Meet the Rich and Powerful Entities Aiming to Defeat the Rising Electoral Left

The U.S. midterm elections are rapidly approaching, and it’s no secret that the Republican Party and Donald Trump want to destroy the rising electoral left in the United States. But as democratic socialist and movement-tied candidates continue to win Democratic primaries — building momentum and distinguishing their dynamic, grassroots campaigns from consultant-molded establishment politicians — a new constellation of forces opposing left candidates is loosely coming into focus.

The efforts of mega-billionaire donors, multinational corporations, local and regional corporate elites, the Israel lobby, and centrist groups are coalescing into a network — uncoordinated, with varying motives, but de facto united by their opposition to the electoral left’s ascendency — whose parts are intervening in local and state races across the U.S. to try to defeat left candidates and also bolster establishment Democrats.

Billionaires Against Mamdani

The anti-left mobilization of entrenched wealth and influence was on full display during the 2025 New York City mayoral election that pitted pro-corporate establishment Democrat Andrew Cuomo against democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.

Billionaires poured tens of millions of dollars into super PACs in a historic — but failed — attempt to defeat Mamdani. Former Mayor and charter school backer Michael Bloomberg — the wealthiest New Yorker, worth nearly $100 billion — spent $13.3 million on pro-Andrew Cuomo super PACs. Members of the Lauder family, heirs to a cosmetics fortune worth $21.5 billion, spent a combined $2.6 million to try to elect Cuomo and defeat Mamdani.

Joe Gebbia — an Airbnb co-founder worth $9.5 billion, and a Tesla board director — split $2 million in donations between pro-Cuomo and anti-Mamdani super PACs. Hedge fund billionaires Bill Ackman and Daniel Loeb also donated big to defeat Mamdani — at least $1.75 million for Ackman and $700,000 for Loeb.

Ackman is a staunch opponent of the Palestine solidarity movement who helped lead the charge to fire university presidents he deemed too soft on campus protest. Loeb once infamously called teachers unions “the biggest single force standing in the way of quality education and an organization that has done more to perpetuate poverty and discrimination against people of color than the KKK.”

The list of billionaire donors against Mamdani goes on: Barry Diller, media baron; Steve Wynn, casino magnate; Alice Walton, member of the wealthiest U.S. family, worth over a half-trillion dollars; the Tisch family, corporate conglomerate and sports franchise owners.

From New York to Florida

But it’s not just New York City. In Florida, for example, mega-billionaires are backing GOP Sen. Ashley Moody in an effort to crush Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member and union organizer Angie Nixon’s U.S. senate run.

Wall Street titan Ken Griffin, a Florida power broker and big Miami property owner worth around $57 billion, has thrown $2.5 million into the pro-Moody Stronger Safer Nation super PAC. Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer donated $100,000 to Stronger Safer Nation, and other billionaires — dental conglomerate owner Rick Workman, and real estate billionaire Edward DeBartolo Jr. — have donated $100,000 each to the super PAC.

Corporations, ranging from big multinationals to local companies, are also throwing millions of dollars into trying to defeat left candidates. Some are making direct donations to the pro-Moody Stronger Safer Nation super PAC aimed at defeating Nixon.

For example, RAI Services, a subsidiary of the tobacco giant Reynolds American, has donated $400,000 to Stronger Safer Nation. A range of companies — including U.S. Sugar, Tampa-based real estate developer Eisenhower Management, and refrigerants company iGas USA — all gave $100,000 to the super PAC.

Real estate and property management firms such GL Homes, Lennar, Hillwood, and NCDG Management have also spent tens of thousands of dollars on Stronger Safer Nation.

Some wealthy donors are aiming to defeat left candidates across multiple states. Scott Banister, a libertarian tech investor, announced that he’s splurging $40 million through the Make Liberty Win PAC to defeat DSA candidates in numerous state-level races.

Corporate Blocs

Indeed, from Florida to New York, a major corporate bloc against left candidates — who support tenant rights, rent freezes, and affordable housing — is the real estate class.

In New York, the industry flooded elections with at least $24.4 million opposing candidates like Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander. “Nearly 1 in 4 donations to the main political action committees funding” New York City elections in 2025 “came from the real estate industry,” noted one report.

A whopping $10 million of this — across just two donations, making up 41 percent of all real estate super PAC donations — came from Airbnb, which is pushing for corporate-friendly short term rental laws.

Food delivery app DoorDash, anxious about regulations and workers’ rights, donated big to a super PAC opposing DSA and Working Families Party-aligned candidates.

Another key corporate bloc against Mamdani and other leftists was Wall Street and billionaire investors such as Ackman, Loeb, and Bloomberg, with the latter also channeling funds to oppose Mamdani through the pro-charter school Moving New York Families Forward super PAC.

All told, the nonprofit investigative outlet New York Focus found that much of super PAC spending on statewide assembly and senate primary races “was focused on defeating candidates endorsed by local DSA chapters.”

AIPAC’s Electoral Machine

Along with billionaire donors and corporate money, AIPAC, through its own political action committee and aligned super PACs, is a key pillar of the anti-left machine.

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AIPAC’s electoral interventions are enormous in their scale. In recent years, the pro-Israel influence operation has poured tens of millions of dollars into outside expenditures — mailers, television ads, and so on — in federal and state-level races aiming to defeat progressive candidates who are critical of Israel and support Palestinians.

Targets of AIPAC’s electoral war chest — it’s raised a whopping $233 million — have included Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, and many other progressive and left-wing candidates. AIPAC offered $20 million to potential challengers to Palestinian American and DSA member Rashida Tlaib.

AIPAC is one of the top spenders in the current election cycle, pouring nearly $33 million into a failed effort to defeat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. Additionally, AIPAC has announced plans to spend as much as $9 million backing Republican Mike Rogers against El-Sayed in the general election for the Senate seat.

While AIPAC receives many smaller donations, it relies on massive contributions from pro-Israel billionaires. As Truthout has reported, these mega-donors include private equity and hedge fund barons, entertainment and sports moguls, tech billionaires, and wealthy corporate heirs.

For example, two of the most powerful billionaires on Wall Street, Elliott Management’s Paul Singer and Apollo Global Management’s Marc Rowan, have given a combined $8.6 million to AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC over the past five years.

Entertainment billionaire Haim Saban has donated $5 million to the United Democracy Project since 2022. Two families that own corporate conglomerates and major sports franchises — New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his family, along with New York Giant co-owners the Tisch family — have also spent millions of dollars in recent years on AIPAC’s PAC and aligned super PACs.

More recently, as its brand grows more toxic, AIPAC has been intervening in electoral races in more covert ways. Drop Site News reports that the super PAC EDW Action Fund, an affiliate of the PAC Elect Democratic Women (EDW), through EDW Action Fund’s legal affiliate, Pro-Choice Majority Action, spent over $1.5 million backing the opponent of DSA member Melat Kiros in her Denver-area Democratic primary, with major funds flowing circuitously from AIPAC’s United Democracy Project funds.

AIPAC-aligned super PACs that obscure their AIPAC funding have also backed opponents of other left candidates, including DSA member Chris Rabb of Philadelphia, who won his Democratic U.S. House primary.

Anti-Left “Centrists”

In addition to the forces of capital and AIPAC, coordinated efforts by centrist groups — funded by corporate interests, governed by wealthy elites, former D.C. staffers, and consultants — are taking aim at the electoral left.

One example is Third Way, which describes itself as “a national think tank and advocacy organization that champions moderate policy and political ideas.” In August, amid numerous defeats of establishment Democrats by DSA and progressive candidates, Third Way announced it was dedicating $15 million to a full-fledged opposition campaign through 2028 against DSA and DSA-aligned candidates.

Third Way’s donor base is opaque, but past investigations found that the group is “overwhelmingly funded by Wall Street bankers, healthcare companies, and DC lobbying clearinghouses,” as The Nation put it.

In 2013, journalist Lee Fang reported that the consulting firm Peck Madigan, a major corporate lobbying outfit with clients ranging from the drug manufacturing industry group PhRMA to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, raised significant funds for Third Way. Recent reporting by Sludge reveals that health insurers — mortal enemies of single-payer health care — and Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy are major funders of the group.

Third Way’s leading board directors are its chair, Rachel Pritzker, of the billionaire Pritzker family, and Vice Chairman David Heller, a former longtime top Goldman Sachs executive. Its Chairman Emeritus John Vogelstein is also a former Wall Street executive, and Daniel Loeb — the anti-Mamdani billionaire mentioned above — is a former Third Way trustee.

Another well-funded centrist operation is Center Forward, which aims “to give centrist allies the information they need to craft common sense solutions.”

Center Forward poured nearly $18 million into the super PAC called A Stronger Michigan, which unsuccessfully tried to defeat Abdul El-Sayed and elect Haley Stevens. Joining Center Forward as the other major donor to A Stronger Michigan was the super PAC Michigan Forward 2026, whose top donors include the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry group, and billionaire businessman Daniel Lubetzky.

Center Forward’s leadership, directors, and advisory board are flooded with lobbyists, consultants, corporate executives, and former government officials. Like Third Way, the donor base behind Center Forward is murky, but a Mother Jones investigation found that it raked in millions of dollars from PhRMA, and that a related committee received donations from Chevron, a subsidiary of Philip Morris, and UnitedHealth Group.

Grassroots Power

To be sure, billionaires, corporations, and AIPAC spend widely in elections overall. Defeating left candidates is not their sole focus. But the intensity of elite mobilization in areas where left, movement-tied campaigns are challenging entrenched political machines points toward a loose coalition with an emerging playbook.

Powerful billionaires; corporate interests spanning real estate, finance, tech, and more; AIPAC and its backers; well-funded centrist operations — all are deploying vast sums of money against shared opponents who are critical of capitalism as a system and who support things like housing rights, single-payer health care, workers’ rights, taxing the rich, and cutting off aid to Israel. Some of these donors — Daniel Loeb, Paul Singer, and others — oppose left candidates through multiple wings of the anti-left coalition simultaneously.

At the same time, recent left electoral efforts have proven in practice that movement candidates, advancing popular programs backed by mass grassroots participation, can overcome entrenched corporate power and huge sums of money in politics — and sometimes, it’s not even close.

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