Corporations have poured $737.3 million into the 2026 midterm elections — 60% more than they spent across the whole of the 2024 presidential cycle, when the figure was $461 million. The count comes from a report published on October 29 by Public Citizen, the Washington watchdog group, and covers disclosures filed through October 23.
It is the largest corporate total the group has recorded in any American election, and it was reached in a midterm year, which historically draws less money than a presidential one. Against the 2022 midterms, when corporations spent $184.1 million, this cycle is four times larger.
Forty percent of post-Citizens United money, in one cycle
Public Citizen puts total corporate spending on federal elections since the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision at roughly $1.8 billion. More than 40% of that sum was spent in this single cycle — a measure less of how much the ruling permitted than of how long it took for companies to use it at scale.
Three industries supply half the money
Cryptocurrency companies account for $233 million, online betting for $85.2 million, and Big Tech, AI and data center interests for $73.1 million. Together those three sectors supply $391.3 million, or 53% of all corporate spending in the cycle.
Fossil fuel companies, led by Energy Transfer and Chevron, added $51.4 million. Tobacco companies, led by British American Tobacco and Altria, added $34.8 million.
The money runs largely through a small number of single-industry super PACs. Fairshake, the crypto vehicle, took in $106.9 million; Win for America, backed by online betting, $80.7 million; and Leading the Future, funded by AI and tech interests, $50.1 million — $237.7 million between them. The largest single recipient of corporate money was MAGA Inc., with $141 million.
The donor list is short
Fifteen companies supplied $473.9 million, or 64% of the entire corporate total. The venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz leads with $76.2 million, followed by Geosor Corporation — which Public Citizen identifies as a Soros family entity — at $52 million, and Ripple Labs at $49.6 million.
Further down the list: DraftKings with $39.9 million, Crypto.com's Foris Dax with $39 million, Coinbase with $37.2 million, Koch Inc. with $36.8 million, Gemini together with Winklevoss Capital Fund at $35.7 million, FanDuel with $29 million, British American Tobacco's US arms with $17.9 million, Energy Transfer with $15.9 million, Altria with $15.6 million, Cantor Fitzgerald with $10 million, the Elon Musk Revocable Trust with $10 million and Chevron with $9 million.
Three of the four largest donors are crypto or crypto-adjacent, and the report attributes most of the cycle's increase to technology companies. The concentration is what distinguishes 2026 from earlier cycles: a record total assembled from a donor list short enough to print in full.
The report was compiled by Public Citizen researcher Rick Claypool. The figures are drawn from filings available as of October 23 and will rise as the final pre-election disclosures land.
Reporting from Public Citizen and Common Dreams.
