Who Funded President Elections? Biggest Money Donors 1990 - 2024

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Money may run politics, but your support keeps this channel going! If you're a fan and feeling generous enough to contribute - your support would mean a lot to me. buymeacoffee.com/dataisbeautiful

[@Jimm8989]

For Bitcoin it's better to use a lightning address, so people can make small amount donations. Bitcoin on chain is for larger transactions.

[@Digby8]

I would stay away from crypto because of the many problems about it that you probably have already heard of but if you need the extra money that bad then take your risk i guess.

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

It probably doesn't matter, I still have zero balance from donations, lol

[@bondymagnomous3544]

@@Digby8 What problems?

[@Slawusi3k]

Any link for data sources?

[@canyouspotit726]

Imagine if all this cash went to fixing things instead of buying candidates.

[@SMASH_REVIEWS]

No Such world exists

[@delta_cosmic]

never gonna happen

[@matthewm6466]

All the problems in America are easier to fix than any of us even realize. They make money off the problems

[@matonolo]

All that money is spent on workers, marketing companies with thousands of employees, sometimes companies created just for these campaigns and so on... In the end all this money reaches the workers in one way or another, flowing from the millionaires to the entrepreneurs and workers. This is how the economy works, it is not zero sum.

[@CreativeMindsAudio]

Ugh right?! Also the amount of cash in this election is insane!

[@jerrygreenest]

- Bribes? - No, it's called funding elections...

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

One way to say.

[@yisroelkonovitch]

Bribes no it’s called lobbying

[@dinafoxm]

It's called capitalism.

[@RichUncleSkellington]

From Corporatism to Oligarchy in 30 years.

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Looks like.

[@АлексейБушуев-в8л]

imperialism

[@bazooka712]

@@АлексейБушуев-в8л Yes, the U.S. is invading AND annexing territory.. wait, that sounds like more the moscovite federation...

[@wenterinfaer1656]

But always plutocracy

[@zmarko]

This one should be called Data is Scary.

[@maxpelletier2237]

Yeah. Appart from Musk and Soros, never heard of any of those other bilionnaires pulling strings in the background.

[@rev3]

this is only biggest donors.. this election looks at red at the top but Harris spent 1B+ vs 400M-ish for trumpy

[@Pyramanager]

Should be called data is inaccurate or misleading. Majority of big companies donate to both sides. Even many individual millionaires and billionaires have donated to both sides. Trump for example prior to running donated to both sides as did musk

[@tylerward7068]

Imagine a country where political political donors don’t exist and candidates have a set campaign budget.

[@mikelarrivee5115]

How about a world where the government doesn't really do anything and so the election doesn't matter enough to spend billions on

[@elithelegobrick]

Costa rica I think

[@Amo86962]

In France candidates have a 20M euros (as in 20 millions) budget only lol. That's like a couple of days of commercials on the USA for a single candidat I guess ^^

[@mordecairigby6351]

We have that in brazil, trust me, it's worse

[@edsanville]

There are other ways to buy elections other than direct monetary donations.

[@TheShoe1990]

Would be nice if that money, instead, went into infrastructure, community projects, universal healthcare, public schools, etc.

[@CreativeMindsAudio]

I always find it funny that these people have no problem buying elections and spending hundreds of millions of dollars on it, but raise their taxes a penny and they hate you. even if it would mean needing to spend less on elections.

[@spiritusinfinitus]

Bitcoin Fixes This.

[@JasinJalatschi-ne4nv]

but would this still be the United States of America?

[@awhaleandadeer8785]

@@JasinJalatschi-ne4nv lol wtf?! solutions to problems is changing or dedtroying USA?? wtf,

[@AERoVALKYRiE]

Still less than money sent to Ukraine 🤡

[@igic1991]

And we should believe that they are doing this and asking nothing in return 😂

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Definitely not.

[@screech5360]

Just look up the openly available agendas of some of these top donors - Adelson, Koch, Uline, Mellon, Mercer - it's very clear the common's people good cannot happen if such donors control politicians.

[@igorpupkinable]

Well, now they own 93% of the wealth in US. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZmzl6NmZtemepI

[@dinafoxm]

I don't think anyone believes that.

[@i-Consume-Only-Useful-Content]

For elon it's innovation, he now has more freedom to do innovations without government interference in his business. He's already almost a trillionaire so he don't need any of that

[@sage5296]

the first things i’m learning from this is that companies like disney, AT&T, and UPS donate to election funds Also interesting to see different companies in the same field contributing oppositely (chase vs BoA for example) Jeez, the whole thing is just stacked with individuals at the end. The US really needs better legislation to cap campaign funding/spending

[@catladycatlady7359]

The solution would be donations by individuals only. No super pacs, organizations, no businesses, no corporations. Personally I say no donations and no ads whatsoever and all parties allowed on the debate stage all allowed on the ballots

[@VegasMax3]

I think the chart may sometimes be a bit misleading. AFAIK a lot of corporations donate to both sides.

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Some do, but most choose a side.

[@efrenreyes3863]

US needs better legislation to cap government expending and war financing, not to cap cooperation’s donations. You should be worry about what the government is doing with our money, and not what cooperations are doing with theirs. Like always, people looking at the wrong side.

[@Spectrometer]

@catladycatlady7359 that would not solve the problem completely. You can see that there are individual donors like Soros and the Adelson family. Some people still have a huge patrimony (mostly the most sucessful financial investors) and they can influence still the elections through individual donations.

[@johnbarker8717]

It’s interesting how the donation amounts began to go way up after Citizen’s United in 2010

[@Things_I_wish_I_knew]

I find this a bit odd especially towards the end there as the kamala campaign received SIGNIFICANTLY more money than the Trump campaign and he really didn't have a whole lot of mega donors until the last 8 months or so.

[@MaxRunia]

Yeah I thought the Kamala campaign was outspending him 4 to 1?

[@Digby8]

It's very interesting how donations went from less then 1 million to over 100 million as well as from mostly companies to mostly people!

[@Craigalicioususa]

I ❤️ 2024 taking our country back from the Anti-American propagandists!

[@lilarrin1220]

So basically, Americans are happily voting for which oligarchs will screw them over while staunchly believing their "lesser of two evils" approach actually matters

[@younsc7029]

Western democracy at its finest. The media is always free and honest, and the governments are moral and support human rights... (Sarcasm in case you didn't notice)

[@Pyramanager]

If you think this only applies to the west, then you’re naive. Also the video is purposefully misleading as majority of these companies donated to both sides

[@Jasper118]

The Chicago Cubs going hard red is not something I expected

[@John6-40]

It should be illegal for men and companies based overseas to donate and influence American politics. For very obvious reasons.

[@MaggotTayne]

Why draw the line at overseas? American billionaires are no different than Russian ones.

[@roamer1389]

This is beautiful indeed. Now we can expose every single company out there.

[@AJ5]

That can't be the best way to implement democracy...

[@CreativeMindsAudio]

Thanks for making this video and posting it before the election! It’s important to know where the money is going. But if I learned anything from this graph it is that money doesn’t always equal results in politics. But the amount spent on trump surprises and scares me.

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Thanks!

[@John6-40]

5 of the top 6 donors were funding Democrats during Trump vs Hillary. It only recently flipped towards Trump.

[@screech5360]

@@John6-40 And Trump even won 2016 even then. And now look at the agendas of these top donors - Adelson, Koch, Uline, Mellon, etc. Deregulation for large companies, Supporting global war, Actively funding climate denial. I don't think with such donors running the show the candidate will do anything for regular people.

[@CreativeMindsAudio]

yeah well at least i know why it scared me... things are gonna get real bad before they get better.

[@d.s.8733]

@@DataIsBeautifulOfficial The 2024 #s are WAY OFF!

[@xPeski]

What's up with Chicago Cubs?

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

The chairman and owner, Tom Ricketts, uses the Chicago Cubs as a channel to funnel money to presidential candidates.

[@sophiathe1st358]

Surprised me too, Chicago being very blue and all...

[@joesam7744]

Maybe they want their attendees to get there without being robbed or shot at.

[@johnreese7973]

​@@joesam7744 that would be nice

[@Krilium]

@@joesam7744 If they REALLY wanted that, they wouldn't be in America.

[@lifeintheriver342]

Very interesting to see such large private donors

[@catladycatlady7359]

As always great content! Always look forward to seeing a video from you in my feed! Definitely sharing this!

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

I appreciate that.

[@Akelei02]

Ich liebe Data!!! Super, super gut!!! Herzlichen Dank für diese aufwändige Arbeit mit diesen hoch interessanten Themen!

[@eliasvonbrille]

This somehow sounds super weird even in German. As if you used Google Translate.

[@dinafoxm]

@@eliasvonbrille+1

[@eliasvonbrille]

@@dinafoxm Dina Marquardt if that's your real name I think It's quite likely that we are related 😂

[@ChromaWRLD999]

I mean technically in the Trump-Clinton election Trump was the highest donor to himself

[@MelindaSordinoIsLiterallyMe]

Not true, he could certainly have lend his own campaign a lot of money, but he is super stingy and never self-funded

[@ChromaWRLD999]

@@MelindaSordinoIsLiterallyMe nah before he was elected the republican nominee he took no money from anyone, after which he started taking donations

[@BigMamaJama]

@@MelindaSordinoIsLiterallyMepathetic lib liars. What is wrong with you?

[@chandlerbraaten847]

The companies don't scare me as much as the individuals. For one person to have that much power over the system is crazy.

[@bruhdude6712]

you forget that many companies can be owned by just a few of people

[@thecutellama76]

So republicans got the most funding in 2024 from these donors but Harris still outspent Trump 3:1...... And lost! Amazing graph, I've never seen this before and subscribing immediately....

[@Novusod]

This is one of the best videos you have ever made. It should played in front of congress and on national Television as proof we need a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics.

[@akisps_production]

USA isn't an oligarchy...... Meanwhile USA:

[@Ewinter3707]

It’s interesting how it has shifted from corporations to individuals investing in candidates.

[@heavyd777]

Now do military and federal contractors.

[@Furrrburger]

Crazy money, yet just a drop in the bucket compared to their profits each year.

[@etms]

Corruption in US english is spelled lobbying

[@wenterinfaer1656]

This is just the tip of the infamous iceberg. US laws don't exactly make campaign funding transparent.

[@ersankuneri4815]

Why is this list looks like a Bar Mitzvah guest list?

[@sanipine]

Beautiful: All these companies actually donate out of pure altruism and don't expect anything in return...ohh, a purple unicorn...where was I?

[@TheSignofJonah777]

Fun fact you can’t donate more than $1,600 unless you are a business

[@CSqrdX]

Fun fact, you can donate as much as you want to a Political Action Committee that supports your candidate of choice. Ask all the major donors that you see on this list.

[@TheSignofJonah777]

@ if you donate through a corporation. Otherwise no

[@MosesYouTubePage]

let's vote against them

[@teekanne15]

Fascinitating but the continuously increasing bars seem misleading and not adequate representation.

[@cihank7807]

Where is AIPAC?

[@patrickgambill9326]

The largest donors increased their donations by 100x by the end of the video

Amazing, it would be much better to watch it in vertical format to allow more bars with stories

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Noted

[@zapatoshigs5792]

This is a very interesting video, but where did you source this data ?

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Federal Election Commission

[@spiritusinfinitus]

Imagine if there were no political parties and people could vote directly for issues that interested them instead...

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Interesting idea.

[@neo778]

For some big questions maybe, but … Do you know how many decisions have to be made every day in parlament?

[@astonvillafan47]

wouldn't work there are way too many issues

[@spiritusinfinitus]

@@astonvillafan47 You could have an infinite number of issues. People would only need to give their attention to issues that concern them. The level of interest for particular issues would directly govern the priority of each issue. It is the current form of representative governance which is based on an outdated system hundreds of years old that doesn't scale.

[@spiritusinfinitus]

@@neo778 Yes. Not very many. Consider the UK Parliament, for example. There are 650 Members of Parliament and the process of bringing a single issue through the arcane system so that it is discussed in the House can take months after which the MP is selected to be able to stand up in Parliament and discuss this issue for maybe a few minutes. It is massively inefficient process which often never ever brings issues to Parliament.

[@normanthiel9725]

Whoever wondered about or searched for the song -> Atakan46 - Ferrari

[@theboardshorts]

Thank you! I've been wondering that for YEARS! Ever since I found this channel. Good job!

[@freespeech7747]

Imagine a world where the government just provided core centralised public services and ensured everyone had a roof over their head and food in their belly

[@God_emperor_Doom]

Huge W for billionaires and multi millionaires who endorsed republican party 💯👏🏻👏🏻

[@tostyjoost]

great! looks good. thanks

[@onue2shipsinkingtitanicfan7160]

I subscribed you!

[@Koozwad]

both sides are the same side, and give the illusion of choice

[@jarrettembry643]

Wow. The craziest part is that the largest donor in 1990 was 1.27M (in 2024 dollars), compared to today, where the top donor is 147.04M…

[@Strawhat_Pirates3D2Y]

I would like to see this, but without the entire historical data, but just with the 2024 election cycle itself.

[@amyddubose1]

The Adelson family’s primary goal according to their website is: The Adelson Family Foundation was established in 2007 by Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson. The primary purpose of the Foundation is to strengthen the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

[@Wallymakesstuff]

I found this pretty enlightening, and then did some research and realized that this doesn’t show many of the Harris campaign donors, such as Bill Gates who donated $50B in 2024. Would be nice to see this done without eliminating selective parties.

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

I only eliminated unions and volunteer groups. The rest of the data is from public sources.

[@jamisonlamkin5576]

That juxtaposition between Yass and Musk was beautiful.

[@bossdoss6027]

Crazy don’t forget a lot of these companies actually donate to both parties to hedge their bets

[@delta_cosmic]

and now we know where the money ends up during elections

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

You mean all the garbage ads?

[@shadow-man8715]

It ends up going to other countries rather than American citizens

[@theboardshorts]

​@@shadow-man8715. How does it end up in other countries?

[@Walooeegie]

All I see is rich people trying to fight against what the people really wants, and failing a lot of times.

[@L.I.T.H.I.U.M]

Here are the technicalities: Donations are considered a form of free speech because they enable people to express support for candidates or causes, as ruled in Buckley v. Valeo (1976). It's categorized as 'free speech' as even thought people and companies could still express their support verbally, if it wasn't categorized as 'free speech'. But the Supreme Court’s reasoning is that money amplifies speech, allowing messages to reach larger audiences through media and ads. Without this, significant restrictions on campaign funding would limit the ability to scale up a message, which would disproportionately affect those without established influence, making it harder for lesser-known or underfunded candidates to compete.

[@DanielKolbin]

very interesting

[@janeentumbao8690]

Follow the money indeed!❤🎉❤🎉❤🎉❤ Side note... Chicago being mostly navy blue (and most of Cook County), I'm surprised that the Cubs supported team read. So weird!!!😂😂😂

[@theboardshorts]

The owner is VERY red. He uses the business to as a channel to funnel his money to the Republicans.

[@hermanatator]

It went from about 150M total funded in 2015 to over 650M in 2024 just the republicans (a bit over 120M the democrats). it looks like they are willing to burn as much money as they need to win

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Both parties are pouring in record amounts, no one’s holding back in the fight for influence.

[@hermanatator]

@@DataIsBeautifulOfficial Both are pouring in records amounts, but what you are showing in the data, at least from top private funders, is that republicans are getting about 5 times more funding. Does the balance even up by adding small and public funders?

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Agree, they're getting several times more funding from whale donors. Unfortunately I have no data about total numbers, Federal Election Commission may publish this one day.

[@hermanatator]

@@DataIsBeautifulOfficial got it, thank you for the answer

[@rayr6278]

​@@hermanatatorHarris raised 1.65 billion of which her campaign controlled 1 billion. Trump raised 1.1 billion of which his campaign controlled 381 million.

[@Comedy3610]

No honorable mention for Bill Gates $50M donation or Dustin Moskovitz $30M donation?

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Moskovitz is here. Open data doesn't show Gate's donations for 2024.

[@Sadamkhan-rd3pp]

God bless America 😂😂😂

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Amen

[@Verdant02]

The top donors don't like this phrase

[@wmkwm-y4c]

​@@Verdant02I guess we didn't look at the same chart

[@jimalldridge2170]

Data ARE beautiful.

[@kwslack8513]

Cubs win! Cubs win!!

[@brianquigley1940]

The predominance of billionaires influencing the money flow is almost enough to make you believe in conspiracies.... What terrifies me is that it is so public... it's not even subtle...

[@dcavalli9]

Well, if we insist on a large, powerful government with considerable regulatory powers, it is only natural that those parties who are being regulated will seek to influence how they are regulated, if at all. "Big Money in Politics" is just a logical product of "Big Government.

[@neugey]

This one needed darker and more ominous music

[@themachine9366]

A donation is not just money. It is ads and media. Making a documentary or a movie about a candidate literally counts as a donation.

[@Patricia-x4g]

FEC stated Kamala campaign spent more than Trump : Harris entered August with more money than Trump, and managed to raise more than she spent over the month. Trump’s campaign, by contrast, spent more than it raised despite far fewer expenses. Her campaign reported taking in $190 million; his, just shy of $45 million. The vice president’s campaign outspent Trump $174 million to $61 million in August. But Harris’ preexisting cash advantage and superior fundraising mean that she ended the month with $235 million, $100 million more than Trump.

[@lifeintheriver342]

This video only shows largest individual donors' cumulative donations over time. It doesn't show overall campaign funding.

[@pzudemnut8]

Why is there no Donation Limit in the US? :) Thats a crazy amount of Money. Better put that Money in the Country for the People.

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Blame Citizens United, since 2010, there’s been no limit on corporate or PAC donations. It’s a wild amount of money!

[@davidlowe8597]

Interesting, if this is correct, there seems to be a direct correlation with the amount of money donated and who wins the election.

[@macazootie]

For anyone still confused how the election went the way it did

[@astang1072]

People get mad seeing big private money funding their political opposition but they’re fine with big private money that funds the ones they vote for.

[@maximumcaffeine6003]

Red team wins. Who am I kidding, they're both the same.

[@maxchess6734]

For me it's kinda the opposite, like "hold on there's this much corruption ? Damn"

[@-dtuyhnjhggvjjjn]

That AI thumbnail is looking a little melted tbh

[@zondervonstrek]

Who would have thought Uline and the guy who imported Power Rangers would be major political donors?

[@manatalk]

War Is A Racket: Smedley Butler

[@michealrosen]

So it went from corporations funding to billionaire old men funding it okay lol

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Haha, pretty much.

[@albertfcb6654]

could be cuz companies wana stay neutral to not upset any1?

[@CNMBTLJN]

@@albertfcb6654or it looks bad on the balance sheet, but if you’re an individual your balance sheet is private.

[@SimonSkipper]

If Bernie Sanders saw this, he would have a heart attack!

[@theboardshorts]

Believe me, Bernie KNOWS this. That's exactly WHY he's been trying to change things for the (far) better. Unfortunately though, all this money only goes toward ads and campaigns and propaganda to make him look like an idiot. He is definitely not the idiot. In future America will realize its mistake in ignoring Bernie at these treacherous times.

[@sonofasalesman]

*Who funds presidential elections that we KNOW of...*

[@legacyfather]

What's with the Cubs?

[@jeffgouldie8462]

I'm wondering why the Adelson "family" is listed and not an individual person. I've never heard of them but the distinction of individual people at the top and businesses was very interesting but why the distinction of "family" here? From all the media attention about Soros, I would ask if he has other family members that are giving. I don't know...just trying to understand. I wish that there was some way to also measure influence or subscribers since the shift has been from subscriber count of newspapers to KZbin and searchers of Google and other online platforms. I always appreciate watching these videos that you put together!

[@DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Sheldon Adelson passed away in 2021, but donations continued through his fund, which is now controlled by his family. I decided to keep it under one umbrella in the chart.

[@jeffgouldie8462]

@DataIsBeautifulOfficial That helps! Whenever I see details like that which are different. I never know. Thanks for clarifying! Enjoy your videos!

[@official.landry]

WTF Garlinghouse? you didn't get sued enough the last 4 years?

[@terrybaileysr.3714]

What is fascinating to me is how often the biggest donors side did not win. Also you can use your money in ways other than direct donations. For example using your money to control the media. Thus feeding propaganda to the masses. That money other than ads does not show up in this chart.

[@ricasperger]

Source? I am interested in particular in the donation of Citadel to Trump in 2024...

[@muhammedjaseemshajeef6781]

1:22 didn't expect george soros here😅

[@victor_2216]

Soros is one of the most active billionaires on the planet, with a clear left-wing ideology that has been public for decades.

[@rev3]

It's not accurate - Chinese government via proxies should be on there somewhere

[@freesk8]

Power corrupts. The amount of money that is donated by these big corps and wealthy individuals is proportional to how much power they think they can buy from those who win elections. If we want less money in elections, we need to give less power to politicians.

[@technicalgamers7324]

With less power less responsibility

[@freesk8]

@@technicalgamers7324 ...there will tend to be less corruption.

[@GalateaTurke]

Thanks for sharing such valuable information! I need some advice: I have a SafePal wallet with USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (alarm fetch churn bridge exercise tape speak race clerk couch crater letter). Could you explain how to move them to Binance?

[@brunoanastacio1512]

Here, we don't say bribe. We say "funding elections" 😅😢

[@Kamelot19]

why is Kamala in your thumbnail only in the the background behind Trump? Are you making a political statement with that?

[@shadow-man8715]

Are you the kind to analyze every single thing? 😂and so what if he's a Trumper?

[@muhammedjaseemshajeef6781]

0:42 republicans got all oil companies

[@sandrohernandez4401]

AT&T was going crazy

[@AydoCY]

May i remind you that 1 billion is 1000x 1 million

[@studgerbil9081]

Investing in future tax breaks and freedom from environmental regulations. The list doesn't include private foreign contributors.

[@moomoooinkies9352]

with those a mount of money and resources total, we probably already discovered a cancer cure lol

[@JennLeRoy]

All that money behind trump and he’s still going to lose. 😂😂

[@stevefarley2676]

Do you think you will cry when Trump wins?

[@clairee4939]

@@stevefarley2676 I don’t like Trump much but were he to win I think it would be good for democracy in a way. Imagine five years of him not being a fascist again and the lefties having to get a grip!!! 😂

[@JennLeRoy]

@ I hope so, while being carted away in handcuffs.

[@shadow-man8715]

I don't understand people who hate him don't vote for him. Obviously him being back in office would be best for the country and just because you don't like him doesn't mean you have to vote the other way. So idiotic to do that honestly. I've heard people that don't like him are still going to vote for him.

[@sandrohernandez4401]

I still think he is gonna win. Don't underestimate the MAGA fans. They are very devoted.

[@CryptoQuest1]

Did anyone else notice how Soros disappeared at the end?

[@andreycamper5863]

wow, interesting