Good afternoon, OnPolitics readers!
It’s Amy here with the top political stories of the day. đź‘‹
Billionaires are opening their wallets wide – very wide – to support political candidates and causes as a crucial election nears that will decide control of Congress for the next two years – and hence legislation that could benefit the ultra wealthy.
A USA TODAY analysis, by Donovan Slack, Rachel Looker and Javier Zarracina, found billionaires contributed nearly $675 million so far this election cycle – with almost all of that coming from the top 50 mega-rich givers, according to data tracked by OpenSecrets.
That’s more than 10% of the total pumped into the political system, a gigantic proportion compared to their miniscule share of the population. There are roughly three billionaires for every million adults in the United States.
🤑 Which party is giving the most? Republicans were the favored recipients, collecting $360 million from billionaires compared to $300 million logged by Democrats. Republican candidates and groups banked multimillion-dollar contributions from Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus and tech titan and Hawaiian island owner Larry Ellison, among others.
More than a third of Democrats’ take came from a single man – hedge fund mogul George Soros, a longtime bogeyman for conservatives and target of conspiracy theorists.
đź’° Dig deeper:Top billionaire spenders in 2022 election
Real quick: stories you’ll want to read
- Biden pardons federal convictions for marijuana possession: President Joe Biden announced that he is pardoning people with federal convictions for simple possession of marijuanaa historic move that could help more than 6,500 people and sends a powerful message on how such actions should be treated.
- White House seeking ‘alternatives’ to OPEC oil production cut: President Joe Biden said his administration is looking for ways to lower gas prices after oil-exporting countries announced plans to cut production by 2 million barrels a day, a move that will likely raise prices at the pump. Read more about why OPEC made that decision here.
- RNC sues Maricopa County over poll workers: The Republican National Committee is suing Arizona’s Maricopa County after weeks of back-and-forth over whether the county recruited enough Republican poll workers for the August primary election. The lawsuit claims that county officials aren’t complying with a public records request.
- Federal appeal court rules against DACA policy: A federal appeals court Wednesday ruled that an Obama-era policy that protects undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children violated federal lawbut it sent a Biden administration effort to shore up the same program back to a lower federal court for further consideration.
- Herschel Walker denials at event: After holding a rally in South Georgia, the Republican Senate nominee called Democrats “desperate” for trying to make the race about his family. Walker vowed not to “back down, and said he still intends to participate in a US Senate debate scheduled for Oct. 14.
🏛️ It’s official: Another Jan. 6 hearing is happening. The House committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, announced its next hearing will be Oct. 13 at 1 pm
www.usatoday.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism