial Times analysis also published this week found that billionaires had contributed at least $695 million, or 18%, of the total funds raised by the presidential candidates and allied groups.
  • At least $568 million of that has gone to former President Trump’s campaign and allied groups, compared to about $127 million to support Vice President Harris.

Between the lines: Those figures likely underestimate the true totals, given the extent to which some mega-donors choose to conceal their identity when funding political causes.

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