I Put Campaign Donors in the Gold Box

This week I added campaign donors to the gold box.

The box already walks through American wealth and who has it. I wanted to follow some of that money into the election.

That turned into The Buy-In.

The minimum is $25 million in reported giving during this election cycle. Not necessarily one check. Not a legal requirement. Just where I drew the line for this interaction.

There are twenty-nine entries. Some are individuals. Some are couples, companies, or nonprofits. They aren't all the same kind of donor, which turned out to matter quite a bit.

The screen opens with the scale. Twenty-nine reported estimates. $25 million to clear the list. About $369 million at the top.

Then where those lines point. Republican-aligned giving on this list is about $1.3 billion. Democratic-aligned giving is about $360 million. Issue and policy groups sit at about $330 million. Crypto, AI, betting, and Israel policy are in that third pile.

Those are directions of the lines, not unique dollars, and not all election money. A nonprofit on the list can be passing along money from donors who aren't named. Adding the lines together can count the same dollar twice.

You can click any chip. Each one says who they are and where the money went. You don't have to. Continue still works.

DraftKings and FanDuel

I already had an extremely low opinion of DraftKings and FanDuel. I hate how much of watching sports has become an invitation to gamble. Kevin Hart's DraftKings commercials have made me like him considerably less.

Then I looked at what the product does when someone uses it like a person in trouble.

ProPublica's Jake Pearson bet like a problem gambler. He lost nearly $1,800 chasing bets in one night. The next day, DraftKings invited him into its VIP program. Responsible-gaming prompts showed up along the way. So did more promotions.

I find that disgusting.

The political money made me angrier.

The comparison behind the chips lists DraftKings at roughly $40.4 million and FanDuel at $29 million.

Both companies fund Win for America. That PAC sends money to Republican-side American Conservative Fund and Democratic-side American Future. It's an industry funding network, not a straightforward donation to one party.

A party color and a dollar amount weren't enough.

Checking the Numbers

This took more checking than I expected.

Money moves between organizations. Giving to a PAC isn't the same thing as giving directly to a candidate.

The interaction uses a dated snapshot of rounded reported estimates. The comparison was updated October 16. Filings were available through October 15. It isn't a live tally, and it isn't an audited total.

I have opinions about this stuff. Obviously. I still want the factual part to hold up.

That's the addition this week. The gold box has another layer. Then it still ends where it ended.

There are still plenty of completely pointless things to click in the room.

This one isn't.