Who Is Sheldon Adelson? Republican Megadonor Drops $75 Million On Trump Attack Ads

Conservative casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who, along with his wife, has given millions to the Preserve America PAC, donated $75 million more recently to flood battleground states with ads to shore up President Donald Trump’s sliding presidential campaign.

The latest presidential preference polls indicate Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading Trump in several key battleground states or running neck-and-neck. The average of national polls gives Biden an 8.9 point lead over Trump. The presidential election is Nov. 3.

The Trump campaign and his America First Action PAC spent $247 million on television and Facebook ads between April and August, tracking data from Kantar/CMAG showed, but they did little to move the polls.

In a series of tweets earlier this week, Trump rejected the idea that his campaign was running out of cash despite reports of mismanagement of funds and lavish spending on consultants and luxury vehicles.

Trump and Adelson were at odds during the summer, with the president complaining Adelson had not done enough to get Trump reelected, Politico reported.

Adelson’s latest donation comes following a record cash-collection month for Biden’s campaign, which hauled in $383 million last month. Figures from the Trump campaign have yet to be filed. In August, Biden and the Democratic National Committee, raised $364.5 million compared with $210 million by Trump and the Republican National Committee.

Adelson is a major funder of Republican causes.

Federal Election Commission data show the Adelsons have donated $176 million during the 2020 election cycle, including $50 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and $40 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund – both focused on boosting Republican congressional candidates. The amount eclipses the $82 million the couple donated in the 2016 election cycle and the $120 million donated during the 2018 congressional midterms.

The Preserve America PAC filed its first disclosure statement Thursday. It was created Aug. 31 and by the end of September had raised $83.76 million. In addition to the Adelsons, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and investment banker Warren Stephens have donated $5 million and $2 million, respectively.

The group spent nearly $76 million on anti-Biden attack ads last month.

Adelson, CEO of the Las Vegas Sands, has been close to the president since the 2016 presidential campaign. He made his fortune by the 1960s, investing in as many as 75 companies, and entered the real estate brokerage business after the stock market took a dive in the late 1960s. He bought the Sands in 1979, and put the Las Vegas Sands Corp. on the New York Stock Exchange in 2004.

Adelson is a Democrat-turned-Republican, having made the switch in the mid-2000s and becoming the principal backer of the conservative advocacy group Freedom’s Watch in 2008.