The nation’s wealthy opened their wallets in August as they focused on election season, donating millions to super PACs that support Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump and Democrats and Republicans across the country, according to monthly reports filed with the Federal Election Commission Friday.
The largest single-donor donations went to MAGA Inc., the super PAC that supports Trump, with billionaire Diane Hendricks, a prolific GOP megadonor, giving the group $10 million.
Howard Lutnick, CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and Paul Singer, chairman of Elliott Management, an investment management firm, each donated $5 million to MAGA Inc.
Annette Caldwell Simmons, the widow of businessman Harold Simmons, gave $2 million to MAGA Inc., while Warren Stephens, the CEO of investment bank Stephens Inc., gave $1 million.
On the Democratic side, tech entrepreneurs were the biggest donors to FF PAC, also known as Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Harris’ presidential bid.
The group’s biggest donors in August were Facebook and Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson and his wife, Erica.
Moskovitz donated $3 million to the FF PAC, while Hastings, Jeff Lawson and Erica Lawson each gave $1 million.
Hastings, a major Democratic backer, was one of the largest Democratic donors to publicly call on President Joe Biden to withdraw from his re-election campaign earlier this year.
The reports released Friday included only donations made between Aug. 1 and Aug. 31, the first full month Harris was the presumptive — and later official — Democratic nominee for president.
Super PACs like FF PAC and MAGA Inc. are havens for prolific political megadonors like Hendricks, Lutnick and Hastings because, unlike campaigns and their affiliated committees, super PACs have no limits on how much individuals can give.
Further down the ballot, the Club for Growth Action, a conservative super PAC that supports Republican congressional and Senate candidates, received two major donations in August, each of $5 million, from Jeff Yass, the co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a trade group, and Richard Uihlein, the founder of the marine supply company Uline.
Yass and Uihlein are both major GOP donors who have given to the Club for Growth and other conservative groups over multiple election cycles.
On the Democratic side, the House Majority PAC, a group that supports Democratic congressional candidates, received $600,000 in August from Amos Hostetter Jr., the co-founder of Continental Cablevision, the largest donation to the group this reporting period.
Hostetter has a history of donating to anti-Trump groups.
