The Major Donors Who Shaped the 2024 Legislative Elections

Last week, we were able to utilize The Ballot Book’s recently launched campaign finance platform to look at which committees had the most success at picking winners in the legislature over the past few cycles.

Today, we’ll look at something different: which of California’s major donors invested the most money in the 2024 cycle in support of candidates for the State Assembly and State Senate.

Before diving in, it’s worth briefly explaining what we mean by major donors. Unlike political committees that raise money from others to support candidates or causes, a major donor is typically a business, individual, or organization using its own money to make large political contributions — at least $10,000 in a year. These donors aren’t running campaigns or collecting small checks from others; they’re writing big checks themselves. Think corporations making direct political contributions, tribal governments supporting candidates aligned with their interests, or wealthy individuals trying to shape the makeup of the legislature.

They’re not running the campaigns — they’re funding them.

To identify the biggest players, we reviewed official campaign finance records to track which major donors gave the most money to candidate committees in the 2024 legislative elections. We focused only on contributions made directly to Assembly and Senate candidates and filtered out intermediary PAC activity. Then, we matched these contributions to the candidates who ultimately won — not just to see who gave the most, but to get a sense of which donors were most aligned with successful campaigns. In some cases, that might reflect sharp political instincts; in others, it may reflect the outsized influence or financial weight these donors brought to bear in helping those candidates win.

Subscribers can also explore major donor activity directly inside The Ballot Book. You can view detailed profiles for each major donor — including their total contributions, top recipients, and recent filing history — as shown in the example below:

This tool makes it easy to dig deeper into who’s spending, where the money is going, and how active each donor has been over time.

Each entry below shows one of the top 50 major donors to legislative candidates in the 2024 cycle. For each donor, you’ll see the total amount they contributed, how many of their supported candidates won, and a breakdown of their support across Assembly and Senate races. You’ll also see information about the donor — including their name, location, and (if available) their employer or business interest — to give context on who they are.