Despite being solidly Democratic for decades, California contributes more money to the GOP than any state other than Florida. This election cycle, much of that funding is going to members of one of the GOP’s most extreme clubs: election deniers.
Election denial is a spectrum that includes everything from conspiracy theories regarding Antifa or Venezuela switching votes to unfounded concerns about the reliability of mail-in ballots. The effect is often the same: undermining trust in the democratic process. For the purposes of this article, a candidate is considered an election denier if they’ve made unsubstantiated claims of significant voter impropriety, objected to or refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory, or cast doubt on the ability to gauge the legitimacy of elections. This cycle, most Republican nominees for House, Senate and key statewide offices are election deniers.
Some Republican donors simply may be looking to further their own economic agenda by supporting small government and limited regulation, but Nancy MacLean, historian and author of Democracy in Chains, considers them responsible for the GOP’s anti-democratic movement.
“Donors who are far to the right of ordinary Republicans on questions of political economy are proving willing to weaponize prejudices in order to get base voters out to the polls,” MacLean says. “Donors have now shown they will leverage disinformation to animate that base that gets more and more ‘loony right’ with things like QAnon, the attack on the Capitol, and election denial.”
According to Bob Stern, the former president of the Center for Governmental Studies and co-author of the Political Reform Act of 1974, it should come as no surprise that many of those donors call the Golden State home.
“California has always been known as the ATM for the rest of the country,” Stern says. “During races, you see all the presidential candidates, a lot of Senate candidates, and some House candidates coming out to California.”
When candidates do visit, they’re welcomed by a robust fundraising ecosystem that has raised more than half a billion dollars this cycle, which is still a far cry from the almost $1.7 billion raised in 2020. That’s because midterm races don’t attract as much attention as presidential ones do. Though there’s less money this year, each dollar is more influential.
“A $5,000 contribution means a lot more in a local race than it does in a federal race,” Stern says.
California’s top GOP donors are making use of that during this cycle by spreading out their donations to dozens of Senate and House candidates across the country.
After Capital & Main cross-referenced Federal Election Commission data with statements made and actions taken by candidates, California’s biggest funders of election deniers become clear. In total, seven California donors whose individual political contributions totaled more than $1,000,000 gave at least $100,000 to election-denying candidates’ campaigns or single-candidate committees. Notably, everyone on this list also donated to PACs that subsequently donated to other election-denying candidates, but for the purposes of this article, only direct contributions are included in the count. Every donor was contacted for comment, but none responded.
California’s top GOP donors are making use of that during this cycle by spreading out their donations to dozens of Senate and House candidates across the country.
After Capital & Main cross-referenced Federal Election Commission data with statements made and actions taken by candidates, California’s biggest funders of election deniers become clear. In total, seven California donors whose individual political contributions totaled more than $1,000,000 gave at least $100,000 to election-denying candidates’ campaigns or single-candidate committees. Notably, everyone on this list also donated to PACs that subsequently donated to other election-denying candidates, but for the purposes of this article, only direct contributions are included in the count. Every donor was contacted for comment, but none responded.
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