Donor to Democrats and Republicans: billionaire George Soros. Ken Griffin and Peter Thiel as top sponsors at the Midterms

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Big donor: Hedge fund billionaire

donated $67 million to Republicans

Photo: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg

All 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and 35 out of 100 seats in the US Senate are up for election: The midterms in the US are primarily about the question of whether the Republicans will regain the majority and thus power in the US Congress.

Billions of dollars are being wrestled for power: At just under $17 billion, the 2022 midterm elections were the most expensive elections in US history, as the Open Secrets portal has calculated.

Funding for election campaigns and parties in the USA is hardly regulated.

Political action committees, called "PACs," can spend any amount of money on the parties and candidates they support.

Many billionaires such as the very rich industrialist

use the PACs to influence politics with money and still remain in the background.

Other very wealthy US citizens make no secret of their political preferences and openly donate millions to the various campaign organizations.

The Open Secrets organization, which promotes financial transparency in US politics, has compiled a list of the top party donors.

Among the top 25 are numerous Wall Street and Silicon Valley figures, but also very rich shadowy men with a clear political agenda.

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George Soros

: $128 million for the Democrats

Photo:

FABRICE COFFRINI/ AFP

First place in the list of individual donors goes to hedge fund founder

, who has supported the Democrats for decades and has become a stimulus figure on the right-wing scene in America.

Soros donated around

to the Democratic campaign fund in the

2022 midterm election year

.

The billionaire investor has withdrawn from active management of its Quantum fund, which was founded in 1970.

Among the top 25 individual donors, he belongs to the clear minority of those who profess liberal basic views and openly support the Democrats.

Of the top 25 financiers, 7 fund Democrats and 18 fund Republicans.

And compared to shadow man Barre Seid, who transferred company shares worth $1.5 billion to the ultra-conservative organization Marble Freedom Trust, Soros' donation looks downright modest.

In second place with around

donations is

, who together with his wife

according to the New York Times, is among the "most powerful conservatives you've never heard of."

Uihlein is the founder of the mail order company Uline with around 8000 employees.

Uihlein avoids the public, but within the company regularly rails against trade unions, taxes, state intervention and the LGBT movement.

He is a fond supporter of right-wing Republican candidates and has also sponsored Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Uihlein's wife Liz thinks the corona pandemic is overrated and quarantine measures are nonsense.

The two prefer to direct their millions in donations to the ultra-conservative "Liberty Principles" PAC.

Kenneth Griffin

, founder of the hedge fund Citadel, has donated around $

so far in 2022 , ranking third in the ranking.

Griffin has been one of the most reliable sponsors of the Trump party for years: he had already supported Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott in Florida with $ 5 million in the midterms of 2018 and helped Scott win in the important "swing state".

Griffin ranks alongside

and

to the very rich and well-established Wall Street greats, most of whom support the Republicans.

Griffin's Citadel fund manages around $50 billion.

At the same time, Griffin raised one of the largest securities dealers in the USA with Citadel Securities.

After Trump's election victory in 2016, Griffin and Singer sang the praises of deregulation - an obvious idea given the volume of his fund.

has interests similar to Griffin's,

with a nearly

is ranked 4th on the list of single donors.

Yass is the founder of trading house and Wall Street giant Susquehanna International Group (SIG).

His trading house is named after the Susquehanna River, which flows more tranquilly through New York and Pennsylvania.

His investment style is less contemplative: SIG has specialized in trading in derivatives and options and, like Griffin with Citadel, uses extremely complex mathematical models (quants).

Yass is also involved in trading cryptocurrencies: In the summer he publicly donated 100 bitcoins worth around 2 million dollars to the "Crypto Freedom PAC".

It is the largest single donation made in cryptocurrency to date.

, majority owner of the logistics company Pan Am Systems,

is number 5 on the top donor list .

According to open source, Mellon has donated

around

so far in 2022 , and another $10,000 - for whatever reason - to the Democrats.

Mellon thinks staunchly conservatively and has been railing against immigration and social aid programs for years: the now 80-year-old billionaire, who has now retired, has described state welfare as the "return of slavery".

Sealing off immigrants is a key concern for Mellon: in 2021, Mellon donated around $50 million to the state of Texas.

However, the donation was earmarked and was intended to help build the wall on the border with Mexico.

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Crypto billionaire

: 36 million dollars for the Democrats

Photo: Craig Barritt / Getty Images for CARE For Special Children

After the frontrunner George Soros, two other major donors for the Democrats follow in sixth and seventh place on the donor list:

is the founder and head of the crypto trading platform FTX and has already donated

this year .

The 30-year-old crypto billionaire Bankmann-Fried is one of the 100 richest Americans with assets of around $20 billion.

He was already one of Joe Biden's biggest financial supporters during the 2020 presidential campaign.

The head of Coinbase competitor FTX is a member of the "Giving what we can" initiative and plans, modeled on US billionaire Warren Buffett's "Giving Pledge",

, who has donated around $

so far in 2022, follows in 7th place

.

Eychaner runs the Newsweb Corporation, which owns newspapers in the Chicago area as well as TV and radio stations.

After the sale of the TV station WPWR TV to Fox Corp.

Eychaner founded the radio station WCPT with the task of giving progressive talk a voice in the USA.

Eychaner is an advocate for gay rights and, like Soros, supports several philanthropic organizations.

Eychaner had already supported the Democrats in the 2012 election campaign with a sum in the double-digit millions.

Trump fan: Blackstone boss

donated $35 million to Republicans.

8th place in donor ranking

Photo: John Moore/ Getty Images

Just behind Eychaner is one of the Republican Party's most loyal supporters:

, founder of the world's largest private equity investor Blackstone, also donated almost

in 2022 .

Schwarzman was the head of Donald Trump's economic advisory board for a time and is still considered Trump's most reliable supporter on Wall Street.

Schwarzman prefers to use his donations in contested swing states to drive Democratic candidates out of office.

On the list of individual donors,

"only" ranks 9th for the Republicans

with

Silicon Valley.

Thiel propagates radical capitalism, abhors the state and recently described the US government as "insane."

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Peter Thiel

(centre): Silicon Valley's "Dark Lord" supports candidates on the right-wing Republican fringe

Photo: © / Reuters/ REUTERS

Before the midterm elections, Thiel supported some of the most radical right-wing politicians as a mega-donor.

These include Trumpist and financial investor Blake Masters, who aspires to be a senator in Arizona and is aggressively spreading Trump's lie about voter fraud.

Masters sees a spiritual "mentor" in Thiel.

Thiel also supports JD Vance, who wants to represent Ohio in the Senate.

Vance is himself a wealthy financial investor, but in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy he picked up the story of the disadvantaged rednecks who were derided as hillbillies.

If Thiel's promoted southpaws Masters and Vance prevail in the key states of Arizona and Ohio, the majority in the Senate is likely to revert to the Republicans.

It would be a triumph for Thiel, the Dark Lord of Silicon Valley.

secured the last place among the top ten Bigspenders

.

in the midterm election year

.

Alongside Schwarzmann, the 78-year-old software billionaire Ellison is one of the long-standing Republican sponsors: in 2020 he transferred a quarter of a million dollars to Trump confidante Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.

California Senator Tim Scott received $15 million in campaign aid.

Ellison can afford it: Despite the price slide on the Nasdaq, his fortune is estimated at around $100 billion.

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Michael Bloomberg

: $28 million for the Democrats (No. 11)

Photo: JIM WATSON/ AFP

The fourth major donor for the Democrats,

, follows in 11th place .

the Democratic campaign

.

Bloomberg became a billionaire by founding the financial information service of the same name.

Bloomberg was elected mayor of New York in 2002 as a Republican candidate.

However, during his tenure and also after his departure as mayor, he campaigned for stricter gun laws and environmental protection, among other things.

He has been a major donor and an influential voice for the Democrats for many years - although his decision to enter the presidential race himself against Donald Trump at short notice in 2020 turned out to be an expensive flop for him.

He's still there: Casino billionaire

has once again made money available to the Republicans

Photo: John Locher/ AP

There are other prominent names in positions 12 to 25 of the top sponsors: with hedge fund manager

(Ellliott Capital, position 15) and

(16), for example, two other Wall Street greats who support the Republicans with sums in the millions support.

(17), founder of Lone Pine Capital, is also

one of the billionaire hedge fund managers who are betting on a "red wave", i.e. a comeback of the Republicans this year.

An exception among the financial artists is hedge fund manager James Simons (ranked 20th), who called Trump's presidency "terrible" and supported the Democrats with around $15 million.

At the bottom of the top 25 list is arch-conservative casino mogul

at No. 22, also a staunch Republican sponsor for decades.

In return, Adelson expects a largely free hand in his Las Vegas Sands gambling empire in the desert state of Nevada.

However, his commitment is on the decline: four years ago Adelson donated $113 million to the Republicans, this year it was only $15 million.

Finally,

, co-founder of the LinkedIn careers network, placed 25th.

Hoffmann donated around $10 million to the Democratic Party.