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Harris Backed by 9.6X More ‘Dark Money’ Than Trump

More than $220 million from "dark money" nonprofits has already flowed into super PACs spending money on the presidential race.

Harris Backed by 9.6X More ‘Dark Money’ Than Trump
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris attends a campaign event at Divine Faith Ministries International on October 20, 2024 in Jonesboro, Georgia. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)

The Kamala Harris campaign has a massive advantage over the Donald Trump campaign in super PAC contributions from secretive “dark money” groups. 

Super PACs supporting Harris have raised at least $195.8 million from dark money groups this election cycle, while those backing Trump have raised at least $20.2 million, according to a Sludge analysis of Federal Election Commission data. 

These dark money groups are organized as either social welfare groups or trade associations, both forms of nonprofits that are not required by the Internal Revenue Service to disclose their donors. 

To conduct this analysis, Sludge analyzed contributions to the 30 super PACs that have spent the most on independent expenditure targeting Trump or Harris. There are nearly 300 super PACs that have made independent expenditures on the 2024 presidential race, but the 30 largest are responsible for 89% of the total spending. This analysis does not consider unions, LLCs, or family trusts to be dark money groups. It also does not include so-called “gray money” groups that disclose their donors but receive some funding from non-disclosing groups.

“The public has a right to know who is trying to influence their votes and who is trying to curry favor with political candidates through large contributions to outside groups like super PACs and dark money groups,” said Michael Beckel, research director for the cross-partisan group Issue One. “Wealthy special interests can use dark money contributions to help ingratiate themselves with their preferred candidate without any public scrutiny.”

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