It’s a superlative
achieved again and again: The current election cycle is the
most expensive
on record, according to AdImpact, likely to be surpassed only by the next one.
North of $16 billion
have been raised ahead of Tuesday’s looming elections, with ad spending in House and Senate races topping
$4 billion
. Mega-donors this election season have overwhelmingly backed Republicans with contributions largely flowing from AI, crypto, and
online gambling
interests.
AIPAC Isn’t Retreating. Here’s How It’s Already Shaping the Next Congress.
The Intercept tracked how super PAC spending is flowing into the midterms and how growing public skepticism of special-interest money in politics is affecting campaign strategies. Hundreds of candidates are
still taking donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
and its super PAC, the United Democracy Project, despite public sentiment turning against the pro-Israel lobby.
“The data overall reveals that [AIPAC is] still spending a ton of money on a lot of races, and more often than not, their candidates are still winning,” Intercept managing editor Maia Hibbett told The Intercept Briefing. “It is still quite meaningful money.”
Artificial intelligence super PACs
have also poured tens of millions of dollars into this election cycle, most of it on just a few races in the primaries. The two leading AI super PAC networks, affiliated with OpenAI or Anthropic, dropped a whopping $50.7 million on the primaries, but are noticeably spending much less in the lead-up to the general election, $8.5 million — likely responding to public backlash in the same way that AIPAC has.
“The
polls
are just so startling on the public’s transformation on AI and data centers over the last year. … The entire life cycle of these AI super PACs, which started about a year ago, has followed that evolution of the public’s opinion,” said Intercept politics reporter
Matt Sledge
. “One of the things that’s been r
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