STATE OF MONDAY: The People Are Pulling Back — The Billionaires Are Writing Checks

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Hey everyone,

Welcome to State of the Day,

Remember when Trump promised to fight for the little guy?

The People Are Pulling Back — The Billionaires Are Writing Checks

Senate campaigns have tallied their third-quarter cash hauls; the contrast is about as subtle as a brick through a window.

Across nine Senate races, Democrats brought in $231.2 million in the third quarter. Republicans? A meager $48.5 million.

In case you’re just as bad at math as I am, that’s nearly five times as much cash flowing into Democratic campaigns.

James Talarico alone raked in an eye-watering $64 million, with his campaign reporting 97 percent of donations were under $100. When Axios told GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno about Talarico’s haul, Moreno responded, “Oh my God, holy crap. I mean, that’s a number that’s mind-blowing.”

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff wasn’t doing too bad himself, pulling in $33.1 million from more than 760,000 contributions, averaging just $46 apiece.

Turns out, a whole lot of regular folk tossing in a few bucks can build one hell of a war chest. But it’s more than the bank statements. It’s who’s opening their wallets, who’s closing them, and what that means for November.

Trump won in ‘24 by assembling a coalition of working-class, young, and disaffected voters. He promised lower prices, good jobs, and a government that had their backs.

Two years later, that coalition is cracking.

A Wall Street Journal poll found that voters under 30 favor the Democratic candidate by 20 points on a general ballot. In 2024, Trump lost the group to Kamala Harris by four points.

Swing voters, if you will.

Then there’s the economy — the issue that put Trump back into the White House.

An AP-NORC poll found that just 17 percent of Americans approve his handling of the cost of living.

The war in Iran? Sixty-nine percent said it hadn’t been worth fighting.

So Americans are still dealing with the cost of living, the administration is embroiled in an expensive war, and Republicans have spent 2 years with a Washington trifecta.

The party of the working man?

But the GOP has a backup plan. And it’s got a lot of zeros.

According to The Washington Post’s latest breakdown of political megadonors, the 50 biggest donors have poured roughly $2.39 billion into the midterms. Republican-aligned donors account for $1.54 billion of that, compared with $590 million from Democratic-aligned donors.

Elon Musk alone has thrown $369 million into the electoral cycle. I guess, when your fundraising operation starts slacking off, you call the world’s richest man.

To be fair, Democrats have their own wealthy benefactors. George Soros has given $102 million, according to WaPo.

It’s important to note these are different pools of money — candidate fundraising on one hand and donors financing political groups on the other.

Trump built his political identity around taking on the elites. Now his party is relying on the fortunes of the ultrawealthy while its working-class coalition has run to the other side of the aisle.

And don’t get me wrong, billionaires can buy a lot of thirty-second ads. But they can’t make groceries cheaper by writing a check to a super PAC. Or convince a trucker that six-dollar diesel is a bargain, let alone why an unjustified war is worth the bill.

And they certainly can’t make voters forget that the party that promised to drain the swamp has become awfully comfortable taking money from the very people it’s supposed to serve, making sure the swamp stays full.

The billionaires aren’t going anywhere anytime soon … the voters? A different story altogether.

And if the polling, fundraising numbers, and economic frustration are any indication, Republicans have a problem no super PAC can solve.

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From The Editors’ Desk

The Iran War Is Going To Go Ballistic After Midterms, Daily Caller News Foundation, Francis Kapper

The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Francis Kapper reveals the Trump administration could soon escalate its unpopular war with Iran, citing senior military officials. While the Trump administration has reduced the frequency of strikes against targets in Iran ahead of the midterm elections, the Pentagon appears prepared for a sharp uptick in military actions after Election Day.

Here Are the Most Unhinged Ads From The Nearly $80,000,000 AI Slop Spree, Daily Caller News Foundation, Dylan Kresak

The 2026 midterms are the first U.S. election cycle to see widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) in political advertising, with a whopping $80 million ad spend. The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Dylan Kresak gives a rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2026’s AI ad splurge — warning: it is mostly ugly.

Trump Blames France Violence On Immigration, The Telegraph, Vivian Song

U.S. President Donald Trump urged France to close its borders in the face of mounting civil unrest in the country due to a student strike that has been joined by a number of 2nd- and 3rd-generation migrants. “France is burning! The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country.

“Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social over the weekend.

Musk Vows to Give Each U.S. Child a SpaceX Share, The Wall Street Journal, Gareth Vipers

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, pledged to give every child in the U.S. a share of his private space technology company, SpaceX. With millions of children up for the gift, the total could be worth around $10 billion. “This will be the first of many,” Musk said when he announced the plan. Read more from the Journal’s Gareth Vipers.