The 2022 midterm election cycle saw a spending boom ahead of Election Day. Research group OpenSecrets estimates that federal election spending increased by nearly $2 billion compared to 2018.
Even more impressively, 10 wealthy people spent a combined $540 million on this year’s election, according to campaign finance data from OpenSecrets. These big donors give most of their money to outside groups like super PACs that can raise and spend unlimited amounts on campaign ads.
About 62 percent of their donations boosted Republicans, who have received far more support than Democrats from major economic groups through November, a reversal from recent elections where wealthy donors favored Democrats.
Here are the 10 biggest donors in the interim, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission records compiled by OpenSecrets:

George Soros

Total donations: $128.5 million Affiliation: Democrat Soros, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who made his fortune as a hedge fund manager, donated $128.5 million to his own outside group, Democracy PAC, which then donated millions of dollars to several super PACs supporting Democratic candidates.
His group donated $10.5 million to the Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC controlled by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.). He also gave $1 million to the J Street Action Fund, a pro-Israel group that supports Democrats and Planned Parenthood’s super PAC. If the group makes other donations, they won’t be disclosed until after the election.
Soros has long been the target of right-wing attacks and conspiracy theories about his lavish donations to Democrats. His donations to support democracy in Hungary drew attacks from the country’s authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that included anti-Semitic tropes.

Richard Uihlein

Total Donations: $80.7M Retailers predict record holiday sales amid record inflation US Chamber rejects McCarthy’s call for new leadership Affiliation: Republican Uihlein is a co-founder of shipping giant Uline, one of the country’s largest private companies. The Illinois-based billionaire has emerged as a major force for Republicans in recent elections, and the 2022 election cycle marks his highest donation total. He is the top donor to Club for Growth, one of the most powerful conservative super PACs, giving $23.2 million. Uihlein also gave $3.5 million to a group supporting Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), continuing his longtime efforts to influence key Wisconsin races.

Kenneth Griffin

Total Donations: $68.6M Affiliation: Republican Griffin, the CEO of Miami-based hedge fund Citadel, is one of the wealthiest mega-donors, with an estimated net worth of $31 billion, according to Forbes. He gave $18.5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC controlled by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), making him the top single donor to the group backing dozens of Republican House challengers. He gave another $10 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which is associated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Last year, “dummy stock” traders accused Citadel of colluding with trading platform Robinhood to stop trading of GameStop stock. Griffin denied his company was involved in the decision during a congressional hearing on the matter.

Jeff Yass

Total donations: $47.3 million Retailers predict record holiday sales amid record inflation US Chamber rejects McCarthy’s call for new leadership Affiliation: Republican Yass is the billionaire founder of the quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group. He is a longtime GOP donor who supports candidates favoring minimal taxes and government regulation, and is vice chairman of the board of the libertarian Cato Institute.
Yass donated $15 million to the School Freedom Fund, representing the vast majority of the Club for Growth group’s fundraising. The super PAC ran ads attacking Democratic candidates on COVID-19 school closings and “critical race theory” and entered the GOP primary.
He donated $5 million to a super PAC supporting the re-election of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and gave $1.9 million in bitcoins to Crypto Freedom PAC, a pro-cryptocurrency group that supports GOP Sen. Blake Masters in Arizona.

Timothy Mellon

Total donations: $40 million Retailers predict record holiday sales amid record inflation US Chamber rejects McCarthy’s call for new leadership Affiliation: Republican Mellon, a longtime major GOP donor, is the grandson of banking magnate Andrew Mellon and was chairman of a transportation company that was bought by freight railroad giant CSX this year.
The Wyoming-based billionaire donated $10 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund. He gave another $5 million to the Sentinel Action Fund, a super PAC aligned with the Heritage Foundation’s action fund that has spent most of its money on ads attacking Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). A big supporter of former President Trump and his efforts to tighten immigration laws, Mellon received attention for donating $53 million to the Texas border wall fund last year.

Sam Bankman-Fried

Total donations: $39.8 million Affiliation: Democrat Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of crypto exchange FTX, is a new addition to the list of top sponsors.
The billionaire crypto executive sent most of his donations — $28 million — to Protect Our Future PAC, a super PAC focused on preventing the next pandemic that mostly supported Democrats facing progressives in the primaries.
That’s a fraction of the $1 billion total that Bankman-Fried previously said he would spend supporting Democratic candidates in the midterms and the 2024 election. He called his earlier statement a “dumb quote” in an interview to Politico earlier this month, arguing that more donations can go that far in the general election. “At some point, when you’ve given your message to the voters, there’s not much more you can do,” Bankman-Fried said.

Fred Eichaner

Total donations: $35.8 million Affiliation: Democrat Eychaner, a longtime Democratic mega-donor and supporter of LGBT causes, runs Newsweb Corporation, which owns several radio stations and newspapers in the Chicago area.
He is the top donor to the Democratic House Majority PAC. He gave $9 million to the House Majority PAC and donated another $8 million to the Senate Majority PAC. Eychaner consistently gives the maximum allowable donation to the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic campaign committees.

Stephen Schwarzman

Total Donations: $35.5M Affiliation: Republican Schwarzman heads the Blackstone Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms.
The New York billionaire donated $10 million to both the Senate Leadership Fund and the Congressional Leadership Fund, providing a huge boost to Republicans’ bid to regain control of Congress. He has been one of the top 10 donors in each of the last three elections.

Peter Thiel

Total Donations: $32.6M Affiliation: Republican Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and currently runs data analytics firm Palantir Technologies, has emerged as a major GOP booster.
Thiel joins the list of top donors for the first time, primarily placing his bets on two GOP Senate candidates. He gave $15 million to a super PAC supporting Blake Masters of Arizona, a former Thiel executive, and another $15 million to a super PAC supporting JD Vance in Ohio.

Larry Ellison

Total donations: $31 million Retailers predict record holiday sales amid record inflation US Chamber rejects McCarthy’s call for new leadership Affiliation: Republican With an estimated net worth of nearly $100 billion, according to Forbes, Ellison is by far the richest person on this list.
The president of Oracle Corp. donated $20 million to the Opportunity Matters Fund, a super PAC aligned with Sen. Tim Scott (RS.C.) that supports GOP candidates in close Senate races.