--- title: 2016 Election: 158 Families Make Up Half of Election Funding description: Just 158 families have spent nearly half of all money fueling the campaigns in 2016. canonical: https://time.com/4069214/2016-election-spending-campaign-finance/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-10T18:05:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:01.210Z article:section: Politics og:title: 158 Families Make Up Half of 2016 Election Funding og:description: 138 of the 158 highest-spending families have supported Republicans og:url: https://time.com/4069214/2016-election-spending-campaign-finance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1765af5869513dc/698867cba988ca3e1a6b4c1c/gettyimages-138711481.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5150 og:image:height: 2897 og:image:alt: 138711481 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 158 Families Make Up Half of 2016 Election Funding twitter:description: 138 of the 158 highest-spending families have supported Republicans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1765af5869513dc/698867cba988ca3e1a6b4c1c/gettyimages-138711481.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 158 Families Make Up Half of 2016 Election Funding > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 10, 2015 6:05 PM UTC  Voting booths in polling place Voting booths in polling placeGetty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 10, 2015 6:05 PM UTC With little over a year to go until the 2016 election, just 158 families have spent nearly half of all money fueling the campaigns, according to data collected by the [New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/11/us/politics/2016-presidential-election-super-pac-donors.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0). Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010, wealthy donors and campaigns both Democratic and Republican have found increasingly ingenious ways to spend unprecedented amounts of money on elections. The [New York Times breaks down the wealthiest and most influential donors](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/11/us/politics/2016-presidential-election-super-pac-donors.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0), finding that 138 of the 158 highest-spending families have supported Republicans, and are overwhelmingly white, male and older. A large number of them also made their fortunes in finance and energy. [Read more at the Times.](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/11/us/politics/2016-presidential-election-super-pac-donors.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4069214/2016-election-spending-campaign-finance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4069214/2016-election-spending-campaign-finance/"},"headline":"158 Families Make Up Half of 2016 Election Funding","datePublished":"2015-10-10T18:05:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:01.210Z","description":"138 of the 158 highest-spending families have supported Republicans","url":"https://time.com/4069214/2016-election-spending-campaign-finance/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Campaign Finance","Spending"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1765af5869513dc/698867cba988ca3e1a6b4c1c/gettyimages-138711481.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1765af5869513dc/698867cba988ca3e1a6b4c1c/gettyimages-138711481.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"138711481","caption":"138711481","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4069214/2016-election-spending-campaign-finance/","name":"158 Families Make Up Half of 2016 Election Funding"}}]}] ```