A super political action committee named Our Heritage Matters ( super PAC ) was registered with the United States Federal Election Commission ( FEC ) on October 15th.

Five days later, it began to spend money supporting third-party candidates and attacking Republicans. According to the analysis of the CNBC file on the FEC file, as of October 29th, the organization had spent approximately $1.2 million in 10 House of Representatives and Senate campaigns.

What voters still cannot see to this day is who exactly provided this money.

Since Our Heritage Matters was established after the critical deadline for campaign financial reporting on October 15th, its first regular report disclosing donors is not due until December 3rd, which is one month after the election day.

This organization is just an extreme example of a broader trend. More and more super PAC groups, including the recently emerged "flash mob PAC," are pouring money into campaigns before voters even know the source of their funding.

Federal law requires super PAC and political committees to report large independent expenditures within 24 or 48 hours as the election date approaches, specifying how much money was spent and which candidates were supported or opposed. However, donor information is disclosed less frequently through regular campaign financial reports.

In 2026, there was a surge in the establishment of newly formed, temporary PAC entities. Both parties employed this strategy, with PAC, which is associated with the Republican Party, spending approximately twice as much as PAC, which is associated with the Democratic Party.

According to the analysis of CNBC, the 22 super PAC organizations that registered with FEC in the last 10 weeks before the election day have each spent at least one million dollars on congressional campaigns. By October 29th, these organizations had disclosed a total of approximately 637 million dollars in independent expenditures, which accounts for about one-sixth of all independent expenditures in the House of Representatives and Senate campaigns during this electoral cycle.

The number of super PAC accounts, valued in millions of dollars and established just before elections, has more than quadrupled since 2022, while their spending scale has nearly increased by 35 times.

At the same time point during the mid-term elections of 2022, only 5 similar organizations spent a total of about 18 million dollars. In 2018, there were 3 such organizations that spent a total of about 12 million dollars. This total amount even exceeded that of the previous two presidential elections: According to the analysis by CNBC, in 2020 and 2024, the combined expenditures of similarly late-established super PAC organizations in congressional campaigns were less than 50 million dollars.

“The reason for doing this is almost entirely to avoid disclosure, even if it’s only temporary,” said Michael Kang, a professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law who studies campaign finance. “In many cases, if the identities of donors are made public, it can weaken the causes they support.”

The analysis of CNBC includes super PAC groups that were established in the last 10 weeks before the election date and spent at least one million dollars on campaigns in the House of Representatives or Senate by October 29th. The expenditures include regular FEC filings as well as 24-hour and 48-hour reports, and duplicate entries have been eliminated.

From zero to several million dollars: The growth rate of expenses for the late establishment of PAC

A notable feature of the late establishment of the super PAC is its speed.

Of the 22 organizations analyzed in CNBC, 18 began spending within 30 days of their establishment, and nearly all of them started using funds before submitting their first regular campaign financial report that disclosed the sources of their money.

The Director of Federal Campaign Finance Reform, Saurav Ghosh, said, "This is happening more and more frequently, and they are spending more and more money because it seems to work for them, and they are able to get away with it." The organization is a nonpartisan, non-profit group founded by a former Republican FEC chairman.

Despite being established relatively late, these organizations accounted for over 22% of the independent spending in congressional elections within the CNBC statistical window, whereas at the same time points during the previous two mid-term elections, this proportion was less than 2%.

Many of these organizations were merely nominally established. CNBC found that 9 out of these 22 organizations have financial or organizational connections with existing political networks.

For example, Lower Costs Now was established on September 10th and disclosed its association with Future Forward PAC. Future Forward PAC is an organization that provided significant external support during former Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign. Nineteen days later, Lower Costs Now began to make expenditures in the Senate campaign.

But it was not until October 15 that voters got to see a more complete picture of its financing. At that time, its first regular financial report showed that the main super PACs that helped elect Democrats to the Senate provided $23 million to the organization, according to a FEC document.

As of Thursday, Lower Costs Now has disclosed a total of approximately $75.5 million in independent expenditures across 8 Senate campaigns, involving states such as Iowa, Texas, Kansas, and Ohio, according to the analysis by CNBC.

The Republicans also used the same approach.

No Going Back PAC was established on September 1st and began expenditures 3 days later. Public reports quickly linked it to MAGA Inc, which is the iconic super PAC of U.S. President Donald Trump. However, its official financial report did not arrive until October 20th—more than 6 weeks after the expenditures began.

By that time, No Going Back had already spent approximately 187.8 million US dollars. As shown in the FEC files, MAGA Inc had provided 200 million US dollars to this organization. By Thursday, this super PAC had spent about 242.2 million US dollars, as indicated by the FEC files.

“They are a tool designed to appear out of nowhere, pouring large sums of money into elections before voters even have the chance to know ‘who is providing this money and what their motives might be,’” said Ghosh.

PAC designed for a single campaign

The goals of many new organizations are also very focused.

Out of the 22 super PAC worth millions of dollars identified by CNBC, 14 spent all their funds on a single congressional campaign.

Taking The Maine Standard as an example, it was established on September 11th and began making expenditures 5 days later. Since then, it has spent 8.2 million dollars, all of which were used to oppose Democrats Troy Jackson and FEC in the Maine Senate election, as shown in the FEC document.

The patterns of Cornhusker Majority are almost identical. It was established on September 10th, began spending on September 16th, and has already spent approximately 7.1 million dollars in the Nebraska Senate campaign, with nearly all of that money used to oppose the independent candidate Dan Osborn, as shown in the FEC document. Osborn is currently competing against the incumbent Republican Senator Pete Ricketts; it is a closely contested race.

The connection between these two organizations was not revealed until their regular financial reports on October 15: both are funded by the main Republican Senate super PAC Senate Leadership Fund.

On the Democratic side, Texas Forever was launched on September 24th, and expenditures began 5 days later, as shown in the FEC document. By Thursday, approximately $27.5 million had been spent to assist James Talar, the Democratic nominee for the Texas Senate, with token issuance, as indicated by FEC. Unlike some other flash mobs, the documents initially submitted to FEC already identified Senate Majority PAC as an affiliated party.

OpenSecrets Executive Director Hilary Braseth said, "A PAC with a local brand may not necessarily hide the source of funds, but it does break down the overall picture. What voters see is not one national organization spending tens of millions of dollars across the country, but rather a series of different organizations operating separately for each campaign." OpenSecrets is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that tracks such expenditures.

But even if the national organization behind the flash mob PAC is identified, there may still be another hidden layer in the funding chain.

Texas PAC was established on August 28th and soon began to spend money to help Ken Paxton run in the Texas Senate election. The funds flowed through Senate Leadership Fund, but Elon Musk's role was not made public until October 12th, more than a month after the spending began.

On October 15th, documents from FEC showed that Musk provided $158 million to Senate Leadership Fund through two donations, and on the following day, the same organization transferred the same amount to Texas PAC.

As of October 29th, Texas PAC has spent approximately 181.6 million dollars in this campaign. According to the FEC document, this makes it one of the largest late-established super PACs identified by CNBC.

Texas PAC and No Going Back account for approximately two-thirds of the total expenditures of these 22 organizations that are in the tens of millions of dollars range. However, this trend is not limited to just these two giants: even excluding them, the expenditures of the remaining organizations are nearly 12 times that of the newly established super PAC at the same time point in 2022.

“This year’s growth has been very significant,” said Kang, “Maybe you don’t want to be known during these elections, or you want to hide for a while, since artificial intelligence is not very popular right now, but you still want to establish some kind of reputation among the participants in this system.”