# American Future **American Future** is the Democratic-facing arm of the sportsbooks' 2026 political operation. It is a super PAC registered in Dallas with the FEC on **November 11, 2025**, and its money comes almost entirely from [[Win for America]], the pass-through PAC funded by [[DraftKings]], [[FanDuel]], [[Fanatics]] and [[bet365]]. Its first big test was the March 2026 Illinois Democratic primary, where it was the largest outside spender in state legislative races. Not to be confused with the American Future Fund, an older conservative group with its own FEC filings, or Reid Hoffman's American Future Republic (see [[Reid Hoffman]]). ## Money in (FEC, 2026 cycle through June 30, 2026) | Source | Amount | |---|---| | [[Win for America]] | **$17,450,000** | | Two vendors (Jones Mandel, Impact Research) | $71,504 | | **Total receipts** | **$17,521,504** | It disbursed **$14.50 million** and had **$3.02 million** cash on hand at June 30. The treasurer is **Cassie Tinsmon**. Like its Republican twin, [[American Conservative Fund]], it reported no independent expenditures of its own to the FEC; it pays consultants and state committees. ## Money out: largest recipients From the FEC's itemized disbursements (Schedule B), the 100 largest payments in the cycle through June 30, totaled by recipient: | Recipient | Amount | |---|---| | SKDK | **$3,812,186** | | GPS Impact | $2,603,208 | | Blue Collar Communications | $1,083,365 | | The Pivot Group | $772,451 | | Sway | $695,470 | | Targeted Platform Media LLC | $545,142 | | FM3 Research | $497,694 | | Fair Economy for Coloradans (Colorado state committee) | $450,000 | | Movement Mail | $403,874 | | Jones Mandel | $316,322 | ## Illinois: the tax fight Illinois added a per-wager tax on sports bets, and Chicago added its own sports-betting tax, which the [[Sports Betting Alliance]] is challenging in court. American Future's goal in the primary was to elect Democratic legislators who would resist further gaming taxes. - **Scale.** WBEZ counted more than **$2.5 million** across **10 Chicago-area state legislative races** by March 12, from FEC data. In These Times, writing earlier in the race, put the figure at about $1.2 million. - **Beneficiaries named by In These Times** included incumbent state Rep. Jaime Andrade Jr. (about $220,000, against democratic socialist challenger Miguel Alvelo-Rivera), Adam Braun ($164,000), Aja Kearney ($159,000) and Saba Haider ($125,000). - **Result.** Alvelo-Rivera beat Andrade in the March 17 primary despite the spending against him. ## Why it matters - **Both parties, one issue.** Sportsbook money backs Republicans in Georgia (through [[American Conservative Fund]]) and Democrats in Chicago, and the goal in both places is the same: favorable gambling law. - **Hiring the party's own firms.** The biggest payments went to Democratic consulting firms, led by SKDK. To voters and to the candidates, the help looks like it comes from their own side. ## See also - [[Win for America]] · [[American Conservative Fund]] · [[Sports Betting Alliance]] - [[DraftKings]] · [[FanDuel]] · [[Fanatics]] · [[bet365]] - [[Sports Betting]] · [[Dark Money]] · [[Prediction Markets and Gambling Sector]]