These 10 California donors gave over $56.3 million


In California politics, state-level candidates and political action committees have received $1.5 billion in total donations between Jan. 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022. The 10 largest donors gave more than $56.3 million, or 4 percent of all contributions.

These are the top 10 individual donors to California state-level candidates and political action committees (PACs) in the 2022 election cycle, according to campaign finance reports submitted to the California Secretary of State:

Top 10 California Donors (1/1/2021 – 6/30/2022)

Rank Donor Name Total Donations
1 Joseph Sanberg $10,925,000
2 John Cox $9,620,906
3 Cari Tuna $9,500,000
4 Michael Bloomberg $8,264,662
5 Yvonne Yiu $5,623,945
6 Reed Hastings $5,557,500
7 Patty Quillin $1,797,400
8 Jim Walton $1,783,751
9 Geoffrey Palmer $1,742,600
10 Elizabeth Diane Simons $1,461,400

The list of California donors in this time period includes more than 4,125 individuals identified by name in the California Secretary of State’s public records.

The data above are based on campaign finance reports that active California PACs submitted to the California Secretary of State. Federal PACs are not required to report to state agencies.

Transparency USA publishes campaign finance data following major reporting deadlines. State or federal law may require filers to submit additional reports. Data from additional reports due in between the deadlines below are published along with the reports listed here.

Report Name Due Date
Semiannual 1/31/2022
1st Pre-Election – Primary 4/28/2022
2nd Pre-Election – Primary 5/26/2022
Semiannual 8/1/2022
1st Pre-Election – General 9/29/2022
2nd Pre- Election – General 10/27/2022
Semiannual 1/31/2023

This article is a joint publication from Ballotpedia and Transparency USA, who are working together to provide campaign finance information for state-level elections. Learn more about our work here.