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Electronic Bill of Rights Newsletter | Issue 002 | November 5, 2026
By Rex M. Lee | Security Advisor, AI Governance | Government Advisor | Tech Journalist
Electronic Bill of Rights: www.ElectronicBillofRights.com
Protecting Privacy, Security, Safety, Human Rights & Civil Liberties in the Digital Age
The views expressed in this newsletter are the author’s. Figures are reported from public sources and should be checked against primary filings.
As some of you are aware, I have been tracking the tech lobby for over 6 years now, which is relevant to digital rights, data sovereignty, child safety, tech addiction, the loss of privacy, AI data-driven warfare (tech-based hybrid warfare), and other threats posed by Surveillance Capitalism, all of which are documented on my website, Electronic Bill of Rights, at www.ElectronicBillofRights.com.
Both Democrats and Republicans have run on promises to reduce corruption for as long as I can remember. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, becoming a father in the 1990s, and continuing to the present day, I have heard the same promises on television and in political advertisements delivered to my mailbox, phone, and email—over and over again. Meanwhile, political spending and the influence of technology and AI interests have grown into a multibillion-dollar enterprise.
I felt hope for change following the November 3, 2026 midterms, as Democratic leaders promised to clean up corruption in Washington, D.C., and in state governments. For someone advocating digital rights, an end to addictive design, and greater child safety involving AI and social media, those promises were welcome.
But this morning I began following the campaign money, including spending around the Texas Senate race involving James Talarico and Ken Paxton. What I found renewed my concerns: technology investors, AI industry figures, corporate PACs, and super PACs have supported political actors across both major parties. This newsletter names those people, firms, committees, and recipients, and presents the amounts reported in the research.
This is part of a longer pattern of political influence. In the 1990s, Microsoft and Apple helped shape the personal-computing marketplace through operating-system distribution and preinstallation agreements. Microsoft and Bill Gates faced antitrust scrutiny. Today, CEOs of AI and social-media companies—including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—appear before Congress and in legal proceedings involving competition, privacy, product design, and alleged harm to consumers and children.
I believe digital products and their developers should face meaningful accountability under applicable consumer-protection, child-protection, computer-crime, privacy, and other laws where violations can be established. Civil penalties and settlements should not be mistaken for a blanket exemption from criminal law; criminal prosecution requires proof of a specific offense. But that distinction makes scrutiny of enforcement, corporate conduct, and lobbying all the more important.
Dangerous physical products, including car seats and contaminated foods, may be recalled or removed from sale. Harmful digital products deserve comparable serious examination of their risks and the legal tools available to regulators. Reports of addiction, exploitation, and child harm raise urgent questions about product design and enforcement, even where the extent or causation of particular harms remains contested.
When candidates promise to clean up corruption, do they mean only illegal conduct—or will they also address lawful lobbying arrangements and campaign-finance practices that can create powerful conflicts of interest? The figures below document contributions and independent expenditures, not proof that an individual politician was bribed or that a donor dictated a vote. Yet these financial connections deserve transparency and public scrutiny.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has discussed the role lobbyists play in shaping legislation to protect incumbent interests. The broader question remains: whose interests are served when industry lobbyists help write the rules under which their clients operate?
As we approach the 2028 presidential election, I believe the Electronic Bill of Rights should become a central public-policy issue. We must ask elected officials to defend privacy, security, safety, individual autonomy, and the rights of children, regardless of party affiliation. Below is the detailed campaign-finance and lobbying research underlying this week’s newsletter.
Research briefing | November 5, 2026 | U.S. Senate and House
The November 3 elections provide a substantial amount of evidence for investigating how technology companies, AI executives, data-center investors, corporate PACs, and super PACs attempted to influence congressional races.
One significant finding: AI-focused super PACs spent approximately $79 million across 68 House and Senate races during the 2026 election cycle, according to research reported by Fortune on November 4. That includes spending both for and against candidates.
For Electronic Bill of Rights research, I distinguish three financial relationships:
These distinctions matter because a super PAC spending $5 million to elect someone is not the same as that candidate receiving $5 million personally or through their campaign.
James Talarico (D) won the November 3 election (reported by Reuters, November 4, 2026).
Total campaign receipts reported to the FEC: $146.35M (September 8, 2025–October 14, 2026)
The Federal Election Commission reports the following for Talarico’s authorized campaign:
| Contribution category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual contributions | $139.78M |
| Other political committees | $468,806 |
| Party committees | $62,000 |
| Transfers from authorized committees | $5.98M |
| Total receipts, including other sources | $146.35M |
Source: Federal Election Commission
The Houston Chronicle identified several technology-connected donors or investors among those supporting Talarico through major campaign-supporting groups:
The Chronicle also identified Senate Majority PAC and several other organizations. These are donors to supporting groups, not necessarily direct contributions to Talarico’s campaign. The amounts attributable to each technology donor and the precise flow of funds require transaction-level verification.
Source: Houston Chronicle
Important finding: Talarico received substantial financial support associated with technology investors, but the records reviewed do not yet establish how much came specifically from AI developers, cloud providers, or data-center operators. That figure should not be inferred from his total fundraising.
The following are identifiable examples from the 2026 cycle. The amounts reflect different funding mechanisms and should not be added together as though they were all direct donations.
| Winner | Chamber | Documented AI-linked funding |
|---|---|---|
| Pete Ricketts (R–NE) | Senate | $274,485 in supportive spending from Defending Our Values |
| Jon Ossoff (D–GA) | Senate | $112,750 in direct industry-linked contributions |
| Roy Cooper (D–NC) | Senate | $99,500 in direct industry-linked contributions |
| Tom Cotton (R–AR) | Senate | $104,434 in direct industry-linked contributions |
| John Hickenlooper (D–CO) | Senate | $73,027 in direct industry-linked contributions |
| Jared Moskowitz (D–FL-25) | House | $259,574 in supportive spending from Think Big |
| Brian Poindexter (D–OH-7) | House | $570,204 in supportive spending from Jobs and Democracy |
| Bob Brooks (D–PA-7) | House | $263,250 in supportive spending from Jobs and Democracy |
| Mike Johnson (R–LA-4) | House | $108,887 in direct industry-linked contributions |
| Hakeem Jeffries (D–NY-8) | House | $104,300 in direct industry-linked contributions |
Sources: Tech Influence Watch’s 2025–2026 donor tracking and Fortune’s November 4 FEC analysis. Direct industry-linked contributions can include personal contributions from executives or employees; supportive super PAC spending is independent of the candidate’s campaign.
This is a preliminary, documented selection—not an exhaustive audit of all newly elected members.
| Donor | Reported contribution to Leading the Future | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Greg Brockman and Anna Brockman | $25 million | Brockman is OpenAI’s president. The funding supports a super PAC network that advocates lighter AI regulation. |
| Marc Andreessen | $25 million | Co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, an investor in AI and other technology companies. |
| Ben Horowitz | $25 million | Co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz. |
These three reported funding sources account for $75 million in contributions to the same AI-focused super PAC network. Its affiliated organizations, Think Big and American Mission, supported candidates from both major parties.
Source: Fortune
The opposing AI-policy network, Public First, has been associated with Anthropic funding and supports stronger AI safeguards. This demonstrates that AI-related political spending is not a single unified lobbying position: industry participants have financed competing regulatory approaches.
Source: Fortune
The more detailed Houston Chronicle investigation provides the dollar amounts for Talarico’s major outside supporters.
| Technology-connected donor | Amount | Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Reid Hoffman | $16.5M | LinkedIn co-founder; co-founder of Inflection AI and Manas AI |
| Michael Bloomberg | $2.5M | Bloomberg LP founder |
| Christian Larsen | $1.75M | Ripple co-founder |
| Reed Hastings | $1M | Netflix co-founder |
| Rory Gates | $1M | Technology-family connection; not evidence of a corporate donation |
These figures concern contributions to groups supporting Talarico, not personal payments to him. They come from the Chronicle’s analysis of donations through October 14.
Source: Houston Chronicle
Identified technology-connected outside support: $22.75 million. This is the sum of the five listed donor amounts. It is not a verified AI-only total, nor an exhaustive total of technology-sector support.
The data-center industry is also financing political activity through companies involved in electricity generation, infrastructure construction, and equipment supply.
A Public Citizen investigation identified these contributions:
| Data-center-connected business | Amount | Recipient |
|---|---|---|
| Gaylor Electric | $300,000 | American Leadership PAC |
| Midcontinent Media | $200,000 | Republican Forward |
| Applied Digital Corporation | $100,000 | Republican Forward |
| Muth Electric | $100,000 | Republican Forward |
These are contributions to political committees, not verified direct payments to winning candidates.
Source: Public Citizen
The connection to legislation deserves further investigation because data-center developers may seek favorable electricity tariffs, infrastructure approvals, tax exemptions, and permitting rules.
A separate October 2026 investigation, Who Got Paid to Build the Data Centers, and What They Delivered, traces relationships among donors, political organizations, public officials, and policy decisions (QPQ Tracker).
For a defensible investigative report, I recommend a transaction-level audit covering the newly elected and reelected members of Congress.
Each record should identify the candidate, political party, state, donor, donor’s technology-company affiliation, exact dollar amount, contribution date, PAC or super PAC, and whether the transaction represents a direct contribution or independent expenditure.
The second part should examine the candidate’s public position and voting record on AI regulation, surveillance, privacy, child safety, Section 230, data-center incentives, and federal preemption of state AI laws.
The investigative question is not simply who received technology money. It is whether identifiable financial support can be connected to subsequent legislative or regulatory actions benefiting the donor’s interests. Contributions alone do not establish corruption or a quid pro quo.
Primary research databases
My proposed next scope is all 2026 U.S. Senate winners and the House winners with identifiable AI, Big Tech, cloud, and data-center financing, with verified dollar amounts and donor names, separated by direct campaign contributions and independent spending. That would provide a much stronger factual foundation for a broader investigation of technology-industry influence on Congress.
The campaign-finance records reveal several important funding channels involving Meta, its employees, and political organizations it finances. I’m also separating the Oracle–TikTok–ByteDance relationships and Jeffrey Yass’s political contributions so we don’t confuse corporate ownership, personal donations, PAC spending, and lobbying.
Meta publicly acknowledges that it supports political candidates whose policy positions align with its business interests. Its federal PAC and state-focused political organizations operate through different legal mechanisms.
| Category | Amount | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Meta corporate political commitments | $65M | Reported 2025–2026 state-focused political initiatives |
| Meta federal PAC contributions | $348,500 | Contributions to other committees, through October 14, 2026 |
Sources: QPQ Tracker and Federal Election Commission. These are distinct spending categories, not a combined candidate-contribution total.
Meta identifies four state-focused political organizations:
These organizations deserve particular attention because they operate outside the ordinary federal candidate PAC structure.
Source: Meta
The FEC-derived Election.org database identifies the following:
| Recipient | Meta employee contributions | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| James Talarico — Texas Senate campaign | $14,012 | 17 reported Meta-affiliated contributors; 32 transactions |
This is personal giving by individuals reporting Meta as their employer, not money directly from Meta’s corporate treasury.
Other identifiable transactions include:
| Donor | Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Brian Rice, Meta vice president | Cooper Victory Fund | $3,500 |
| Joel Kaplan, Meta global policy executive | Ashley Hinson Victory Committee | $2,500 |
These are individual contribution records, not Meta corporate PAC payments.
Meta-affiliated employees collectively made approximately $1.04 million in itemized federal political contributions during the 2025–2026 cycle, according to the employer-based aggregate (Election.org).
Meta’s federal PAC is registered under FEC committee number C00502906.
A campaign-finance analysis identifies $242,500 in contributions to 84 candidates through August 26, 2026, distributed almost evenly between Democratic and Republican recipients. Later filings show additional activity.
Identified recipients include:
| Congressional recipient | Reported Meta PAC contributions* |
|---|---|
| John Cornyn (R–TX) | $10,000 |
| Guy Reschenthaler (R–PA) | $7,000 |
| Josh Gottheimer (D–NJ) | $5,500 |
| John Joyce (R–PA) | $3,500 |
| Marc Veasey (D–TX) | $3,500 |
| Veronica Escobar (D–TX) | $3,000 |
| August Pfluger (R–TX) | $2,500 |
| Sylvia Garcia (D–TX) | $2,000 |
| Craig Goldman (R–TX) | $1,000 |
| Wesley Hunt (R–TX) | $1,000 |
*These are recipient totals shown in a congressional PAC database (CivicGate) and are not necessarily amounts received exclusively during the 2026 cycle. They should not yet be treated as a verified list of November 3 winners.
A separate 2026 transaction listing (Quiver Quantitative) identifies a $4,500 contribution from Meta PAC to Mike Johnson’s campaign in September 2025, attributed to the 2026 election cycle.
Jeffrey Yass is a co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, whose investment interests have included ByteDance.
2026 super PAC donations reported by Public Citizen: $107 million across super PACs, as reported in its late-October 2026 analysis.
His documented funding channels include:
| Political organization | Yass contributions |
|---|---|
| Club for Growth Action | $16.5M identified in 2026-cycle filings |
| Protect Freedom PAC | $12.5M |
| Win It Back PAC | $4.5M |
| V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims | $20M reported |
| MAGA Inc. | $16M reported |
Source: Capitol Hill Access and others. These are examples of funding channels, not a complete reconciliation of the $107 million.
Identifiable House races affected by Yass-financed PACs
| Congressional race | PAC activity |
|---|---|
| Texas District 9 | Club for Growth Action spent approximately $1.11M supporting Alex Mealer; Win It Back spent approximately $616K supporting her |
| Pennsylvania District 10 | Club for Growth Action spent approximately $326K opposing Janelle Stelson |
| Louisiana District 6 | Club for Growth Action spent approximately $1.17M supporting Blake Miguez and $1.8M opposing Rick Edmonds |
Source: Bankrolled. These establish spending in the races by organizations that received Yass funding. They do not establish that Yass personally directed each expenditure, or that every supported candidate won.
Oracle’s federal PAC, FEC committee C00323048, contributed to congressional campaigns during the 2026 cycle.
| Recipient | 2026-cycle amount |
|---|---|
| Jack Bergman (R–MI) | $10,000 |
| John Carter (R–TX) | $10,000 |
| Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D–FL) | $10,000 |
| Bill Cassidy (R–LA) | $7,500 |
| Tom Cole (R–OK) | $6,000 |
| Hakeem Jeffries (D–NY) | $5,000 |
| Steven Horsford (D–NV) | $5,000 |
| Brett Guthrie (R–KY) | $5,000 |
| Brian Schatz (D–HI) | $5,000 |
| Roger Marshall (R–KS) | $3,500 |
Source: MyRepTracker. These are 2026-cycle contribution records, but the table is not yet restricted to candidates confirmed as winners on November 3.
Oracle, ByteDance, and Susquehanna’s ownership relationship
The TikTok USDS Joint Venture announced the following ownership structure:
| Investor | Ownership |
|---|---|
| Oracle | 15% |
| Silver Lake | 15% |
| MGX | 15% |
| ByteDance | 19.9% |
| Other investors | 35.1% |
Other investors include Vastmere Strategic Investments, an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group.
Source: TikTok Newsroom. This creates a documented corporate-investment connection between Oracle, ByteDance, and an affiliate of Jeffrey Yass’s investment firm. It does not establish that they coordinate political contributions.
Federal lobbying disclosures identify substantial spending:
The TikTok lobbying filings specifically identify legislation concerning extensions of the federal TikTok deadline. This is a direct documented connection between corporate lobbying and a federal policy issue.
I have not yet verified a 2026 federal contribution from Mark Zuckerberg personally to one of the November 3 congressional winners.
That is distinct from Meta’s corporate political spending and the contributions made by Meta employees and executives. A complete Zuckerberg-specific audit would also need to search his personal contributions to joint fundraising committees, super PACs, and any disclosed contributions by affiliated entities.
It would be inaccurate to attribute Meta’s $65 million corporate political initiative directly to Zuckerberg as an individual donor without supporting transaction records.
There are documented financial connections involving Meta’s federal PAC, Meta-affiliated employees, Oracle PAC, ByteDance lobbying, and Jeffrey Yass-financed super PACs. There is also a documented ownership connection linking Oracle and a Susquehanna affiliate to TikTok USDS.
The remaining work is to match every named recipient to the certified or called November 3 election results, then identify the legislation and regulatory decisions involving AI, data collection, surveillance, child safety, and TikTok.
That distinction is central to an evidence-based Electronic Bill of Rights investigation: political contributions and lobbying can establish financial access and potential conflicts of interest, but evidence of a specific exchange or improper influence requires additional documentation.
The primary records for that next stage are the FEC campaign-finance database, Senate lobbying disclosures, and Meta’s political contribution disclosures.
Please follow the money by reviewing the names, PACs, lobbying firms, and financial figures included in this issue. Contact your state and federal representatives and ask whether they will prioritize their constituents, protect children, enforce existing laws, and support meaningful digital rights. The Electronic Bill of Rights should be part of the national policy conversation leading into 2028.
www.ElectronicBillofRights.com
Rex M. Lee
Founder, Electronic Bill of Rights
Security & Privacy Advisor | Investigative Tech Journalist
Rlee@ElectronicBillofRights.com
www.ElectronicBillofRights.com
All Rights / Intellectual Property Reserved — Rex M. Lee