American billionaire Michael Bloomberg gives Democrats $80 million before US midterms

American billionaire Michael Bloomberg has given about $80 million to Democratic candidates and political groups in a late push to help the party win control of Congress and key governor's races in the Nov. 3 US midterm elections.

The money was sent in September and October, Bloomberg's advisers said, and some of it is still going out. The donations will show up in campaign finance filings in the coming weeks. The total makes Bloomberg, the founder of the financial data and news company Bloomberg LP and a three-term mayor of New York City, one of the largest known Democratic donors of the 2026 election cycle.

At least $50 million is going to House races. Bloomberg gave $24 million to Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun-control group he co-founded, and $16 million to House Majority PAC, the super PAC aligned with House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. His team said he plans to spend about $10 million more on House contests before Election Day.

"The extraordinary support from Mayor Bloomberg will once again help Democrats flip the House," Jeffries said.

Where the rest of the money is going

Since Sept. 1, Bloomberg has also given $5 million to a super PAC allied with the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group, and $3.5 million to a group that works to elect Democratic scientists and doctors. He gave $2.5 million to a super PAC backing James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Texas, and another $2.5 million to a super PAC supporting New York Governor Kathy Hochul's bid for re-election.

About $8 million is going to Democratic candidates for governor in roughly six battleground states. One of his donations this cycle supported Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is seeking a second term.

Earlier in the year, Bloomberg spent $11 million to help Micah Lasher win a crowded Democratic primary in June for the Manhattan House seat held by Representative Jerrold Nadler, who is retiring.

Democrats are favored to win the House, where Republicans hold a narrow majority, so many large donors have turned their attention to the Senate, where control is seen as a toss-up. Bloomberg is focusing on the House anyway. Howard Wolfson, his longtime political adviser, said Bloomberg wants Democrats to win a comfortable majority rather than the bare minimum needed to make Jeffries speaker, and that the gap between a 221-seat and a 230-seat majority matters to him.

"He believes in participation in our democracy," Wolfson said. "He is of the view that resources matter in campaigns."

Wolfson said Bloomberg is concerned about the party's move to the left, particularly on Israel, and is not funding candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.

On the Republican side, American billionaire Elon Musk and a super PAC aligned with President Donald Trump have put hundreds of millions of dollars behind the party's candidates for Congress.

A repeat of his 2018 spending

Bloomberg's fall budget is close to what he spent in the 2018 midterms, which his team regards as his most effective cycle. He pledged $80 million that year to help Democrats retake the House and ended up spending more than $110 million, much of it through his Independence USA PAC. Twenty-one of the 24 House candidates he backed won their races, and Democrats took control of the chamber.

He then spent more than $1 billion of his own money on a run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, which he ended in March 2020 after winning only American Samoa. In the closing weeks of the 2024 presidential race, he gave about $50 million to support Kamala Harris.

Bloomberg, 84, founded Bloomberg LP in 1981 after he was let go from the investment bank Salomon Brothers. He owns about 88% of the company, whose terminals are used by traders and bankers around the world. His fortune is worth about $95 billion, making him one of the 20 richest people in the world. He has also given away billions of dollars through Bloomberg Philanthropies to causes including public health, climate and education.