Irina Park
The 2024 election is on track to become the most expensive federal election, as spending is projected to hit at least $15.9 billion. Since entering the 2024 Presidential Race, Kamala Harris has raised $1 billion, not including money donated to allied super PACs, setting a record for the biggest fundraising quarter ever. In the backdrop of this record spending is the deteriorating living conditions for the masses of people coupled with heightened repression and exploitation.
The top 1% of all donors account for a full 50% of money raised. On the other hand, the sum of all donations under $200 account for only 16% of all money raised. Given that there is an almost 1:1 correlation of campaign spending and winning elections, the increasingly concentrated wealth in fewer hands translates to power concentrated in fewer hands around the executive branch. Though money has always dominated politics under capitalism, the 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United decision intensified this process by allowing individuals and corporations to contribute virtually unlimited sums to super PACs, equating money to speech and therefore giving those with more money more say in the elections. The monopolization of the economy translates to the monopolization of politics and society.
Kamala Harris is currently the favorite among capitalists, with 81 billionaires openly supporting her campaign and more than 90 capitalists signing a letter endorsing her for promising a stable and “sound business environment”. Notable billionaires endorsing Kamala Harris include tech monopolist Bill Gates, CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon, venture capitalist Mark Cuban, and tech monopolist Reid Hoffman.
Trump has 50 billionaires openly supporting his campaign, who tend to donate more than the billionaires backing Harris. Tech monopolist Elon Musk stands out as a big spender, pouring $75 million into Trump’s campaign since July and promising to give away $1 million per day to a registered voter in key swing states until November 5.
It is likely that more billionaires are donating to both campaigns without public endorsement, which will be made clear when campaign donations are revealed in December.
The grotesque amount of “donations”—what is really the open bribery of candidates—translates to both candidates campaigns’ tailoring their rhetoric and policies based on the interests of their funders. According to The New York Times, Harris’s campaign advisers met with investment bankers and law firms to be directly advised regarding her speeches and policy proposals. Her already vague position against price gouging was later clarified to only apply during “emergency situations” after capitalists on Wall Street raised concerns. Likewise, behind her public calls for a “billionaire minimum tax” is a lower proposed tax than what Biden has proposed. The populism she peppers into her speeches is only thinly veiled, for example, vaguely calling out “villains of the economy” in a recent 40-minute speech where she proudly declared “I am a capitalist” to an audience of capitalists.
Trump on the other hand promised oil and gas executives that he would roll back environmental regulations on their behalf, so long as they raised $1 billion for him. He has also promised Elon Musk to head a new commission to cut costs in government, despite his companies receiving large government subsides and being one of the largest contractors for the Pentagon. Musk already receives tens of billions of dollars in federal government contracts, and would have the power to make sweeping recommendations on competitor contracts through the promised commission.
Both candidates have been making overtures to cryptocurrency monopolists, corresponding to the latter’s outsized role in the election. As of June 2024, cryptocurrency corporations accounted for almost half the money contributed to PACs, up from less than 5% in 2020, making cryptocurrency monopolists the second-largest contributor in total election-related spending in the 14 years since Citizens United. Harris’s economic plan was updated to include that she will “encourage… digital assets” and gave a speech that emphasized the role of blockchain in her administration. Trump has also begun promoting cryptocurrency in contrast to his previous critical position against Bitcoin, specifying it as part of the Republican Party’s platform and even going so far as to form his own cryptocurrency venture with the help of fellow real estate capitalist Steve Witcoff, a multi-million dollar Trump campaign donor. Trump has also made Wall Street billionaire Howard Lutnick, one of the crypto industry’s largest public proponents, co-chair of his transition committee.
The open bribery of candidates by monopolists directly links political power to economic control, making the electoral process a rich man’s sport where billionaires compete for control of the state’s bureaucracy to give themselves an edge over their competitors.
