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tim sheehy
‘Astonishing Stat’: Billionaires Gave Nearly 20% of Donations in 2024 US Federal Elections
"For a representative democracy like ours to work, citizens must have some confidence that, through... political engagement, they have a fighting chance to turn their priorities into government policy," said an elections expert.
Mar 09, 2026
Billionaires exerted an unprecedented amount of influence over the 2024 US federal elections, accounting for almost one-fifth of the nearly $16 billion spent to elect candidates during that cycle, according to a New York Times analysis published Monday.
Just 300 billionaires and their immediate families poured an unprecedented $3 billion into the election, either giving directly to candidates or through political action committees.
These individuals represent just about 0.0087% of the 3.46 million people who donated more than $200 to one or multiple candidates during the election cycle.
And yet, with an average donation of $10 million apiece—equivalent to what 100,000 typical donors would give—they amounted to about 19% of all spending, allowing their interests to be pushed to the center of major races.
The Times highlighted the extraordinary role that billionaire fundraisers played in pushing Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) over the finish line in his bid to unseat the three-term incumbent Democrat, then-Sen. Jon Tester.
Sheehy's long shot campaign was given a boost by Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, who donated $8 million to his super PAC after previously investing $150 million in the candidate's struggling firefighting business, which helped seed his campaign.
As the report explains, Schwarzman "was not the only financial heavyweight in Mr. Sheehy’s corner":
At least 64 billionaires and 37 of their immediate family members donated directly to his campaign, a New York Times analysis found. When also accounting for money that flowed through political committees that support Mr. Sheehy, an analysis shows that billionaires contributed about $47 million in the race that Mr. Sheehy went on to win.
Sheehy's campaign drew support from a who's who of GOP power brokers: Jeff Yass, the founder of the Pennsylvania-based trading firm Susquehanna International Group and a major funder of Trump's massive White House ballroom project; the Uihlein family, which owns Uline shipping and has been central to backing anti-abortion, anti-immigrant, and election-denialist causes; and Florida hedge fund founder Ken Griffin, who spent $12 million to stop an initiative in the state to legalize marijuana.
In installing Sheehy, the ultrawealthy bought themselves "a key ally on tax policies that benefit the wealthy" who "cosponsored a proposal to eliminate the estate tax," the Times reported.
While billionaires still have their talons in both political parties, the Times noted a distinct shift toward Republicans in 2024—for every one dollar given to Democrats, five went to the GOP in the election.
Trump, who openly begged for donations from oil tycoons on the campaign trail, was the single largest beneficiary of this avalanche of spending.
According to a study by Americans for Tax Fairness in October 2024, less than a month before election day, Trump had already received $450 million from 150 billionaire families, 75% of their $600 million total to major candidates, and three times Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris's $143 million.
By the end of the campaign, Trump and his affiliated PACs would amass more than $250 million from Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and more than $100 million from both the pro-Israel megadonor Miriam Adelson and the banking heir Timothy Mellon, according to OpenSecrets.
Trump has since appointed more than a dozen billionaires to administration positions, including Musk, who was tasked with eviscerating public spending as the de facto head of the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE).
But as the Times reported, "Many of those billionaires are not only hoping to reshape the federal government... but to win influence in state legislatures, city councils, school boards, and courthouses."
"Ultrawealthy donors... have helped overhaul political leadership and policy in states across the country, expanding private charter schools, restricting abortion rights, advancing artificial intelligence in government, and blocking laws that would make it harder to evict tenants," the report explained.
As the 2026 midterm cycle begins, another spending blitz is coming. As the Times reported last month, the artificial intelligence industry, crypto industry, the pro-Israel lobby, and Trump's super PAC have each amassed war chests of tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to help elect their allies to Congress.
Silicon Valley billionaires, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, meanwhile,have collectively dumped tens of millions into stopping a proposal in California for a one-time 5% tax on billionaires in the state, which would replace Medicaid funding slashed by Republicans' massive budget law last year.
The explosion in spending by the ultrarich has come quickly. Where billionaires spent just $16.6 million to influence the 2008 election cycle, that number has steadily ballooned up to $3 billion in 2024, a more than 12,000% increase when adjusted for inflation.
Daniel Weiner, the director of the Brennan Center for Justice's elections and government program, said that the "astonishing stat" was a "legacy of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision" in 2010, which allowed billionaire-funded dark money groups to spend unlimited amounts of cash on political communication advocating for candidates.
"The resulting collapse of campaign finance rules has combined with a resurgence in the sort of high-level self-dealing that was pervasive during the Gilded Age, when bribery and graft were common, and corporations used their wealth to secure monopolies, government subsidies, and other benefits," Weiner wrote for TIME on Monday.
"As in the past, the question now is who will offer Americans a real alternative, including a commitment to stamp out self-dealing in all three branches of the government," he said, recommending a constitutional amendment to restore campaign finance limits tossed aside by the Supreme Court, a ban on spending by government contractors seeking contracts, and bans on congressional stock trading.
"For a representative democracy like ours to work, citizens must have some confidence that, through voting and other forms of political engagement, they have a fighting chance to turn their priorities into government policy," he concluded. "Far too many Americans have lost that faith, and they identify pervasive corruption at the top of our government as a big part of the reason. But cycles of corruption followed by reform are an enduring feature of American history. A new round of ambitious reform is overdue."
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GOP Senator and AIPAC Darling Tim Sheehy Accused of Breaking Anti-War Veteran's Arm
“How has Tim Sheehy not yet been arrested for assault and hauled away as the deranged violent thug that we all saw brutalizing a marine veteran in the Senate today?” asked one observer.
Mar 05, 2026
US Sen. Tim Sheehy came under fire Thursday after the former Navy SEAL was involved in an incident in which a Marine Corps veteran and Green Party Senate candidate's arm was fractured after he disrupted a hearing to protest the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran.
In a video posted on social media by CBS News reporter Alan He, Sheehy (R-Mt.) is seen helping Capitol Police officers as they forcefully remove Brian McGinnis—who is wearing Marine dress blues and shouts, “No one wants to fight for Israel!"—from a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on US military readiness.
In an apparent attempt to make it more difficult to remove him, McGinnis inserts his left hand into a door frame and wraps his arm around the door. Sheehy joins officers who are trying to pry McGinnis from the door, and the audible sharp snap of breaking bone is heard as the senator hooks in under his victim's shoulder and pulls hard.
People are heard saying, "His hand! His hand!" and, "A US senator just broke the hand of a Marine!" as Sheehy and the officers struggle to remove McGinnis.
This is psychotic behavior by Sheehy. My goodness
[image or embed]
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 4, 2026 at 3:33 PM
Prior to his removal from the Senate chamber, McGinnis had stood up and shouted during the hearing, "America does not want to send its sons and daughters to war for Israel!"
The peace group CodePink posted video of the incident recorded from different angles, including footage of McGinnis being removed from the building.
"Americans citizens don't want to send their sons and daughters to fight in Iran," he says.
On Thursday, McGinnis said on social media that the incident has "only made me more determined."
"Anger is real," added. "So is resolve."
Sheehy—who previously admitted to lying about a self-inflicted gunshot wound which he falsely claimed he suffered during his deployment to Afghanistan—said on X following the incident that "Capitol Police were attempting to remove an unhinged protestor from the Armed Services hearing. He was fighting back. I decided to help out and deescalate the situation."
"This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one," the senator added. "I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence."
X users added a community note to Sheehy's post, stating: "The [senator] describes this as 'deescalation,' but full vid/reporting show he joined officers by physically grabbing the marine's leg then his arm breaks. Reports say the protester was treated for an injury after. The marine did not come to start a confrontation, he protested."
The Capitol Police said McGinnis "got his own arm stuck in a door" and claimed three officers were injured during the incident. The department said McGinnis would be charged with three counts of assault, resisting arrest, an unlawful protest.
Critics, meanwhile, called for Sheehy's arrest and even his resignation from Congress.
"How has Tim Sheehy not yet been arrested for assault and hauled away as the deranged violent thug that we all saw brutalizing a marine veteran in the senate today?" asked New Yorker staff writer Philip Gourevitch on Bluesky.
Numerous observers noted that Sheehy has taken more than $600,000 in campaign contributions from the pro-Israel lobby, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Sheehy also visited Israel at the height of the US-backed Gaza genocide—which has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing—during which he recorded a video for AIPAC as "his first act as an elected senator" to promise he would do "everything" for the Israeli military.
US and Israeli forces are now bombing Iran, where more than 1,000 people have been killed and over 5,000 others wounded, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Bombings include so-called "double-tap" strikes meant to kill survivors and first responders. Paramedics and victims' relatives say Saturday's massacre of around 175 children and others at an elementary school in Minab was a double-tap strike.
McGinnis is an Iraq War veteran running for Senate as a Green "because I know capitalist parties will never actually serve working-class people."
In a video posted on social media prior to Wednesday's incident, McGinnis said he was "here in DC trying to speak out" against lawmakers' support for President Donald Trump and fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war of choice against Iran.
pic.twitter.com/t6kSX68kLI
— Brian McGinnis (@BrianMcGinnisNC) March 4, 2026
"Anyone who feels disillusioned and betrayed by our government, you are not alone," McGinnis said, alluding to Trump's promise of no new wars. Trump has ordered the bombing of 10 countries—the most of any US president ever—and announced Wednesday that he is deploying troops to Ecuador to help fight drug traffickers.
"Free Palestine," McGinnis says in his video. "Free America."
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