158 families, most of them nouveau riche arrivistes in the financial and energy sectors, are responsible for half of the campaign contributions to date. The money has gone almost exclusively to Republican presidential candidates.
There were by last count some 120 million households in the United States.
The Times report correctly notes that the US electoral system “serves to check the demographic forces that have been nudging the electorate toward support for the Democratic Party and its economic policies”. The major donors are “overwhelmingly white, rich, older and male, in a nation that is being remade by the young, by women, and by black and brown voters.”
The 2010 Citizen’s United decision by the Republican-dominated Supreme Court has tightened the grip of the corporations and the wealthiest Americans on the system, but it has also made their control more visible and risks provoking a backlash. The Times article may be seen in that context.