If money talks, don’t mess with the A.I. industry, the crypto industry, the pro-Israel lobby or President Trump’s super PAC.
Those four interests are set to be the wild cards of the 2026 midterm elections: They have shown a desire to get involved in primary elections. They are unpredictable in general elections. And they each have tens — if not hundreds — of millions of dollars, according to new federal filings. Mr. Trump’s super PAC, by far the richest, has amassed a staggering sum of more than $300 million.
Meanwhile, the institutional Democratic Party is in the financial doldrums. The Democratic National Committee faces a nearly $100 million deficit against the Republican National Committee, according to the filings.
Nearly every federal candidate in the country, as well as super PACs, filed paperwork to the Federal Election Commission detailing their fund-raising and spending before a Saturday night deadline, allowing for the most complete picture in six months of the money coursing through U.S. politics.
Here are six takeaways:
Beware angering the A.I. industry.
The rapidly growing artificial intelligence industry is poised to be an enormous player in the 2026 midterm elections, and these filings show it.
Leading the Future, the main super PAC funded by the A.I. industry, raised $50.3 million in the second half of 2025, almost all from the family of an OpenAI founder and from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has invested heavily in A.I.
Leading the Future also funneled $10 million into two affiliated super PACs. One is opposing a Democratic House candidate in New York who supports tighter A.I. regulations, and the other is supporting a Republican House candidate in Texas who is seen as friendly to the industry.
The three Leading the Future groups together entered 2026 with about $50 million on hand.
Watch out for crypto’s influence, too.
The crypto industry, whose successful push to elect Mr. Trump in 2024 inspired the A.I. industry’s 2026 ambitions, is also set to have a big — or big-spending — year.
Fairshake, the main super PAC backed by crypto heavy hitters, took in $73.8 million in the second half of 2025, mainly from its typical backers: Andreessen Horowitz, a major investor in crypto, as well as the crypto companies Coinbase and Ripple. Fairshake and its two affiliate groups entered 2026 with $193 million on hand.
But the crypto industry is not as disciplined as it was in 2024. This time, there are several splinter groups, in part because some in the industry believe Fairshake is too closely aligned with the interests of its donors.
For instance, the company of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the billionaire twins and prominent crypto investors, put more than $21 million in Bitcoin into the Digital Freedom Fund.
A pro-Israel super PAC is bigger than ever.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the influential pro-Israel group, has spent aggressively in Democratic primary races in recent years to target candidates it views as opposed to the Jewish state.
Now, at a time when tensions over Israel have divided both parties, particularly Democrats, AIPAC is cutting huge checks to get even more involved.
The group moved $30 million to its allied super PAC, the United Democracy Project, last year. That super PAC raised $61.6 million in the second half of 2025 and entered this year with almost $96 million on hand, putting it among the best-funded outside groups in the country.
The super PAC, which started in 2022, spent about $35 million in House primaries in the 2024 cycle. That amount appears to be chump change compared with the group’s potential 2026 budget.
Donald Trump has a $304 million advantage.
Mr. Trump has something that Democrats can’t dream of — and that offers him a huge structural advantage against both the left and his critics on the right.
More than $304 million in cash sitting in an allied political account.
That’s how much MAGA Inc., the super PAC run by Mr. Trump’s aides, controlled at the start of this year. The super PAC added about $112 million to its coffers in the second half of 2025, bolstered by aggressive fund-raising by Mr. Trump’s team and a roster of donors eager to promote their business interests before the administration or, in some cases, to obtain pardons.
MAGA Inc. now appears to have more cash on hand than any other political group in America. So what will Mr. Trump do with the money? (He is, of course, term-limited, and while he has floated the idea of an unconstitutional third term, he has more recently seemed to acknowledge he cannot run again.)
He could transfer the cash to the super PACs of House or Senate Republicans in the midterm homestretch. He could use it to bludgeon his Democratic rivals, or wave it as a warning to Republicans not to cross him. Or maybe he will simply hold onto it, keeping the threat of all of the above alive.
There were bright spots for Democrats.
While some of these financial trends might bode poorly for Democrats, the party’s candidates in competitive races are often raising more money than their Republican counterparts are, as recent election cycles have generally demonstrated.
In North Carolina’s top-tier Senate race, for example, former Gov. Roy Cooper, the top Democratic candidate, raised almost twice as much money into his main account as the leading Republican contender, Michael Whatley, did in the final quarter of 2025.
In Ohio, Sherrod Brown, a Democrat trying to reclaim a seat in the Senate, out-raised the Republican incumbent, Senator Jon Husted, by a huge margin — $7.3 million to $1.5 million — in the fourth quarter.
In Georgia, Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, took in almost $10 million and had nearly $25.6 million on hand to fend off what is expected to be a well-funded attempt by Republicans to oust him.
In Texas, two Democrats facing off in one of the most competitive primary races for Senate — State Representative James Talarico and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett — raised similar amounts last quarter: $6.8 million for him and $6.5 million for her. (Ms. Crockett, who entered the race only in early December, augmented her haul with $4.5 million from her House account.)
Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, whom Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has targeted for taking part in a video reminding service members to refuse illegal orders, took in a remarkable $12.5 million in the fourth quarter. That figure was even more notable because the senator, a potential presidential candidate, isn’t up for re-election until 2028.
It pays to be a Kennedy.
Being part of an American royal family has its perks.
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, took in over $1.1 million in his first seven weeks as a Democratic candidate for a House seat in New York City.
It appears he knows a few people. His donors included Lorne Michaels of “Saturday Night Live” fame; former Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken; the musician Paul Simon; the former longtime HBO boss Richard Plepler; and the actress Bette Midler.
Of course, his mom, Caroline Kennedy, donated too.
Theodore Schleifer is a Times reporter covering billionaires and their impact on the world.
The post The Richest 2026 Players: A.I., Crypto, Pro-Israel Groups and Trump appeared first on New York Times.
