David Ellison, the son of Republican megadonor Larry Ellison, donated $929,600 to President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, making him one of the top recent donors to the incumbent Democrat.
According to Federal Election Commission records, David Ellison’s donation is the highest ever made to a federal candidate by the CEO of Skydance Media.
His February gift to the Biden Victory Fund is tied with other major contributions in the first quarter of 2024.
Others who contributed the same amount as David Ellison in that quarter included attorney George Conway, a prominent critic of former President Donald Trump, and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.
David Ellison’s donation comes as his father, Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, has kept his wallet shut this election year.
Larry Ellison, a longtime Republican supporter, has not made a single federal political donation in 2024, according to records. According to OpenSecrets data, Ellison donated more than $31 million to Republican candidates in the 2022 federal midterm elections.
Charles Myers, the former vice chairman of investment bank Evercore and a Biden campaign bundler, called David Ellison’s donation to Biden a “very big deal,” highlighting the donor’s familial links.
“It’s as impactful as if one of the Soros sons started writing huge checks to Trump,” Myers said CNBC, alluding to Democratic megadonor George Soros.
Biden’s allies launched a full-court effort to recruit David Ellison, as the president’s political team seeks to develop a campaign war chest large enough to effectively compete against presumptive Republican contender Donald Trump in the presidential race.
According to a person with direct knowledge of the incident, Hollywood billionaire Jeffrey Katzenberg engineered the maneuver to secure David Ellison’s support—and his hefty donation.
Katzenberg is Biden’s campaign co-chair, and one of his efforts to get David Ellison’s support involved setting up a meeting with Biden, according to the source.
In December, David Ellison attended a private roundtable conversation in Los Angeles with Biden and less than a dozen other attendees, including affluent fundraisers, according to the source. The gathering was held at the house of Kurt Rappaport, a real estate investor and Biden supporter.
Rappaport told CNBC that he invited a “small group of friends” to his home for the occasion, and that the attendees were “not necessarily” all key Biden financiers, but declined to elaborate.
Following the event at Rappaport’s home, David Ellison made a donation to the Biden Victory Fund.
According to Federal Election Commission records, the Biden Victory Fund contributes to the Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and dozens of state parties. According to FEC filings, Rappaport contributed $929,600 to that fund last July.
David Ellison’s contribution enabled the Biden Victory Fund to raise more than $121 million in the first quarter of 2024. Trump Save America, a similar Trump-supporting organization, raised more than $65 million that quarter, according to FEC statistics.
According to the most recent New York Times and Siena College poll, Biden is behind Trump by one percentage point.
Larry Ellison endorsed Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, for president but did not contribute to his campaign. He is now apparently attempting to pitch Scott to Trump’s campaign as the former president’s running mate.
While the Ellisons may be on opposite sides in the 2024 election, the two are collaborating on a significant media contract.
David Ellison’s Skydance Media has made an offer to buy National Amusements and merge with Paramount Pictures. According to a CNBC story quoting sources, Larry Ellison, who has a reported net worth of more than $149 billion, plans to help fund the planned transaction.