Billionaire Las Vegas Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson kept up his major giving to Republican candidates and groups in the 2020 cycle, putting him easily at No.1 among all S&P 500 index bosses when it comes to political spending.
Adelson, who is also the casino company’s founder and chairman, shelled out $26.4 million of his own money to the GOP, according to a MarketWatch analysis of the latest processed Federal Election Commission data, which cover individual contributions made to monthly filers between January 2019 and August 2020 and to quarterly filers, through June 2020.
According to more recent figures from the Center for Responsive Politics, the Las Vegas Sands LVS, +2.13% chief executive and his wife, Miriam Adelson, have given $172.7 million overall to Republicans in the 2020 cycle. That includes $75 million for a super PAC supporting President Donald Trump, and $50 million for a super PAC backing Republican senators, according to the nonpartisan center.
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The Adelsons “rank among the top political mega-donors of the post-Citizens United world,” said Michael Beckel, research director at Issue One, referring to a landmark 2010 Supreme Court ruling that rolled back limits on political spending.
“Few other Americans have invested as much money into the political process in the past decade as the Adelsons have. Through his political spending, Sheldon Adelson has worked to advance a number of causes that are near to his heart, from issues affecting the gambling industry to foreign-policy issues about Israel,” added Beckel, whose nonprofit group aims to reduce the influence of big money in politics.
S&P 500 CEOs spending the most on the 2020 elections
| CEO | Company | Political spending | Recipients: D vs. R |
| 1. Sheldon Adelson | Las Vegas Sands | $26,375,700 | 100% R |
| 2. Jeffrey Sprecher | Intercontinental Exchange | $2,597,400 | 100% R |
| 3. Steven Roth | Vornado Realty Trust | $1,374,541 | 99% R |
| 4. Reed Hastings | Netflix | $694,600 | 100% D |
| 5. Jay Adair | Copart | $385,600 | 100% R |
| 6. Fred Smith | FedEx | $365,700 | 98% R |
| 7. Bob Iger* | Disney | $363,000 | 100% D |
| 8. James Herbert II | First Republic Bank | $345,700 | 100% R |
| 9. David Zaslav | Discovery | $343,250 | 98% D |
| 10. John Hess | Hess | $338,041 | 100% R |
* Former CEO who held the position during the FEC’s 2020 election cycle that started Jan. 1, 2019
Source: MarketWatch analysis of processed Federal Election Commission data on individual contributions made between January 2019 and August 2020
A Las Vegas Sands spokeswoman didn’t respond to requests for comment, and Adelson, an 87-year-old with an estimated net worth of $31 billion, last week said, “We don’t answer political questions,” when a Wall Street analyst asked about the Nov. 3 election during an earnings conference call.
But the Adelsons have spoken out at other times. For example, Miriam Adelson, 75, praised the Trump administration’s pro-Israel moves in an opinion column last year, as she suggested the Jewish bible ought to get a “Book of Trump.”
In the 2018 midterm elections, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +2.22% CEO Jeff Bezos ranked No. 1 among S&P 500 CEOs in political spending, as he gave $10 million of his own money to a nonpartisan super PAC that aims to elect military veterans to Congress. Las Vegas Sands wasn’t part of the S&P 500 SPX, +1.70% at that time, as the casino company joined the stock index in 2019.
Related:Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands may sell its holdings on Vegas Strip
98 S&P chief execs give just to Republicans in the 2020 cycle, 67 contribute only to Democrats, and 81 donate to both parties.
MarketWatch
Overall, CEOs whose companies are in the S&P 500 stock index have favored Republicans over Democrats in their contributions during the 2020 cycle.
Some 179 of these CEOs donated a total of $35.6 million of their own money to Republican candidates and organizations, while 148 bosses combined to contribute $3.2 million to Democratic efforts, according to MarketWatch’s analysis of outlays between January 2019 and August 2020. Anyone who held the CEO job in 2019 or 2020 at a company that was part of the S&P 500 was included in the analysis.
Many of the S&P 500 CEOs — 81 of them, to be exact — contributed to both Republican and Democratic groups. In other words, only 98 of the 179 GOP donors gave just to the GOP, and only 67 of the Democratic donors gave just to that party’s groups.
“Business executives may be giving to both Democratic and Republican lawmakers because they see it as good for business to have friends on both sides of the aisle in Washington,” Issue One’s Beckel told MarketWatch in an email.
Even with Adelson excluded, Republicans come out ahead in drawing donations from the S&P 500 CEOs, with $9.2 million in 2019 and 2020, almost tripling the Democratic haul. The greater giving to Republicans by the S&P CEOs in the current election cycle fits with their past behavior. Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, 200 S&P 500 chief execs had given a total of $7.4 million to the GOP, while 149 donated a total of $2.6 million to Democrats.
Related:Not one S&P 500 CEO is donating to Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren
Overall spending in this year’s election will approach $14 billion, blowing away past records, according to the latest estimates from the Center for Responsive Politics.
MarketWatch’s analysis here doesn’t cover political contributions by current or former executives of privately held companies, such as billionaire Michael Bloomberg, as it focuses instead on chief executives of the S&P 500’s large, publicly traded companies.
Now read:Trump raised 5 times as much money from America’s top CEOs as Biden
And see:How Biden’s war chest has eclipsed Trump’s — in one chart
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