Reid Hoffman pours $8 million into Wisconsin race as Epstein ads flood battlegrounds

The final stretch of the 2026 election cycle has seen a surge in high-profile donations from wealthy tech figures, with checks arriving days before voters head to the polls.

Reid Hoffman, the venture capitalist and LinkedIn co-founder, has contributed a total of $8 million to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin in the last five weeks. Wisconsin campaign finance records show he wrote a $2 million check on Sept. 24, followed by a $1 million donation on Oct. 2. He then split a $5 million contribution into two installments, sending $2.5 million on Oct. 5 and the remaining $2.5 million on Oct. 20. These funds support David Crowley, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, in his race against Republican Tom Tiffany.

Hoffman is not the only major donor increasing his spending in the final fortnight. In Texas, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave $750,000 to Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa. Y Combinator co-founder Jessica Livingston also donated $150,000 to Hinojosa. Bloomberg had previously committed approximately $80 million to aid Democrats this fall, with a large portion directed at securing House seats. On the other side of the aisle, PayPal co-founder Luke Nosek provided $500,000 to Judicial Fairness PAC on Tuesday. The group, which supports conservative judicial candidates in Texas, had already received $2 million from Elon Musk. Musk's total disclosed political giving through late October stands at roughly $475 million, making him the largest known individual donor of the cycle.

These donations land amidst an intense advertising push. AdImpact data indicates that more than $1 billion is booked to air before Election Day. The 2026 cycle has broken previous records for political ad spending, with more than $11.2 billion either spent or reserved. This total exceeds the spending of any prior presidential election cycle.

Hoffman has described his financial intervention as a necessary response to the current political climate. In a post on X on Friday, he wrote, "We should get money out of politics. And while others spend outrageous amounts to keep authoritarian clowns in power, those of us who believe in the ideals of America cannot yield." His funding extends beyond state-level races. According to Federal Election Commission records, Hoffman has donated $8.5 million to House Majority PAC this cycle. The super PAC has recently launched 13 advertisements focused on Jeffrey Epstein, totaling about $8.4 million in spending and reaching nearly 719.4 million impressions. The organization had not run a single Epstein-focused ad prior to this month.

The new advertisements have targeted Republican candidates in at least six battleground House districts. In Arizona's Second District, a spot called "Justice" criticized Rep. Eli Crane over his voting record on Epstein files and contributions from alleged associates. In Pennsylvania's Eighth District, ads titled "Predators" and "Teacher" aimed at Rep. Rob Bresnahan. In Ohio's Tenth District, a commercial called "Exposed" attacked Rep. Mike Turner regarding a contribution from an Epstein confidant. These three races are closely contested and could influence which party controls the House in the next Congress.

While super PACs pool contributions, making it difficult to trace Hoffman's specific money to individual ads, his history with Epstein complicates the Democratic strategy. Hoffman has admitted to visiting Epstein's private island and meeting him after the financier's 2008 guilty plea for sex offenses involving a minor. Hoffman stated that the relationship began through fundraising for the MIT Media Lab and that he regrets continuing the association. "My last interaction with Epstein was in 2015," he told Axios in 2019. "Still, by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice. For this, I am deeply regretful."

Republicans have leveraged Hoffman's continued presence in Democratic fundraising to question the party's consistency. RNC spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre told Fox News earlier this week that Democrats "have no problem with money in politics so long as it benefits their own campaign." The criticism has already influenced the Wisconsin gubernatorial race. A new 15-second ad from Tiffany's campaign combines clips of Crowley using the words "Epstein" and "billionaires." The narrator then states that these figures "are bankrolling David Crowley's campaign." No formal allegations exist that Hoffman participated in Epstein's crimes, but the visual association remains a central theme in Republican messaging.