More than $16 billion and counting has been raised during the 2026 election cycle, according to an early October tally by the Federal Election Commission.

Most of that money flowed not through candidates or political parties, but rather through political action committees.

That includes massive spending by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who is also likely to be the election’s largest spender as he tries to save Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

There is spending by rich people on the left — George Soros and Michael Bloomberg will be among the biggest spenders of the cycle. But their spending has been dwarfed by the big-dollar contributions funneled to the political right. And it may be months or years before we get a better accounting of money that flowed through dark money groups facing even more limited disclosure requirements than PACs.

I went to CNN’s Fredreka Schouten for more on what we know so far this year about campaign spending. SCHOUTEN: Right now, it’s Republicans — particularly when it comes to Senate races.

All year long, we’ve seen individual Democratic candidates for the House and Senate outperform their GOP rivals. But the big money began arriving this fall to help Republicans.

And, boy, has it ever. Just look at the two super PACs active in Senate races. The Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC is touting that it has raised $354 million this cycle, a record for the group.

Not shabby. But SLF, also known as Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC working to elect Republicans to the Senate, raised more than $540 million.

At the same time, billionaire Elon Musk and groups aligned with President Donald Trump are putting tens of millions of dollars into races to help Republicans.

Our colleague David Wright, who tracks political advertising closely, has reported on one advantage for Democrats facing a Republican money onslaught: Democratic dollars are going further.

Why? The GOP is relying more heavily on super PACs that pay elevated rates for advertising, and they have made their buying decisions later when ad inventory is stretched. SCHOUTEN: Elon Musk.

The world’s richest man is also the largest single disclosed donor of this election cycle. His giving powered past the $400 million mark as of mid-October, the newest reports show. And the election isn’t over yet. So, we don’t have a full tally of his impact.

But keep in mind that it was a big deal when he spent about $290 million in the 2024 election to help elect President Donald Trump and Republicans. He’s now a mega-donor unlike anyone this country has ever seen.

In September, for instance, the billionaire gave a total of $158 million to SLF in two tranches, and the money appeared to immediately flow to another group, Texas PAC. That group, in turn, has spent heavily to boost Republican Ken Paxton over Democrat James Talarico in a heavily contested Senate race. If Paxton wins, Musk is definitely one of the people he’ll have to thank for it.

Not long ago, Musk was talking about breaking from Republicans and starting his own party, after publicly feuding with the president. But his spending shows that he’s back in the Republican fold.

Another big story is the spending affiliated with Trump. His MAGA Inc. super PAC had built big cash reserves all year as Republican fretted about losing their House and Senate majorities.

Then in September, the Trump-aligned money started flowing to help Republicans, including Paxton. MAGA Inc. also funds two new super PACs with innocuous-sounding names, No Going Back PAC and Safety & Affordability PAC, that are active in the midterms.

Those super PAC titles don’t exactly scream to voters that the ads they are running are tied to Trump, a president headed into the midterms with historically low approval ratings.

The president recently said his political machine is on track to spend $400 million by Election Day to help rescue the GOP majorities in Congress. He has the money to do that.

The GOP outpouring has caused some panic among Democrats on Capitol Hill, as our colleagues Sarah Ferris and Patrick Svitek recently reported.

Enter former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who traditionally gets involved in races late. The billionaire’s team recently announced a last-minute $80 million infusion to help Democrats.

SCHOUTEN: The billionaire is a traditionally major source of funding for Democrats. His political operation, now overseen by his son Alex, has funneled more than $100 million into Democracy PAC and Democracy PAC II, the super PACs it controls.

Those PACs give money to other left-leaning PACs, such as the Fulcrum PAC — which is active in what could be the sleeper race of the election, an unexpectedly competitive US Senate contest in deep-red Mississippi.

It is a lot of money, but Soros is not the biggest player that we about in this election.

SCHOUTEN: Really rich people and companies. For example, in September alone, just three people accounted for three-quarters of the $24 million that MAGA Inc., took in that month: Casino mogul Steve Wynn ($8 million), Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman ($5 million) and Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks ($5 million).

GEO Reentry Services, the subsidiary of a private prison company with federal contracts to operate US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, also donated $1 million to MAGA Inc. that month.

Zach, you did a deep dive into some of the people who have donated to MAGA Inc. and other Trump-related projects.

WOLF: That was back in June and I was specifically looking at what MAGA Inc. contributors might want from the federal government.

SCHOUTEN: This is the first big election since the explosion of artificial intelligence. We are seeing lots of political ads generated using AI that are cheap to produce but can blur reality. It’s super-easy to show candidates in unflattering situations that never even happened. And the federal government hasn’t caught up with regulation the technology. We recently took a closer look at the trend. From our report: WOLF: Reporting on this feels like a puzzle — piecing things together after the fact from FEC reports. What are you most interested to learn after the election?

SCHOUTEN: We’ll come closer to having a final accounting of the publicly disclosed donations, though it’s hard to imagine any single person will top Musk. We’ll also have a better handle on how untraceable money –— donations from nonprofits and shell companies — shaped the election, although there’s often a long delay in uncovering that information.

Finally, the election outcome itself will tell us who made the smart bets — or maybe just made consultants and others in the political ecosystem rich.