$108 million in super PAC money puts McCormick at the top in spending

The donors

The Koch-affiliated hybrid PAC Americans for Prosperity Action spent significant sums in support of McCormick last quarter, $13 million.

But Keystone Renewal remains the biggest donor in the race. The super PAC said it spent $30 million on McCormick’s campaign in the last quarter alone.

Only two of Keystone’s donors, including Yass, are from Pennsylvania. The group’s focus solely on McCormick’s campaign and not on a broader slate of Republican candidates shows how much major donors are willing to spend to influence the outcome of this race.

DeVos, the education secretary during the Trump administration, and other members of her family donated a combined $500,000 in May of this year but had no additional donations listed this quarter.

Kenneth Griffin, founder of hedge fund Citadel LLC, gave the PAC the biggest boost of all with a $10 million donation in its first month. He donated another $5 million this quarter.

Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman donated $1 million this quarter after donating $500,000 last year. Thomas Peterffy, the founder and CEO of trading firm Interactive Brokers, donated $2 million this quarter, up from an initial $800,000. Yass initially donated $1 million shortly after launching the PAC and added another $250,000 this quarter.

These four Keystone employees — Griffin, Schwarzman, Peterffy and Yass — rank 28th to 38th on Bloomberg’s Global Billionaires Index.

Many donors closely tied to former President Donald Trump also benefited from McCormick, who said he sees the two campaigns as “very well aligned” when it comes to reaching voters.

Another $1 million investor in the first quarter is billionaire Howard Lutnick, whom Trump named in August to co-chair a transition team preparing for his possible return to office.

Antonio Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners and former Tesla board member, also joined GOP donors with $2 million in donations this quarter. Gracias is a close friend and confidant of Elon Musk and also contributes to Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC.

Billionaire couple Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, founders of the Uline shipping company and one of the Trump campaign’s largest donors in the country, have donated a total of $1.5 million to Keystone. Richard Uihlein is the main contributor to the pro-Trump group Restoration PAC, which recently made headlines with a controversial pro-Trump TV ad using out-of-context footage of Philadelphia native Kimberly Burrell.

On Casey’s side, most of the outside PAC spending comes from leadership super PAC WinSenate, which spent $39 million on the candidate. WinSenate’s funding comes directly from the Senate Majority PAC (SMP), which is aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.