Just 50 billionaire families have already injected more than $600 million collectively into the crucial 2024 elections, with that number sure to show accelerating growth in the final six months of the campaign. These billionaire clans donated the $600 million mostly to political parties, political action committees (PACs) and outside spending groups (Super PACs) as of May 9, offering further proof that the nation’s richest families consider democracy just another commodity they can buy.
This is the latest in a series of “billionaires buying elections” reports from Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF). It is the first in the series to look beyond the political donations of individual billionaires to those of billionaire families. Wealth is a family affair, so this broader frame provides a more accurate picture of how the country’s great family fortunes are being wielded in the political arena.
Over two-thirds (69%, or $416 million) of the contributions from America’s biggest billionaire-family donors supported Republican candidates and conservative causes. Less than a quarter (23% or $137 million) backed Democratic office-seekers and progressive positions. (There is no clear partisan label for the remaining 8% of donations.)
That pronounced GOP tilt is a sign that the political spending of billionaire families is largely an investment in preserving familial wealth and power. That’s because it is Democrats, including President Biden, who are pushing for more effective taxation of great wealth, the income generated by that wealth, and the transfer of wealth between generations. Republicans advocate for just the opposite: lower taxes on the rich, on the corporations they control and on the great inheritances that perpetuate and exacerbate wealth inequality.
We need more effective taxation of billionaires and on intergenerational wealth transfers, as well as tighter campaign-finance laws, to curb this power grab by America’s economic dynasties.
The whole report is worth your time to read, maybe at lunchtime? You’re sure to be hungry for a nice Billionaire Burger by the time you’re done reading.
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