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据美国联邦选举委员会10月初的统计，2026年选举周期已筹集资金超过160亿美元，且数额仍在增长。
这笔资金大部分并非流向候选人或政党，而是通过政治行动委员会（PAC）流转。
其中包括全球首富埃隆·马斯克的巨额支出。为帮助共和党保住参众两院的多数席位，他很可能成为本次选举的最大支出者。
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左翼也有富人的支出——乔治·索罗斯和迈克尔·布隆伯格将是本周期最大的支出者之一，但他们的支出与流向右翼的大额捐款相比显得相形见绌。而且，我们可能需要数月甚至数年才能更清楚地了解那些通过“暗钱团体”流动的资金情况，这些团体的披露要求甚至比政治行动委员会更为有限。
我采访了CNN的弗雷德丽卡·朔滕（Fredreka Schouten），了解我们目前所知的今年竞选支出详情。
朔滕： 目前看，共和党占优——尤其在参议院选举中。
整个选举周期，我们看到民主党参众两院候选人的个人筹款表现优于共和党对手。但今年秋天，大量资金开始涌入以援助共和党，而且数额之大超乎想象。
看看活跃在参议院选举中的两个超级政治行动委员会。民主党阵营的“参议院多数党政治行动委员会”（Senate Majority PAC）宣称，本周期已筹集3.54亿美元，创下该委员会的筹款纪录。这一成绩相当亮眼。
但由共和党主导、旨在助力共和党人当选参议院议员的主要超级政治行动委员会——“参议院领导基金”（Senate Leadership Fund，简称SLF），筹集的资金超过5.4亿美元。
与此同时，亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克以及与唐纳德·特朗普总统结盟的团体，正投入数千万美元助力共和党候选人。
我们的同事、长期关注政治广告的大卫·赖特（David Wright）报道称，面对共和党的巨额资金攻势，民主党有一个优势：他们的资金能发挥更大作用。
为什么？因为共和党更依赖超级政治行动委员会，这些委员会支付的广告费用更高，而且他们往往在广告库存紧张的情况下才做出购买决定。
朔滕： 埃隆·马斯克。
这位全球首富也是本次选举周期披露信息中最大的单笔捐款人。最新报告显示，截至10月中旬，他的捐款已突破4亿美元大关。而且选举尚未结束，因此我们尚无法完整统计他的影响。
但别忘了，2024年选举期间，他斥资约2.9亿美元助力唐纳德·特朗普总统和共和党人当选，当时就引发了巨大关注。
如今，他已成为美国前所未有的超级捐款人。
例如，9月份，这位亿万富翁分两笔向“参议院领导基金”捐赠了总计1.58亿美元，这笔资金似乎立即流向了另一个团体——得克萨斯州政治行动委员会（Texas PAC）。该团体随后将大笔资金用于帮助共和党人肯·帕克斯顿（Ken Paxton）在竞争激烈的参议院选举中击败民主党候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科（James Talarico）。
如果帕克斯顿胜出，马斯克绝对是他应当感谢的人之一。
不久前，马斯克因与特朗普公开不和，曾表示要脱离共和党并组建自己的政党。但他的捐款表明，他已回归共和党阵营。
另一个重要动向是与特朗普相关的支出。他创立的超级政治行动委员会“MAGA Inc.”全年都在大量储备现金，因为共和党人担心失去参众两院的多数席位。
随后在9月份，与特朗普结盟的资金开始流向包括帕克斯顿在内的共和党候选人。“MAGA Inc.”还资助了两个新成立的超级政治行动委员会，名称听起来并不起眼：“No Going Back PAC”和“Safety & Affordability PAC”，这两个委员会都活跃于中期选举。
这些超级政治行动委员会的名称并未向选民传递明确信息——它们所投放的广告与特朗普相关，而这位总统在中期选举中的支持率处于历史低位。
特朗普最近表示，他的政治机器预计将在选举日前投入4亿美元，以帮助共和党保住国会多数席位。他有资金这样做。
我们的同事萨拉·费里斯（Sarah Ferris）和帕特里克·斯维特克（Patrick Svitek）最近报道称，共和党的巨额资金攻势让国会山的民主党人感到恐慌。
前纽约市长迈克尔·布隆伯格的行动吸引了关注，他历来在选举中介入较晚。这位亿万富翁的团队最近宣布，将在最后时刻注入8000万美元资金以援助民主党人。
朔滕： 这位亿万富翁历来是民主党的主要资金来源。他的政治运作目前由儿子亚历克斯（Alex）负责，已向其控制的超级政治行动委员会“Democracy PAC”和“Democracy PAC II”投入超过1亿美元。
这些政治行动委员会会将资金提供给其他左翼倾向的政治行动委员会，比如“Fulcrum PAC”——该委员会参与的可能是本次选举的“黑马”竞争：在红色根深蒂固的密西西比州，一场出人意料的激烈美国参议院竞选。
资金数额巨大，但索罗斯并非我们所知的本次选举中最大的参与者。
朔滕： 真正的大玩家是富豪和企业。例如，仅在9月份，“MAGA Inc.”当月筹集的2400万美元中，就有四分之三来自三个人：赌场大亨史蒂夫·韦恩（Steve Wynn，800万美元）、黑石集团首席执行官斯蒂芬·施瓦茨曼（Stephen Schwarzman，500万美元）以及威斯康星州 roofing 行业亿万富翁黛安·亨德里克斯（Diane Hendricks，500万美元）。
私人监狱公司的子公司GEO Reentry Services当月也向“MAGA Inc.”捐赠了100万美元，该公司持有美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）的联邦运营合同。
扎克（Zach），你对“MAGA Inc.”和其他特朗普相关项目的部分捐款人进行了深入调查。
沃尔夫（Wolf）： 那是在6月份，我主要关注“MAGA Inc.”的捐款人可能希望从联邦政府获得什么。
朔滕： 这是人工智能爆发以来的首次重大选举。我们看到大量政治广告由人工智能生成，制作成本低廉但可能模糊现实。制作从未发生过的候选人负面场景的虚假画面极为容易，而联邦政府尚未对这项技术出台配套监管措施。
我们最近深入调查了这一趋势。
根据我们的报道：
沃尔夫： 报道这项工作感觉就像解谜——事后从联邦选举委员会的报告中拼凑信息。选举结束后，你最希望了解什么？
朔滕： 我们将更接近最终统计公开披露的捐款情况，尽管很难想象会有人超过马斯克。我们也能更清楚地了解无法追踪的资金——来自非营利组织和空壳公司的捐款——如何影响选举，尽管这类信息往往需要很长时间才能披露。
最后，选举结果本身将告诉我们，谁做出了明智的赌注——或者，谁可能只是让顾问和政治生态系统中的其他成员获利。
CNN的大卫·赖特（David Wright）参与了本次报道。
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
More than $16 billion and counting has been raised during the 2026 election cycle, according to an early October tally by the Federal Election Commission.
Most of that money flowed not through candidates or political parties, but rather through political action committees.
That includes massive spending by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who is also likely to be the election’s largest spender as he tries to save Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
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There is spending by rich people on the left — George Soros and Michael Bloomberg will be among the biggest spenders of the cycle. But their spending has been dwarfed by the big-dollar contributions funneled to the political right. And it may be months or years before we get a better accounting of money that flowed through dark money groups facing even more limited disclosure requirements than PACs.
I went to CNN’s Fredreka Schouten for more on what we know so far this year about campaign spending.
SCHOUTEN: Right now, it’s Republicans — particularly when it comes to Senate races.
All year long, we’ve seen individual Democratic candidates for the House and Senate outperform their GOP rivals. But the big money began arriving this fall to help Republicans. And, boy, has it ever.
Just look at the two super PACs active in Senate races. The Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC is touting that it has raised $354 million this cycle, a record for the group. Not shabby.
But SLF, also known as Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC working to elect Republicans to the Senate, raised more than $540 million.
At the same time, billionaire Elon Musk and groups aligned with President Donald Trump are putting tens of millions of dollars into races to help Republicans.
Our colleague David Wright, who tracks political advertising closely, has reported on one advantage for Democrats facing a Republican money onslaught: Democratic dollars are going further.
Why? The GOP is relying more heavily on super PACs that pay elevated rates for advertising, and they have made their buying decisions later when ad inventory is stretched.
SCHOUTEN: Elon Musk.
The world’s richest man is also the largest single disclosed donor of this election cycle. His giving powered past the $400 million mark as of mid-October, the newest reports show. And the election isn’t over yet. So, we don’t have a full tally of his impact.
But keep in mind that it was a big deal when he spent about $290 million in the 2024 election to help elect President Donald Trump and Republicans.
He’s now a mega-donor unlike anyone this country has ever seen.
In September, for instance, the billionaire gave a total of $158 million to SLF in two tranches, and the money appeared to immediately flow to another group, Texas PAC. That group, in turn, has spent heavily to boost Republican Ken Paxton over Democrat James Talarico in a heavily contested Senate race.
If Paxton wins, Musk is definitely one of the people he’ll have to thank for it.
Not long ago, Musk was talking about breaking from Republicans and starting his own party, after publicly feuding with the president. But his spending shows that he’s back in the Republican fold.
Another big story is the spending affiliated with Trump. His MAGA Inc. super PAC had built big cash reserves all year as Republican fretted about losing their House and Senate majorities.
Then in September, the Trump-aligned money started flowing to help Republicans, including Paxton. MAGA Inc. also funds two new super PACs with innocuous-sounding names, No Going Back PAC and Safety & Affordability PAC, that are active in the midterms.
Those super PAC titles don’t exactly scream to voters that the ads they are running are tied to Trump, a president headed into the midterms with historically low approval ratings.
The president recently said his political machine is on track to spend $400 million by Election Day to help rescue the GOP majorities in Congress. He has the money to do that.
The GOP outpouring has caused some panic among Democrats on Capitol Hill, as our colleagues Sarah Ferris and Patrick Svitek recently reported.
Enter former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who traditionally gets involved in races late. The billionaire’s team recently announced a last-minute $80 million infusion to help Democrats.
SCHOUTEN: The billionaire is a traditionally major source of funding for Democrats. His political operation, now overseen by his son Alex, has funneled more than $100 million into Democracy PAC and Democracy PAC II, the super PACs it controls.
Those PACs give money to other left-leaning PACs, such as the Fulcrum PAC — which is active in what could be the sleeper race of the election, an unexpectedly competitive US Senate contest in deep-red Mississippi.
It is a lot of money, but Soros is not the biggest player that we know about in this election.
SCHOUTEN: Really rich people and companies. For example, in September alone, just three people accounted for three-quarters of the $24 million that MAGA Inc., took in that month: Casino mogul Steve Wynn ($8 million), Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman ($5 million) and Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks ($5 million).
GEO Reentry Services, the subsidiary of a private prison company with federal contracts to operate US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, also donated $1 million to MAGA Inc. that month.
Zach, you did a deep dive into some of the people who have donated to MAGA Inc. and other Trump-related projects.
WOLF: That was back in June and I was specifically looking at what MAGA Inc. contributors might want from the federal government.
SCHOUTEN: This is the first big election since the explosion of artificial intelligence. We are seeing lots of political ads generated using AI that are cheap to produce but can blur reality. It’s super-easy to show candidates in unflattering situations that never even happened. And the federal government hasn’t caught up with regulation the technology.
We recently took a closer look at the trend.
From our report:
WOLF: Reporting on this feels like a puzzle — piecing things together after the fact from FEC reports. What are you most interested to learn after the election?
SCHOUTEN: We’ll come closer to having a final accounting of the publicly disclosed donations, though it’s hard to imagine any single person will top Musk. We’ll also have a better handle on how untraceable money –— donations from nonprofits and shell companies — shaped the election, although there’s often a long delay in uncovering that information.
Finally, the election outcome itself will tell us who made the smart bets — or maybe just made consultants and others in the political ecosystem rich.
CNN’s David Wright contributed reporting.
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