California billionaires invested a record $612 million in election campaigns — RMF24

California billionaires directed a record $612 million to campaigns ahead of the U.S. congressional elections. RMF24 reports this, citing an analysis by Politico.

Billionaires’ political registrations

Politico identified 166 billionaires in California’s voter registry. Of them, 36% are registered Democrats, while the figure among all voters in the state is 45%. Republicans account for 22% of registered billionaires. The largest group among the state’s wealthiest voters consists of those not registered with any party: 39%, compared with 23% among all California voters.

Among billionaires who stated support for Democrats, the outlet names Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI chief Sam Altman, and Anthropic founder Dario Amodei. Registered Republicans include former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Golden State Warriors and Golden State Valkyries owner Joe Lacob, as well as entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, who donated money to Donald Trump.

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Major campaign spending

Billionaire Tom Steyer spent more than $200 million on an unsuccessful campaign in the gubernatorial primaries. Another more than $300 million was directed toward a campaign against a proposal to impose a one-time tax on the state’s wealthiest residents, led by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Surgeon and inventor Gary Michelson also spent tens of millions of dollars on election activities.

More than 30 billionaires from the registry live in San Francisco, while another 15 live in Los Angeles. More than 60% of the billionaires identified by Politico voted in each of the last three presidential elections. On Tuesday, Americans are to elect the entire House of Representatives, 35 of 100 senators, and governors in 36 states.