Labor Day marked the beginning, for political campaigns at least, of an eight-week sprint to the Nov. 3 general election during which millions of mailers will be sent to votersโ homes, door-knockers will fan out across San Francisco, and candidates will hit the campaign trail.
All of that costs money. Fundraising and spending will likely ramp up in the coming weeks, but already, eye-watering contributions have been made in this election: At least $18 million has been raised for the November races and the top 16 donors have contributed some $13 million.
That number includes 11 donors who have contributed at least $500,000 each โ and three who have contributed $1 million or more.
Mission Local mapped out the biggest donors. Topping the list: Cryptocurrency company founder Chris Larsen (together with his wife Lyna Lam and company Ripple); Michael Moritz, a journalist-turned-venture-capitalist and financier behind the San Francisco Standard; and John Pritzker, an investor and heir to the Hyatt hotel chain.
The bulk of the major giving is going toward Mayor Lurieโs package of charter-reform measures. Those measures โ propositions D, E and F โ seek to consolidate mayoral authority by shifting power from city commissions to the mayor, make it more difficult for measures to qualify for the ballot, and give the city administrator more say over the cityโs contracts.
This isnโt the first time the big money has sought to change the charter. In November 2024, Proposition D, which also aimed to consolidate mayoral power, raised some $9.5 million, most of it from Moritz. That was more than any other measure on the ballot that year.
Overall, several of the big donors in this election have previously given to measures, candidates and PACs that support expanding mayoral power, increasing police funding and technology use, and offer incentives to help housing developers and boost construction. That includes GrowSF, a political advocacy group that has grown significantly in recent years and received several large contributions from wealthy donors this cycle.
Significant sums are also going toward Lurieโs PAC, โDaniel Lurie Ballot Measure Committee โ Safe, Affordable Muni for a Thriving San Francisco,โ to support the Muni parcel tax that would tax property owners to raise money to support the cityโs transit network.
Explore the table with the top 16 donors who have contributed $250,000 or more.
Who’s giving to Lurie’s charter amendments?
The biggest contributions have gone to support the package of charter-reform measures. As Mission Local previously reported, nearly half of that money went toward signature gathering to get those measures on the ballot in the first place.
Whoโs giving to the Muni tax?
The PAC supporting Lurieโs Muni parcel tax measure, Prop. H, is also flush with cash. To date, it has raised some $3.8 million, and only spent about $1.1 million.
Methodology
Data used from this article was obtained from the San Francisco Ethics commission via S.F. Open Data and from the California Secretary of State, via CalAccess.
Any transactions to committees registered for the San Francisco November election are included, as well as transactions to independent committees that are spending on the November races.
The data is up to date as of Sept. 10, 2026.
This article is not an exhaustive list of all major donors; it includes the top donors who have contributed to the November races, by amount given. In some cases, donors were grouped with their spouse, and/or companies they have founded.
This article was inspired by an article recently published in the New York Times on megadonors contributing to the midterm elections.
Disclosure: The Emerson Collective is a donor to Mission Local.
Straight up corruption and a public list of those doing it in the open.
DISGUSTING. This is not Democracy or even a functional Republic!
THIS IS WHAT OLIGARCHY LOOKS LIKE.
Mike, put yourself in the position of being a billionaire, if you can. There are very few of you. Your votes count for nothing. You don’t have an army of organizers and activists to knock on doors or march on protests. And you are vulnerable to a majority voting to expropriate your earnings and wealth.
Wouldn’t you use the one resource you had to try and level the playing field?
You don’t have to agree with all their policies to acknowledge that they should have a right to participate in the democratic process in the only way that they can.
Gosh, if only the poor downtrodden billionaire oligarchs owned the mass media, owned the politicians, controlled education, controlled the thinktank/epolicy institution/foundation ecosystem, and could pay for trolls to support their agenda on local news blogs, they might have a fighting chance against the unorganized, artificially-polarized, manipulated masses who have to decide every month whether to pay for food, rent, or utilities!
AYFKM jack?
This is basically your voting guide. Anything these uber-wealthy oligarchs and their companies want, you should want the opposite. They’re playing a zero-sum game. Are you?
The Charter is our cityโs Constitution. It, like the federal Constitutionโs First Amendment, protects our rights. The SF Charter guarantees us the ability to comment at public hearings, put citizen initiatives on the ballot, and serve on citizen oversight bodies. Prop A reduces peopleโs oversight of local government; Prop C restricts peopleโs access to the ballot; and Prop E limits the peopleโs representatives from reviewing city procurementโฆโฆโฆall in the name of efficiency. Like a local version of Elonโs DOGE, these measures all agree that we could get a lot done if it werenโt for all the darn constituents!!
Errata: my comment should have said โProp D restricts peopleโs accessโฆโ in the fourth line.
If Airbnb didn’t do enough to compromise our housing market…
Looks like we’re reverting back to White Washing of the City…
In a city that’s 30 percent plus SinoAsian — I don’t see many playas…
I note the MUNI tax is on property owners, not the big corporations who rely on their workers getting downtown or where ever. How does it not run afoul of Proposition 13? Clever? Maybe but is what caused Proposition 13 in the first place, banks and corporations off loading their tax obligations on homeowners and small businesses?
Mark, who do you think ultimately pays corporate taxes?
Clue: It is not the corporation, which are merely passthru vehicles.
These measures place more power in an elite ruling class and the proletariat will suffer — by no argument does this lead to a more egalitarian harmonious society.