Billionaires spent more money in the 2022 Elections than in any previous campaign cycle, with the DeVos family leading the way in Michigan

According to a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness, US Billionaires spent over $1 Billion in the 2022 Midterm Elections, which is the most the Billionaire class has ever spent during any election cycle.

In the introduction to this new report, it states: 

Billionaires have plenty of money with which to try to buy elections, their net worth increased by 58% to a staggering $4.7 trillion during the roughly three years of the pandemic alone. The failure of America’s tax system to fairly tax the income and wealth of billionaires leaves the with lots of excess cash to spend on candidates and causes. Meanwhile, the breakdown of campaign-finance controls since the Supreme Court’s notorious Citizens United decision in 2010 has made it easy for tycoons to translate their economic clout into political power.

Billionaires in Michigan also contributed significantly to this increase in campaign funding by Billionaires, with Dan Gilbert, the Stryker family, and Hank & Doug Meijer among those who influenced the 2022 Elections. However, of all the members of the Billionaire Class in Michigan, the DeVos family contributed the most in the 2022 Midterm Elections. 

As we documented in November of 2022, the DeVos family spent $12,304,750 to influence electoral outcomes, and that was just in Michigan. The DeVos family has also contributed millions to political candidates in other states, which you can research at https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup. Lastly, there is Dark Money contributions that the DeVos family has made, but are difficult to track since many of these Dark Money groups do not reveal who their contributors are. For more on Dark Money groups, go here https://www.opensecrets.org/dark-money/basics.

The Americans for Tac Fairness report concludes by saying:

We must end the vicious cycle of the ultra-wealthy using their vast fortunes to exploit a broken campaign finance system to support candidates who will cut their taxes, allowing them to amass even greater wealth which they can use to continue the process. When billionaires throw huge sums of money into elections, they shape the debate to their liking and in the process distort what limited form of democracy that exists in the US. 

Of course, like all necessary changes, this will have to happen from the bottom up, since neither the Republican or Democratic Parties are interested in limiting the role that the Billionaire Class plays in Electoral Politics or Public Policy.