Hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel and his wife Susan are a billionaire power couple that has a history of springing into action come election season. Before the 2024 presidential contest, they hosted Joe Biden for a private fundraising dinner in Greenwich, Connecticut. Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry are other beneficiaries of the $84 million that the Mandels have sprinkled to Democratic campaigns over time, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Now, the couple is gearing up for the 2026 midterm elections.
The Mandels have given almost $10 million in support of Democrats seeking federal office this year, federal records show, with more expected.
“They are extremely influential and generous supporters who have never asked for very much,” one veteran Democratic fundraiser who has worked for half a dozen presidential campaigns and interfaced with the couple told CBS News.
The Mandels’ giving offers a window into how billionaire megadonors have become an unrivaled force in American politics. The ultra-wealthy donor class is preparing to pour resources into an election that will decide whether Republicans or Democrats have a majority in the next Congress.
In 2024, ultra-wealthy donors poured more than $3 billion into elections, led by the world’s richest man — Elon Musk. He spent more than $290 million supporting President Trump and other Republicans, a record sum. And overall, that $3 billion was spent overwhelmingly to benefit the GOP — these donors gave five times as much to Republicans and groups aligned with them as they did to Democrats.
That trend appears to be continuing: Republican Party committees, super PACs, MAGA Inc. and other Trump-related groups had over $600 million in cash on hand in early February, while Democratic Party committees and congressional super PACs were short of $200 million.
Election spending has ballooned in the decade and a half since a Supreme Court ruling that opened the floodgates for corporations and unions to donate without any limits. Billionaires on both sides have funded a constellation of opaque political organizations, raising fresh questions about “dark money” and lax disclosure laws, as well as, in some cases, whether groups are complying with rules on the books.
The structures and cash flow of these organizations — which operate on both sides of the political aisle — have taken on a new level of complexity, even for the already serpentine world of campaign giving.
After the 2024 election, the Majority Democrats PAC was launched by centrist Democrats to recruit new candidates and challenge the party’s more progressive wing.
The Mandels, along with Mark Heising — a billionaire investor in San Francisco who also fundraises for Democrats — are top funders of Majority Democrats PAC. More than 90% of its publicly-disclosed fundraising haul since last July is traced to $3.5 million in contributions from the Mandels and $1 million from Heising.
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Read More: Billionaires, dark money fuel questions ahead of 2026 midterms
