A new study has found that Wall Street executives, employees and trade associations poured nearly $3 billion into the 2020 US election cycle.
The study from the progressive group Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) was first published by CNBC on Thursday.
The study also found that Wall Street had invested around $2 billion into the 2016 election cycle.
“Year in and year out, this torrent of money gives Wall Street an outsized role in how we are governed, while driving and protecting policies that help this industry’s super wealthy amass even greater fortunes at the expense of the rest of us,” AFR’s executive director Lisa Donner told CNBC.
Bloomberg, the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Citadel LLC, the Blackstone Group and Charles Schwab & Co. were the top financial companies which contributed to the 2020 election cycle.
According to the study, 53 percent of the money went to Democrats and 47 percent went to Republicans.
In 2020, incumbent Republican President Donald Trump competed against Democratic candidate Joe Bide, who eventually won the election. Hundreds of congressional races between Democrats and Republicans were also held.
A record 14 billion dollar was spent during the 2020 election cycle, with Democrats doubling the spending by Republican candidates, according to a report published last year.
The presidential campaign ended up seeing $6.6 billion in total spending by Election Day on November 3, while congressional races between Democrats and Republicans finished with just over $7 billion, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (CRP)
Democratic contenders doubled the spending by Republican candidates. They spent so far about $6.9 billion while Republicans put in $3.8 billion into the 2020 contest.