First up, from Bloomberg, August 19:
Hedge Fund Heir Elizabeth Simons Gives $250,000 to Mamdani PAC
Philanthropist Elizabeth Simons, the daughter of Renaissance Technologies founder James Simons, gave $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani last week.
Simons’ $250,000 donation, dated Aug. 12, is the largest single donation New Yorkers for Lower Costs has received to date, according to newly published campaign finance records. The PAC has raised more than $1.8 million to support Mamdani’s candidacy, from nearly 300 separate donations.
Simons is the president and chair of the Heising-Simons Foundation, a family foundation whose mission is to “advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enable groundbreaking research in science, enhance the education of our youngest learners, and support human rights for all people,” according to its website.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist who was previously little-known outside of Albany and the Queens Assembly District he represents, shocked New York City’s political establishment and its billionaire donor class when he won a 12-point victory in the Democratic primary for mayor against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo....
....Simons, whose father was a major Democratic donor until his death in 2024, is a prolific donor to Democratic causes in her own right.
Since 2017, she has contributed more than $19 million to federal candidates and committees, Federal Election Commission records show. She’s given $5.2 million to the House Majority PAC and $4.2 million to the Senate Majority PAC, both of which back congressional Democrats.
She has also given money to New York City and state candidates and committees in the past, though donation records show her primary address in Northern California.
In 2019, she donated $5,000 to the New York State Committee of the Working Families Party, a left-leaning, pro-labor third party. In 2021, she donated $1,000 to city council candidate Tiffany Caban, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who served as a national organizer for the progressive Working Families Party. Caban prevailed in her bid....
....MORE
At the Jerusalem Post the headline was:
Jewish heiress makes quarter-million dollar donation to PAC backing Mamdani
The donation came weeks after Zohran Mamdani said he didn't believe billionaires should exist.
She's also backing Jay Jones for Attorney General of the State of Virginia. From The Virginia Public Access Project:
Donations Reported by Jones for Attorney General - Jay
Elizabeth Simons
Total: $750,000
| Amount | Date | |
|---|---|---|
| $300,000 | 8/8/2025 | |
| $200,000 | 3/31/2025 | |
| $150,000 | 6/6/2025 | |
| $100,000 | 5/14/2025 |
METHODOLOGY: Donations on this page are reported by the recipient of the donation.
That makes her the largest individual contributor to his campaign.
| Amount | Donor |
|---|---|
| $3,117,705 | Democratic Attorney Generals Assn |
| $1,636,199 | Clean Virginia Fund |
| $750,000 | Simons, Elizabeth |
| $450,000 | Government That Works PAC |
| $315,858* | Jones for Delegate - Jay |
| $289,856* | Virginians for Jay Jones |
| $250,000 | Democracy PAC |
| $217,702 | Va League of Conservation Voters |
| $201,199 | Everytown for Gun Safety |
Everytown being a top contributor is a bit ironic given Jones' comments about a member (Republican) and former colleague in the Virginia House of Delegates who was praising a centrist Democrat who had just died:
Jones then suggested that if he had only two bullets and was faced with the choice of shooting Gilbert or the dictators Adolf Hitler and Cambodia’s Pol Pot, he would shoot Gilbert “every time.”—https://www.newsweek.com/what-did-jay-jones-say-full-text-messages-10834123
Finally, considering James Simons' PhD in mathematics (UCal - Berkeley), age 23, and great success in cryptology and then in quantitative and algorithmic hedge fund trading it is almost blasphème that Elizabeth Simons backs math programs that are, uh, well look:
....Yiatin Chu, of Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum & Education and the Asian Wave Alliance, said she had “grave concerns” about the direction of public schools under Mamdani and that Simons’ influence is “troubling.”
“Woke math lowers the bar without helping black students. While test results show gains among black and Hispanic students, the gap with Asian and white students hasn’t closed. We hope Mamdani doesn’t undo progress.”....
