Corporate political donations hit record $646M in US midterms, watchdog says
Corporate political donations shatter record at $646M so far for US midterms
Companies donated a record $646 million to U.S. political campaigns in the 18 months through June, 40% more than the entire 2024 presidential cycle, according to Public Citizen. Crypto, online betting, and AI firms account for over half, with sports betting alone contributing $76 million. The surge is driven by new entrants like DraftKings and Polymarket, while Koch Inc. and cannabis companies also gave heavily. Watchdogs warn of disproportionate influence, but free speech advocates defend the spending.
The rate at which corporate money is rushing into our elections should be a flashing warning sign.
- openasocket
I’ve always wondered why candidates need so much money. I mean, this doesn’t go directly into their pockets, it’s largely used to fund ads, right?
I have a pet theory about political ads that I would love to find data to be able to confirm/deny. My theory is that those political ads don’t actually convince anyone about who to vote for, and aren’t intended to. Instead, it’s about convincing the people who already support you and your party to show up and vote. If that’s true, then the root cause of all of this money being injected into politics is really a symptom of low voter turnout. And so anything we can do to improve voter turnout will lessen the influence of money in politics.
My justification for this theory is that I see all of these political ads and really don’t find them convincing or liable to change my vote. I actually find attack ads often have the opposite effect on me, where I am immediately skeptical of whatever claim they advance and feel sure there’s important context they are leaving out. Of course I know I’m not the average voter, and other people may see it differently, but I’d love to see some data on this.
- oefrha
> It also leaves out the $106 million-plus Google co-founder Sergey Brin has spent in California fighting a proposed wealth tax and other issues
Damn, I can't think of a better argument for wealth tax if one dude alone is willing to spend $100m to fight it. He clearly has too much.
- disposition2
Thanks John Roberts!
It’s been turtles all the way down since the Citizens United decision.
- siscia
From one perspective I am not against lobbying in general.
The idea is that legislator don't have the full context and don't know the impact of their work - so they welcome industry or matter experts. Which is quite reasonable. I would argue that the job of the legislator is to know what they are doing, but I can see it being hard for specific technical issues that really benefits from first hand experience.
I am not even particularly against the idea of donating money to make sure a particular issue is known to the public, so that the public can make an effective voting decision.
But all of this seems quite too much.
Companies have disproportionate amount of money to donate and much less synchronization issue that citizen.
- cdrnsf
This is how democracies die.