Money plays a very important role in the US presidential elections, and it is almost a decisive factor in determining the occupant of the White House. The Democrats raised $1.2 billion in the 2008 elections, which was considered a record amount at the time, and Barack Obama alone raised $778 million.
But that record was shattered in the 2020 election, when Democrats raised $3.2 billion. Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg (Biden’s rival for the Democratic nomination at the time) each raised more than $1 billion, while Donald Trump raised more than $800 million, according to Visual Capitalist.
The current election is no different. According to the Federal Election Commission, which tracks campaign fundraising and spending, $1.09 billion has been raised by all candidates as of this writing.
Fundraising Mechanism
Presidential campaigns receive funding in two ways:
- IndividualsCampaign committees raise money directly from individuals to support 2024 candidates.
Individuals can donate $3,300 to each candidate in each election, an unprecedented $400 increase from $2,900 during the 2022 election cycle, meaning that between the primary and the general election, a donor could give up to $6,600 to a candidate. - CommitteesOutside committees, such as super PACs, can raise unlimited funds but cannot directly partner with candidates they favor, CNN reported.
Committees that receive public funds must agree to adhere to spending limits and keep detailed records of their financial activities. After the election, the Federal Election Commission audits each committee funded with public money. If the audit reveals that a committee exceeded spending limits or used public funds for impermissible purposes, the committee must pay an appropriate amount to the U.S. Treasury.
The economy controls the orientations of donors and the American elections themselves more than anything else. For example, Trump adopts a protectionist policy for American companies, raises the slogan “America First” and pledges to limit the flow of foreign goods, especially Chinese ones, into the United States. Therefore, we find that a number of his major supporters are companies and institutions operating inside the United States.
On the other hand, we find that transnational companies that call for economic openness, such as technology giants, support Kamala Harris.
Some of America’s wealthiest people are backing Trump’s bid to return to the White House, with 26 of his biggest billionaire backers, worth a combined $143 billion, pumping $162 million into his campaign so far.
Prominent billionaires such as Elon Musk, Bill Ackman, and the CEO of JP Morgan, supported former President Donald Trump’s campaign to win a second term, according to the American magazine Forbes.
On the other hand, there are a large number of billionaires who have donated to support his Democratic rival Kamala Harris. In the following lines, we will learn about the top 10 donors and supporters of both Trump and Harris:
Donald Trump
Here is a list of the former US President’s top 10 donors to his efforts to return to the White House, according to Forbes:
1- Timothy Mellon
An heir to an American fortune dating back more than a century, Mellon made more money in the railroad industry and gave more than $75 million to a pro-Trump political action committee, including a $50 million gift the day after Trump was convicted of a felony by a U.S. court.
2- Linda McMahon
McMahon and her husband Vince founded World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) into a multi-billion dollar entertainment giant.
She has been involved in politics for years, running unsuccessfully for the Connecticut Senate in 2010 and 2012 and then serving as head of the Small Business Administration under Trump, contributing more than $15 million to Trump’s political action committees.
3- Diane Hendrix
Hendricks, recently named America’s richest self-made woman, has a net worth of $20.9 billion and is a staunch Trump supporter who has accused the Biden-Harris administration of stifling entrepreneurship.
Her building-supplies company, ABC Supply, has $20 billion in annual revenue. “I know how hard it is to build a company from scratch,” she said. “And we need a president who understands that, too.” She sees Trump as that president, having already donated more than $6 million to groups that support him.
4- Miriam Adelson
Miriam Adelson, an Israeli-American physician and widow of casino magnate and Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson, is a native of Israel and now owns a majority stake in the Las Vegas Sands casino empire and the Dallas Mavericks basketball team.
The Adelsons donated $220 million to Republican causes in 2020, and Miriam continues to donate large sums in the wake of her husband’s death in 2021, spending more than $20 million this cycle, according to a New York Times report that the Adelsons plan to spend more than $90 million to support Trump, and have donated $5.8 million so far.
5- Kelsey Warren
With a net worth of $6.2 billion, Warren’s publicly traded company is best known for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, which Trump supported during his first term. Warren donated $100,000 to help get him elected in 2016, then spent more than $11 million on Trump’s 2020 campaign. He has spent nearly $6 million so far supporting Trump in that campaign.
6- Timothy Dunn
An oil lobbyist, he wrote a $5 million check to Trump’s political action committee last December. Dunn’s West Texas-based well operator Crown Quest is one of the largest private oil companies in the United States, and his net worth is $2.2 billion.
7- Elizabeth Oehlen
Donated $5 million to Trump groups.
8- Richard Oehlen
She has donated about $5 million to Trump groups.
Elizabeth and Richard Uihle are among the most generous donors to the Republican Party, giving tens of millions each cycle.
Elizabeth and Richard started Yuline Packaging out of their basement in 1980, and the company now has more than $6 billion in annual sales. They are vocal supporters of Trump’s “America First” slogan to support American businesses.
9- Jeff Sprecher and Kelly Loeffler
Loeffler has given heavily to Republicans for more than a decade, and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, is the founder of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange.
Their net worth is $1.1 billion, and the couple has together donated nearly $5 million to support Trump, and they plan to donate more.
10- Phil Ruffin
Worth $2.6 billion, he is a major donor to Trump, a business partner and close friend of the Republican presidential candidate. The two own the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Ruffin has been behind Trump since 2016, but he has upped the ante for 2024, donating $3.3 million to Trump committees so far.
Kamala Harris
After Biden dropped out and the Democratic Party rallied around her, Kamala Harris’ campaign raised $310 million in July, most of it after Biden dropped out, and that helped them start August with $377 million in cash, according to CNBC.
Reuters quoted unnamed sources as saying that the efforts of US Vice President Kamala Harris in her election campaign raised about $500 million since she became the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, bringing the total money raised by her and Biden before his withdrawal to more than $1 billion, which represents the fastest pace of fundraising in the history of presidential elections, according to the campaign, and represents an unprecedented financial outcome that reflects the enthusiasm of donors before the elections scheduled for November 5.
A large number of transnational companies, especially technology giants, stand behind Harris. According to the Open Secrets platform, the largest of these companies, such as Alphabet, which owns Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Meta, support the Democratic candidate. She also receives the support of prestigious academic institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, California, Columbia, and others, in addition to a large segment of the American middle class, African Americans, and Hispanics.
Below is a list of the top 10 donors to Kamala Harris’ campaign, as reported by a number of platforms and websites, such as Business Insider, News Nation, Open Secrets, the British newspaper Financial Times, and others.
1- Reed Hastings
The Netflix co-founder and CEO donated $7 million to Harris’ campaign, making it the largest donation Hastings has ever made to a single politician.
2- Reid Hoffman
The LinkedIn co-founder endorsed Harris, and Huffman donated $1.7 million, on top of an additional $7 million he had donated earlier to pro-Biden PACs this spring, money that went to Harris’s campaign despite the Trump campaign’s legal challenge.
3- George and Alex Soros
Jewish Democratic billionaire George Soros, 93, is backing Kamala Harris with his vast fortune, and has urged his 38-year-old son Alex, who has been entrusted with running his $25 billion charitable foundation, to rally around her.
“It’s time for us all to unite around Kamala Harris and defeat Donald Trump. She is the best and most qualified candidate we have,” Alex Soros wrote, according to Fortune.
4- Melinda French Gates
Bill Gates’ ex-wife has endorsed Harris, telling CBS Morning News she contributed to her campaign and admitting it was the first time she had publicly supported a candidate.
Multiple social media posts have claimed that she donated $52 million to Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, but neither Melinda Gates nor any independent source has confirmed the news, Yahoo News reported.
5- Sheryl Sandberg
Former Meta CEO Sheryl Sandberg has endorsed Kamala Harris for president on social media. In an Instagram post, Sandberg said she was happy to support the vice president, Business Insider reported.
“Kamala Harris has already made history once by becoming the first Black and South Asian woman to hold office, and she will do it again in November,” Sandberg wrote. It is not known how much Sandberg has donated to support the Democratic nominee.
6- Vinod Khosla
Indian tech mogul Vinod Khosla, whose $7.4 billion fortune and Khosla Ventures invests in experimental technologies such as biomedicine and robotics, has made a clarion call to support Kamala Harris and reject Donald Trump’s candidacy for the US presidency.
7- Mark Cuban
Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban endorsed Harris for president shortly after Biden dropped out.
Cuban is part of a group of more than 800 venture capitalists, tech leaders and founders who have publicly declared their support for Kamala Harris.
The group members say they believe in democracy as the backbone of the United States, and it is not yet known how much Cuban has donated to support Harris.
8- Susan Pritzker
The wife and heir of Nicholas Pritzker II, a member of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, one of the richest families in America, has announced her support for Kamala Harris for president, though the amount she has donated to support the Democratic candidate’s campaign is not yet known.
9- Chris Saka
Founder of Lowrcase Capital, worth $1.2 billion, Chris Sacca made early bets investing in Twitter and Uber through his investment firm, is an active opponent of Donald Trump, and has endorsed Kamala Harris, according to Forbes.
10- Roger Altman
The founder of investment bank Evercore and an influential fundraiser, he believes Harris is the best choice for Democrats.
Altman has donated $100,000 to the Harris Action Fund, $6,600 to Harris’s presidential campaign, $50,000 to the same fund last year in 2023, and last year, he donated $25,000 to the Harris Victory Fund. These are the known donations so far.
