Billionaires Pour Nearly $10 Million Into Collins Campaign Network, Analysis Finds

Maine's U.S. Senate race has become a study in contrasts when it comes to campaign financing, with at least 79 billionaires and 18 of their spouses directing roughly $9.8 million to Republican Sen. Susan Collins' fundraising operation since the start of 2025. That figure represents about one-third of all money raised by groups supporting her reelection, according to a Federal Election Commission analysis by The Maine Monitor.

By comparison, Democrat Graham Platner, who clinched his party's nomination this week, has received just $24,000 from five billionaires over the same period, a sliver of his total fundraising haul.

The billionaire backing for Collins has come largely from the world of alternative investments. Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel LLC, contributed $2.5 million to Pine Tree Results PAC, the super PAC dedicated to electing Collins, the largest individual donation in her network since 2025. Stephen Schwarzman, the Blackstone founder often called "the king of private equity," gave $2 million. Schwarzman and the private equity industry were also major Collins supporters during her 2020 campaign.

Other notable billionaire donors include Palantir co-founder Alex Karp, Melinda French-Gates, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Elizabeth Uihlein, who is married to Richard Uihlein, the primary financier of a ballot initiative this year on transgender athletes in Maine sports.

Among the more high-profile contributions to the broader pro-Collins effort was a $1 million donation from Jim Davis, the billionaire owner and chairman of New Balance. The footwear company maintains manufacturing facilities in Maine even though it is headquartered in Boston. Davis made four donations to the Collins network last year, including the one to the super PAC, which came seven months before Collins launched her reelection campaign in February with a video of herself opening a box of New Balance running shoes.

"In 2026, I'm running," Collins said in the video, holding up a sneaker. The video made no mention of Davis's earlier contribution.

The Collins campaign declined an interview request from The Maine Monitor and later declined to answer questions over email.

A Network of Committees

The billionaire money has flowed through a web of five committees tied to Collins's reelection. Most of it, nearly $9 million, went to Pine Tree Results PAC, a super PAC not bound by contribution limits. The rest was distributed among Collins's official campaign committee, the Collins Victory Committee, Dirigo PAC, and Susan Collins for Maine, a joint fundraising committee.

For the first time in her career, Collins's campaign is linked to a super PAC through joint fundraising agreements, an arrangement made possible by a 2024 Federal Election Commission advisory opinion. That opinion, issued 5-1, allowed South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham's campaign to enter a similar arrangement with a supporting super PAC, provided there was no coordination on campaign strategy.

The Pine Tree Results PAC shares a treasurer with the Collins Victory Committee and Dirigo PAC. All three groups have paid the same Washington, D.C.-based fundraising consultant, the Morning Group.

The Pine Tree Results PAC has financed attack ads against Platner since April and has reserved $24 million in advertising for the general election, according to data from AdImpact.

Altogether, the Collins network has raised about $30 million since the beginning of 2025, with $12 million going directly to her campaign committee.

Platner's Grassroots Approach

Platner's campaign has charted a fundamentally different course. Of the $16.3 million his campaign raised through May 20, roughly 60% came from donors giving $200 or less, contributions that often arrive in small, recurring amounts from many individuals. The average donation was $26, according to Ben Chin, Platner's campaign manager.

"While Susan Collins' campaign is backed by billionaire donors, our campaign is built on a movement funded by the people," Chin wrote in an email.

Just 3% of the money raised by Collins's network came from donors giving $200 or less, the analysis found. The Collins campaign itself raised about $980,000 from such small-dollar contributions.

The two funding models have produced similar totals in dollar terms, though structured very differently. The $9.8 million from billionaires backing Collins is roughly equal to the $9.6 million in small-dollar donations supporting Platner.

Platner's five billionaire donors include Jennifer Pritzker, a cousin of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who gave $1,500; Jon and Pat Stryker, heirs to the Stryker medical equipment fortune, who contributed a combined $12,000; Christy Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, who gave $3,500; and Democratic megadonor George Soros, who contributed $7,000. Their combined net worth is estimated at $42.3 billion, compared with $888 billion for the billionaires supporting Collins.

Geographic Divide

The two campaigns also draw money from dramatically different places. Of itemized donations, those exceeding $200 and reported to the FEC with donor information, only about 3% to the Collins network came from Maine residents. No billionaires donating to her network are Maine residents.

For Platner, Maine was the largest source of itemized donations through May 20, accounting for roughly 22% of the total.

"That's rare in general and exceptionally rare for a small state," said Nicholas Jacobs, a professor of American government at Colby College who has studied out-of-state donations in Senate campaigns.

Outside Spending and the Looming Super PAC Question

Other outside groups are also flooding the race with cash. The Senate Leadership Fund, the main fundraising vehicle for Senate Republicans, has booked $29 million in ads for the Maine contest and has raised $175 million since the start of 2025. Its billionaire donors include casino magnate Miriam Adelson, who gave $30 million, and Elon Musk, who contributed $10 million.

On the Democratic side, WinSenate has reserved $25 million in ads for the Maine race. Its parent organization, the Senate Majority PAC, has raised $115 million this cycle, including $2 million from cable TV magnate Amos Hostetter Jr. and $1 million from Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings.

Both parties' Senate super PACs have also received substantial contributions from nonprofit groups that are not required to disclose their donors, so-called dark money. The Senate Leadership Fund has received $46 million from the conservative nonprofit One Nation, while Majority Forward, a liberal counterpart, has given $33 million to the Senate Majority PAC.

The structure of Collins's fundraising network reflects a significant shift in campaign finance rules. Before a 2024 FEC advisory opinion, campaigns could not formally connect with super PACs through joint fundraising agreements. That changed when the commission permitted Graham's campaign to share a fundraising apparatus with a super PAC, provided the two sides maintained an information barrier.

Former FEC member Ellen Weintraub dissented from that decision, writing that "the Commission has already created far too many holes in what should be a solid wall dividing candidates and their committees from the super PACs that support them." President Donald Trump fired Weintraub from the commission in 2025 shortly after she became chair and did not name a replacement. The agency has since lost its quorum of commissioners and has been unable to carry out its election oversight duties.

A Race With National Stakes

The financial firepower on display reflects the stakes of the contest, which could help determine control of the U.S. Senate. Collins, who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, is seeking another term in a state that has trended more competitive in recent federal elections. Platner, a relative newcomer with no joint fundraising agreements or dedicated super PAC, has instead relied on a grassroots model more associated with recent Democratic campaigns.

That difference is not surprising, according to Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine. "We generally know that, in contemporary American politics, big money from wealthy donors generally tends to head in the direction of Republicans more than Democrats," he said.

But Brewer noted that Democrats from Howard Dean to Barack Obama have shown the potential of small-dollar fundraising at scale. "It's two different ways to get there, but you both get there," he said.

That dynamic may soon shift. Jacobs predicted that Platner will likely attract the support of a super PAC at some point this summer as outside Democratic groups mobilize behind the nominee. "That's just the way politics works," Jacobs said.

Platner has previously said on social media that super PACs "should be outlawed."

The race has already entered a more turbulent phase. Platner's campaign announced it raised $200,000 in the 24 hours after The New York Times published a story last week describing what it called "unsettling" behavior with three former girlfriends. Platner has vowed to continue his campaign.

With a general election now set, the financial landscape of the contest is poised to grow even more complex, as billionaire dollars on one side and small-dollar donations on the other compete to shape one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.