The money just keeps pouring into American elections—and there are new faucets added every cycle. In yet another record-setting year for political fundraising, Democrats attracted even more of America’s deepest pockets as now-President Joe Biden outraised Donald Trump both in small-dollar and outside donations.
Trump created a unique donor landscape over the last five years since he inspired so many wealthy Americans who hadn’t donated to campaigns much before—or even had been long-time Republicans—to contribute to opposing him. Groups like the conservative Lincoln Project and even liberal groups pounced on those donors to fund attack ads and support Biden’s campaign, but given that many of them saw Trump as a once-in-a-lifetime threat, it’s unclear whether they’ll stick around as liberal donors moving forward.
There were, however, several mega-donors who popped up this cycle who appear committed to remaining in the blue tent. Here are a few of the names that emerged in the Trump era that we expect to stick around. Click on the links to check out our full profiles of these donors.
Technically, Moskovitz’s entry into the liberal mega-donor role came in 2016. But as the Facebook co-founder billionaire put it himself, he was “slow to act” in that race, making a large donation to Hillary Clinton’s campaign late in the fall just before Clinton’s surprising loss to Trump. Since then, Moskovitz has given millions to help Democrats win in the 2018 midterms and in 2020. He gave nearly $50 million to liberals this most recent cycle, most of it going to Future Forward PAC with the goal of using highly targeted ads to sway voters for Biden. His giving put him in the top 10 individual donors for this cycle, Democrat or Republican, and Biden’s stated climate and economic goals should keep Moskovitz motivated to donate moving forward.
Reporters were puzzled during the Democratic primary early last year when they discovered Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who had sworn off dark money in her campaign, was being helped by Persist PAC to the tune of nearly $15 million from an unknown source. They were even more puzzled when filings later revealed the donor was Jurvetson, a psychologist in California with minimal donor history and even less name recognition. Jurvetson entered the mega-donor scene in earnest in 2018 with a $5.4 million gift to Women Vote!, the fundraising arm of Emily’s List, where she is currently a board member. After Warren dropped out of the primary, Jurvetson continued to help the Democrats: She gave $3.9 million to Forward Majority Action, a PAC focused on state-level races, $2.5 million to Silicon Valley-favorite Future Forward USA, $1 million to the Biden-supporting Unite the Country PAC, and $500,000 to the House Majority PAC.
Seth Klarman
True to the Trump era, Klarman is among the long-time Republicans who rerouted his dollars when Trump hit the scene—but it seems he’ll maintain his leftward course. The Wall Street billionaire who’s known to some as “the next Warren Buffett” has given to both Republicans and Democrats over the years, but has been more liberal on social issues, particularly LGBTQ rights. Klarman has made the majority of his largest gifts on record in the last four years, including $1.5 million to the anti-Trump Pacronym, $1 million to the Biden-supporting Priorities USA, and $2 million to the House Majority PAC in 2018. Considering Biden has pushed a bipartisan “unity” message in the early days of his administration, it’s likely Klarman will continue to support Democrats in the coming years as they look to maintain power in Washington.
Jessica Livingston
Livingston is the co-founder of Y Combinator, a tech start-up incubator she launched with her husband Paul Graham in 2005. Livingston has been outspoken about shifting the culture of Silicon Valley to be more inclusive toward women, and attributes the success of YC to its holistic approach. Donor records show Livingston had remained largely out of politics until 2016, when she supported Hillary Clinton’s Victory Fund with $300,000—puzzlingly, she also made a small donation to Green Party candidate Jill Stein after Election Day that year. Since then, she’s made a series of modest donations to state-level Democratic Party offices before reaching mega-donor status in 2020: Late in the race, she gave a total of $5 million to Tech for Campaigns, a tech-focused liberal group. Aside from a blog post urging people to vote shortly before the 2016 election, Livingston hasn’t said much publicly about politics, but given that donors tend to stay in the game once they break into large-scale giving, we should keep an eye on Livingston moving forward.
EBay’s first employee had a history of donating to Democrats before 2016, but he rose to mega-donor status in the Trump era. Skoll, who now runs a politically minded movie production company, Participant Media, which produced movies like “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Waiting for Superman,” shelled out millions to Democrats and liberal PACs in the 2020 cycle. In addition to the $2 million he gave to the Biden-supporting Priorities USA Action, he gave $4.5 million to the Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC as the party finally secured control of the chamber. Skoll is now reportedly funding an upcoming movie about the failures of Trump’s pandemic response, and we should expect his movies and donations to continue helping liberals in the years to come.
