Billionaire Jeff Yass gave almost $110 million to boost Republicans in the US midterm elections, making him the third-largest individual donor of this cycle and the top financial backer of embattled Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Billionaire Jeff Yass gave almost $110 million to boost Republicans in the US midterm elections, making him the third-largest individual donor of this cycle and the top financial backer of embattled Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy, who faced bipartisan backlash this week over an advertisement his campaign produced featuring Democratic opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother, has received $30 million from Yass, making him by far the largest recipient of donations from the founder of proprietary trading firm Susquehanna International Group.
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A spokesperson for Yass said his spending in the Ohio governor’s race is connected to the candidate’s support for universal school choice. Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who has received backing from Elon Musk and other wealthy donors including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, has proposed expanding public funding options for private schools and homeschooling.
Ramaswamy’s campaign said it would spend $4 million promoting the spot, which features Acton’s birth mother calling her daughter a liar. It was condemned by Acton’s brother, who said his sister had been sexually abused by their mother’s husband before the siblings were removed from her custody.
Overall, Yass gave roughly $10 million more to federal candidates this cycle than he did during the 2024 cycle, the latest figures show. His spending has more than doubled since the 2022 midterms, when he contributed a total of $48 million to federal candidates, according to campaign spending filings.
Yass, 68, one of the GOP’s top political donors since 2020, has a net worth of $92.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He has said his political giving is motivated primarily by support for school choice, or systems that allow parents to use taxpayer funds to send children to private, religious or charter schools.
In a speech and Wall Street Journal op-ed in May, Yass called on New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to give parents $21,000 as a voucher to use on their children’s education, while placing another $21,000 into an investment account for each student. He has also attracted attention as a major shareholder of TikTok parent company ByteDance Ltd., which faced a US ban before President Donald Trump reached a deal this year allowing the app to continue operating in the country.
Yass’s giving this cycle puts him slightly behind billionaire packaging magnates Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who gave at least $138 million to support Republicans. Musk is ending the cycle as the country’s top political spender, giving $369 million for Republicans since 2025, including a recent $158 million infusion for the Senate Republican super PAC, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Yass also gave $16.5 million to Club for Growth Action, a Republican super PAC that advocates against high taxes and government regulation. Club for Growth Action spent more than $1.2 million opposing independent candidate Bill Hill in Alaska’s at-large House race and more than $1.1 million supporting GOP congressional candidate Alexandra Mealer, who’s running to represent a district that was redrawn to favor Republicans.
Though Yass backed Trump alternatives before the 2024 election, he gave $16 million to Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC in 2025. He also gave $17.5 million this cycle to the School Freedom Fund, which has spent millions on federal and state races in Texas, Tennessee and elsewhere.