Corporate Political Spending Surges to Record-Shattering Levels

Nearly one third of all corporate political spending on elections since the 2010 Citizens United decision has occurred in the current election cycle – months before the general election, a new report from Public Citizen finds.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court greenlit direct corporate spending to influence election outcomes in 2010, corporations have spent $1.58 billion on federal elections. In the 2026 election cycle alone, they have spent $517 million, a figure sure to soar as the November general election approaches (these totals reference disclosed political spending, not any contributions from Dark Money organizations that keep donors secret).

The 2026 cycle spending already far exceeds the $461 million corporate spending during the 2024 presidential cycle. Driving this unprecedented surge of political spending are crypto, Big Tech and online betting corporations. Altogether, those three sectors are responsible for 57 percent of the corporate spending in the 2026 midterms. The new corporate spending is going primarily to corporate supremacist super PACs, which, unlike most super PACs, prioritize the interests of specific corporate sectors over either major political party or any particular candidate.

The report, “The Rise of Corporate Supremacist Super PACs,” also finds that the biggest beneficiary of corporate contributions besides the industry-prioritizing super PACs is the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. MAGA Inc. received $120.6 million in direct contributions from corporations including Crypto.com, Energy Transfer Partners, UnitedHealthcare, and Reynold’s American.

“A decade and a half after Citizens United, corporations are starting to spend on politics like never before,” said Rick Claypool, Research Director at Public Citizen and author of the report. “Crypto corporations shattered norms against corporate spending in elections last cycle and now many others are following suit – and still more are sure to follow.”

“This corporate spending is a disaster for democracy,” said Claypool. “If the current, broken campaign finance system remains unchallenged – and corporate spending is allowed to drown out the voices of real voters and real people – these corporate campaigns will keep multiplying, even as voting rights for individual Americans face escalating attacks.”