Examples of Super PACs: Presidential, Congressional, and Industry Groups

Some of the most prominent examples of super PACs from recent election cycles are Future Forward USA and MAGA Inc. on the presidential side, the Senate Majority PAC and Congressional Leadership Fund in House and Senate races, and industry-backed groups like Fairshake, which spent cryptocurrency-sector money across both parties. A super PAC is a political committee that can raise and spend unlimited sums to support or oppose federal candidates, so long as it does not give money directly to those candidates or coordinate its spending with their campaigns.¹ In the 2024 cycle, more than 2,500 super PACs together raised over $5 billion.

Presidential Super PACs in 2024

Future Forward USA

Future Forward USA was the largest-spending super PAC of 2024 and the main outside group backing Vice President Kamala Harris. It raised about $559 million and spent over $509 million on independent expenditures, nearly all of it advertising.² Led by Chauncey McLean, the group drew Silicon Valley megadonors including Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, tested more than 1,500 ads using randomized-control trial methods, and directed 71 percent of its advertising to the economy.³ It also received more than $136 million from an affiliated dark money nonprofit, Future Forward USA Action.⁴

Make America Great Again Inc.

MAGA Inc. was the leading pro-Trump super PAC of the cycle, raising over $410 million and spending nearly $377 million on independent expenditures.⁵ Its largest donor was banking heir Timothy Mellon at $151.5 million.⁴ The group was set up in September 2022 by Trump allies, with Republican strategist Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio on staff and Taylor Budowich serving as executive director.⁶

America PAC

Elon Musk founded America PAC in May 2024. It raised over $263 million and spent roughly $172 million on independent expenditures backing Trump, with Musk personally contributing about $118.6 million.⁷⁴ Rather than focusing on ads, America PAC built a paid door-to-door canvassing operation aimed at swing-state voters, relying on a 2024 FEC advisory opinion permitting super PACs to coordinate with campaigns on canvassing specifically.⁸ In October 2024, it drew an FEC complaint from Public Citizen after launching a sweepstakes offering $1 million a day to randomly selected registered voters in seven swing states who signed a petition; Public Citizen alleged the program violated federal laws against paying people to register to vote.⁹

Preserve America PAC

Preserve America PAC, founded in 2020 to support Trump, spent over $112 million in 2024, primarily on ads attacking Harris.⁴ Casino magnate Miriam Adelson gave the group $101 million across six donations between May and October 2024.¹⁰ In the 2020 cycle, Adelson and her late husband Sheldon had provided $90 million of the group’s $105 million total.¹¹ It is a clear example of a super PAC funded almost entirely by a single billionaire.

Congressional Super PACs

Both parties run super PACs dedicated to winning House and Senate majorities. On the Republican side, the Senate Leadership Fund spent over $211 million in 2024 and the Congressional Leadership Fund spent nearly $217 million on House races.⁴ Their Democratic counterparts, the Senate Majority PAC and the House Majority PAC, spent over $311 million and over $195 million respectively.¹² These groups concentrate on competitive races and sometimes outspend the candidates themselves. In the two election cycles before 2020, super PAC spending exceeded the combined spending of all candidates in 54 federal races.¹³

Industry and Issue-Based Super PACs

Fairshake

Fairshake illustrates a newer model: a super PAC organized around an industry rather than a party. Backed by the cryptocurrency sector, it raised over $260 million in 2024, with corporate contributions from Coinbase ($23.5 million), Ripple Labs ($23 million), and Jump Crypto ($5 million), plus $11 million each from venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. Fairshake spent across party lines through two affiliated PACs: Defend American Jobs in Republican primaries and Protect Progress in Democratic ones. Its largest single expenditure was over $10 million against Rep. Katie Porter in the California Senate primary. Public Citizen noted that Fairshake’s ads rarely mentioned cryptocurrency or regulation, framing opponents instead as generally untrustworthy.¹⁴

United Democracy Project

The United Democracy Project (UDP), the super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), raised $87 million in 2024 and focused largely on Democratic primaries. It spent nearly $9.9 million against Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York and over $5.2 million against Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri; both lost.¹⁵

When a Well-Funded Super PAC Fails: Never Back Down

Never Back Down was created to support Ron DeSantis’s 2024 presidential campaign and raised $145.7 million.⁷ The group was built around a $269 million plan to take on responsibilities normally handled by a campaign, including a large paid door-knocking operation in the early primary states.¹⁶ It collapsed amid internal turmoil, including the departure of chief strategist Jeff Roe and public reports of board upheaval.¹⁷ In December 2023, the Campaign Legal Center filed an FEC complaint alleging Never Back Down had illegally coordinated with the DeSantis campaign, including claims that the campaign conveyed messaging requests and leaked a strategic memo to guide the PAC’s spending.¹⁸ Never Back Down’s chairman called the complaint politically motivated, and DeSantis said the PAC was “a separate entity” and “not in my purview.” DeSantis dropped out in January 2024.

The Mega-Donors Behind Super PACs

Because super PACs face no contribution limits, a handful of extremely wealthy donors provide a disproportionate share of their funding. Since 2016, more than two-thirds of super PAC money has come in donations exceeding $1 million, and some groups have been funded entirely by a single donor.¹³ The most prolific individual donors in 2024 included:

Timothy Mellon, a retired banking heir from Wyoming, gave $197 million to federal political efforts in 2024, with $151.5 million going to MAGA Inc. His single $50 million donation on May 31, 2024, the day after Trump’s New York conviction, was described as one of the largest individual campaign contributions in American history.¹⁹²⁰
Elon Musk contributed roughly $118.6 million to America PAC.⁴
Miriam Adelson gave $101 million to Preserve America PAC.¹⁰
Richard Uihlein contributed $53 million to Restoration PAC, a conservative group.⁴

On the Democratic side, Future Forward attracted major Silicon Valley donors, including Dustin Moskovitz, who gave at least $20 million in 2020.³ Labor unions have also been significant funders: in 2012, the National Education Association gave $9 million and the AFL-CIO gave $6.4 million to super PACs.²¹

Traditional PACs, Super PACs, and Hybrids

A traditional PAC can accept only $5,000 per year from any individual and generally cannot take corporate or union treasury funds. In return, it can give directly to candidates, up to $5,000 per election for multicandidate committees.²² A super PAC flips that trade: unlimited sums from any lawful domestic source, including corporations and unions, but no direct contributions to candidates and no coordination with their campaigns.¹

Hybrid PACs, also called Carey committees, keep two separate bank accounts: one operates like a super PAC with unlimited fundraising for independent expenditures, and the other operates like a traditional PAC, subject to contribution limits but permitted to give directly to candidates. Carey committees together spent over $1.3 billion in 2024.²³

How Some Donors Stay Hidden

Super PACs are required to report to the FEC the name, address, occupation, and employer of anyone who gives more than $200, on a quarterly or monthly schedule tied to the election calendar.²⁴ The disclosure has a well-known workaround. A 501(c)(4) “social welfare” nonprofit can engage in political activity (as long as it is not the group’s primary purpose) and is not required to publicly disclose its own donors. When a 501(c)(4) writes a check to a super PAC, the super PAC reports the nonprofit’s name, but the individuals or corporations funding the nonprofit remain hidden. Shell companies, particularly LLCs formed in states with permissive incorporation rules, can play the same role.²⁵

The scale is substantial. By the end of September 2024, four dark money nonprofits tied to congressional leadership groups had transferred a record $182 million to their allied super PACs, more than double the figure at the same point in the 2020 cycle.²⁶ Overall, dark money groups have spent roughly $1 billion on elections since 2010.²⁵ Future Forward’s $136 million from its affiliated nonprofit is one visible example of how the pipeline reaches even the largest super PACs.⁴

1
Federal Election Commission. Political Action Committees
2
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3
Politico. Priorities USA Super PAC Democrats Future Forward
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OpenSecrets. Outside Spending on 2024 Elections Shatters Records
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OpenSecrets. Make America Great Again Inc Summary
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PBS. Donald Trump Allies Create a New Super PAC Called MAGA Inc
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OpenSecrets. Super PACs
8
Campaign Legal Center. CLC on FEC Rules on Potential Coordination Between Super PACs and Candidates
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Public Citizen. Elon Musk Violated Campaign Finance Law Complaint to FEC
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OpenSecrets. Preserve America PAC Donors
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FactCheck.org. Preserve America PAC
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OpenSecrets. Top PACs
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Brennan Center for Justice. Citizens United: A Decade of Super PACs
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Public Citizen. Fairshake Super PAC 2024 Elections
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OpenSecrets. United Democracy Project Targeted Candidates
16
Washington Post. DeSantis Super PAC Collapse
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NBC News. Watchdog Group Complaint DeSantis Campaign Super PAC Coordination
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Campaign Legal Center. CLC Files FEC Complaint Alleging Illegal Coordination Between Ron DeSantis and Never Back Down
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OpenSecrets. Biggest Donors
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NBC News. Timothy Mellon Leads Huge Month of Trump Megadonors
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Center for Public Integrity. Top 10 Donors Make Up a Third of Donations to Super PACs
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Campaign Legal Center. PACs, Super PACs, and More
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OpenSecrets. Carey Committees
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OpenSecrets. Outside Spending Rules
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OpenSecrets. Dark Money Basics
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Brennan Center for Justice. Dark Money Shadow Parties Booming in Congressional Elections