Political leanings: Democratic
2022 complete spending: $327.4 million
The Senate Majority PAC, or SMP, is an excellent PAC that describes its “one mission” as serving to Democrats “win Senate races.”
The tremendous PAC is headed by J.B. Poersch, a former director of the Democratic Senatorial Marketing campaign Committee. Poersch was named the tremendous PAC’s president in early 2017. Different senior staff embody Amanda Ach, digital director, and Ghada Alkiek, political supervisor. Ach beforehand labored for the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee, and Alkiek was deputy chief of employees to Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan.
As an excellent PAC, the Senate Majority PAC is allowed to boost and spend limitless quantities, but it surely must report expenditures and all donations of greater than $200 to the Federal Election Fee. The group can not make a contribution to candidate committees and can’t coordinate impartial expenditures with candidate campaigns.
As of June 30, SMP had raised about $167 million and spent greater than $53 million within the 2024 election cycle, according to an evaluation of FEC information by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks cash in politics. A lot of its spending was on fundraising, administrative bills and technique and analysis.
Majority Forward, an affiliated 501(c)(4) group that does not must disclose its donors, has contributed virtually $16 million to SMP, and two liberal tremendous PACs, Democracy PAC and Working for Working Americans, have given $10 million and $9 million, respectively. Main particular person donors embody Fred Eychaner, a retired media govt; hedge fund billionaire James Simons, who handed away in Could; Stephen Mandel, one other hedge fund billionaire; and media entrepreneur Jeff Skoll.
In early March, SMP launched a $2 million advert marketing campaign in opposition to Republican Eric Hovde, a California banker working in Wisconsin in opposition to incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Later that month, SMP said that it had reserved $239 million in adverts to assist defend Senate seats in Wisconsin and 6 different key states that Democrats must win to keep up management of that chamber of Congress.
The biggest portion of the reservation is $65 million for Ohio, the place Sen. Sherrod Brown is working for reelection, and the second-largest quantity, $45 million, is earmarked for Sen. Jon Tester’s race in Montana. As well as, $42 million is reserved for Pennsylvania, $36 million for Nevada, $23 million for Arizona and $14 million every for Michigan and Wisconsin.
SMP additionally has contributed to WinSenate PAC, an affiliated tremendous PAC. SMP had transferred $22.8 million to WinSenate PAC, based on the WinSenate PAC’s FEC filings as of July 31.
Thus far, WinSenate PAC has put greater than $66.9 million into impartial expenditures in opposition to Republican Senate candidates in seven swing states, according to OpenSecrets.
In the course of the 2022 midterms, SMP spent about $327.4 million in complete, and greater than $159 million of that was spent on independent expenditures, together with greater than $41 million in opposition to Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate who lost to Democrat John Fetterman within the Pennsylvania Senate race.
FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Ian Fox contributed to this text.
