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- This week, Larry Ellison briefly overtook Elon Musk as the richest man in the world.
- Ellison is a major political donor and has supported several American politicians over the years.
- His biggest beneficiaries have been Tim Scott, Marco Rubio, and Mitt Romney.
Oracle cofounder and chairman Larry Ellison briefly overtook Elon Musk as the richest man in the world this week.
Ellison’s sudden rise to the top spot, the result of a surge in Oracle’s stock price, was ultimately short-lived. Just hours later, Musk retook the top spot after Oracle’s price receded a bit.
Like Musk, Ellison is a major political donor — but he’s been at it far longer than the Tesla and SpaceX founder.
Though he has close ties to President Donald Trump, he does not appear to have ever made any direct, public contributions to the president’s political operation, according to Federal Election Commission records.
He hosted a fundraiser for Trump in 2020 on one of his properties, but said that he did not attend himself. But he’s spent big on some other major politicians — mostly Republicans.
Here are the politicians who’ve enjoyed Ellison’s largesse over the years.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina
Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican senator from South Carolina, has been Ellison’s biggest financial beneficiary by far.
Ellison contributed more than $35 million to Opportunity Matters Fund, a super PAC associated with Scott, between 2020 and 2023.
When Scott ran for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Ellison attended his campaign launch event in South Carolina in 2023.
Scott even gave Ellison a shoutout at the event, calling him a “mentor” of his.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio
Long before he became Secretary of State, Marco Rubio was a freshman senator running for President of the United States.
During the 2016 election, Ellison contributed $5 million to Conservative Solutions PAC, a super PAC that supported Rubio’s presidential bid.
Ellison reportedly held a fundraiser for Rubio at his mansion in Woodside, a town in the San Francisco Bay Area, in May 2015.
Former Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah
Ellison was a supporter of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential candidacy.
He gave $3 million to Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney super PAC, that year.
Romney, the onetime governor of Massachusetts, later served as a US senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
Tim Scott isn’t the only South Carolina politician that Ellison has supported.
The state’s other Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, has also earned Ellison’s financial support, including as recently as this year.
Ellison contributed $1 million to Security is Strength, a pro-Graham super PAC, in March of this year.
It was his largest publicly disclosed political donation since 2022. Graham is seeking reelection next year.
Ellison also made a $250,000 contribution to the same group in 2020, the last time that Graham was up for reelection.
A smattering of other politicians have received Ellison’s money
Ellison has donated to a variety of other politicians over the years.
In 2020, he gave $1 million apiece to super PACs supporting Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine and GOP candidate John James in Michigan. He also gave $1 million in 2022 to a super PAC that spent heavily in a US House primary in Tennessee.
While most of his contributions have been to Republicans, Ellison wasn’t always just a GOP donor.
FEC records show that in the 1990s, he made significant donations to Democrats, including a total of $120,000 to the Democratic National Committee, when Bill Clinton was the party’s presidential nominee.
In 2000, he was quoted as saying: “We should have amended the Constitution to elect Bill Clinton to a third term.”
Read the full article here
