Where the dark money comes from

This is a useful investigation:

There are the big donors to American elections, and then there are the biggest donors — the ones that can turn around candidates’ fortunes and sometimes even write history.

These are the billionaires who tower over Senate and House races. The corporations digging deep to increase their profits. The dark-money groups that want to keep their sources of cash secret forever.

The 20 biggest donors so far in the midterm elections — some of whom are grouped together because of close familial or business relationships — have combined to shovel a staggering $1.2 billion into federal races this cycle, according to a New York Times analysis of the latest contribution data available.

The lineup shows the rising power of the tech industry and is dominated by Republican-leaning donors, reflecting how the party has steadily built an advantage in midterm money. That edge could keep the party competitive despite a political environment that favors Democrats.

Whether Silicon Valley buying high on Trump will be good for the industry in the long run is debatable, but for now it’s another major complication in terms of winning the Senate in 2026. One thing that hasn’t been discussed enough is the very real possibility that Elon Musk’s massive spending spree in 2024 was a decisive factor in what turned out to be a close election.

Besides your Elons and Koches and Winkelvii, there’s another major interest flooding the zone:

I’m actually impressed that my home state continues to hold out against the apps, but obviously we’re a major outlier and the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.