Michael R. Bloomberg is sending about $80 million to Democrats this fall, with at least $50 million of it aimed squarely at flipping and padding the party's margin in the U.S. House of Representatives. The 84-year-old former New York City mayor's latest round of giving includes $24 million to Everytown for Gun Safety and $16 million to House Majority PAC, with another $10 million in House races planned soon. The money lands as the 2026 midterms barrel toward Election Day amid record-shattering advertising spending nationwide.
The spending, reported by The New York Times, makes Bloomberg the largest disclosed donor to both Everytown and House Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Bloomberg's team provided details of the donations before most of them appear in new campaign finance filings due this week, according to the same report. Everytown, the gun-safety group Bloomberg co-founded, is focused this cycle on House races, and his funding of it effectively freed up some of House Majority PAC's own money to be spent elsewhere, the Times reported.
Everytown and House Majority PAC have already put that freed-up capacity to work. The two groups announced an initial $10 million paid-media campaign to elect former Moms Demand Action volunteers in eight battleground House districts, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, spanning districts in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Jeffries and a Bigger Governing Majority
Jeffries said Bloomberg's support will help Democrats flip the House, per the Times account. Bloomberg's adviser Howard Wolfson, described in the same report as the billionaire's longtime political aide, said the difference between a bare 221-seat majority and a more comfortable 230-seat one matters — Bloomberg wants Jeffries to have a governable majority well beyond the 218 votes needed just to win the speakership.
Bloomberg's giving this fall stretches beyond the House. He spent $11 million in the spring to help Assemblyman Micah Lasher win a contentious primary to succeed Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the Times reported. Since September 1, he has also given $2.5 million to a super PAC backing James Talarico's Texas Senate bid, $5 million to a super PAC allied with the League of Conservation Voters, $8 million to Democratic gubernatorial candidates across six battleground states, and $3.5 million to a group working to elect Democratic scientists and doctors to office, according to the same reporting. He donated separately to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, seen as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, and gave $2.5 million in September and October to a super PAC backing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's re-election, per Wolfson.
A Centrist Donor Wary of the Party's Left Flank
Wolfson described Bloomberg as a pragmatist and a centrist who believes resources matter in campaigns and in participation in democracy more broadly, according to the Times. Wolfson also said Bloomberg is concerned about the Democratic Party's leftward drift, particularly on Israel, and is deliberately not directing money toward left-wing candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. Bloomberg has not decided whom he will back in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, Wolfson said, though the Times reported he is likely to play a role in shaping that race.
This is not new territory for Bloomberg, who spent more than $1 billion on his own failed 2020 presidential bid. His autumn spending this cycle is similar in scale to his fall 2018 push, when, according to the Los Angeles Times, he pledged at least $80 million largely to help Democrats regain control of the House — a sharp jump from the $20.1 million he spent on the 2016 elections mostly through his Independence USA super PAC.
A Record-Setting Money War
Bloomberg's spending is meant to help Democrats keep pace with Republican television and digital advertising nationwide, and he arrives in a cycle already defined by extraordinary sums. More than $15 billion has been raised for the 2026 midterms since the start of 2025, with roughly half of it spent by this past weekend, according to NPR. Advertising spending on House and Senate races alone has topped $4 billion, with hundreds of millions more in reservations planned for the final stretch before Election Day, the outlet reported.
Political advertising for the full 2025-26 cycle has already surpassed $10 billion and is projected to reach $11.6 billion, which would make it the most expensive cycle on record, according to Time. Congressional races alone have generated $3.8 billion in advertising, more than $870 million ahead of the comparable point in 2024, per CNBC.
On the Republican side, Elon Musk and President Trump's super PAC have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into supporting GOP candidates, the Times reported. Musk alone contributed more than $276 million to federal political groups in the third quarter, making him the single largest known individual donor of the midterms, CNBC reported, with disclosed giving that included $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and $89 million to his own America PAC. That fund raised a record $272.9 million from July through September, about $122 million more than its Democratic counterpart, per the same account.
Republicans have leaned heavily on these super PACs while Democrats have relied more on traditional candidate fundraising, NPR noted in a separate report. Even so, Democratic and independent Senate candidates outraised their Republican opponents in 27 of 35 Senate races from July through September, and about 90% of the 50 sitting House members who were outraised last quarter were Republicans, according to NPR. Some Democratic donors are now sending more money toward Senate races since the House is seen as more favorable to Democrats while the Senate remains viewed as a tossup, the Times reported. Republicans, meanwhile, have outspent Democrats by $112 million on broadcast TV ads across nine of the tightest Senate races and by $14 million across 21 toss-up House races, per Time.
