Almost 75 percent of Bucks County state Sen. Frank Farry‘s (SD-6) $4.7 million campaign war chest has come from a PAC funded by Jeff Yass, Pennsylvania’s richest billionaire, according to the PA Democratic Campaign Committee and campaign finance reports.
Transparency USA PA said that as of May 2026, Yass has contributed a total of $96.4 million to individuals or organizations including political action committees. Yass is listed as the primary contributor to Students First PAC. He also contributes to Pennsylvania Rising, Republican Committee of Chester and Commonwealth Leaders Fund.
All Eyes on Yass reported in April that the billionaire gave $16.5 million to Students First PAC, and $4.2 million to a new PAC PA Education Choice Fund, both of whom contributed to Farry’s reelection campaign. Farry’s financial campaign report may be found here.
The incumbent Republican state senator contends there’s nothing unseemly happening.
“Campaign contributions have never been a factor in how I vote on an issue,” Farry said in an email. “I’ve been an independent voice in Harrisburg and have brought people together to get things done.”
However, his Democratic opponent in November’s election, Democrat Eileen Hartnett Albillar, suggests there’s a quid pro quo expected when you get that kind of money from donors like Yass.
“The billionaires backing Farry don’t give away millions without expecting something in return,” she said.
Students First and the Commonwealth Children’s Choice Fund are among Yass’s beneficiary PAC’s, both of which support “conservative, pro-choice” candidates for local and state offices.
According to a Forbes report published Thursday, Yass is co-founder of “Susquehanna International Group, one of Wall Street’s largest and most successful trading firms.”
“It’s unprecedented. Everyone in Bucks County should be concerned when an individual or organization gives a candidate that much money. Voters in Senate District 6 need to ask themselves, why would this particular organization do that,” said state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, Bucks County (SD-10).
Yass, a professional gambler turned Wall Street trader from Montgomery County, has pumped money into influencing public school funding, including conservative causes such as private school scholarship programs, vouchers and initiatives aimed at tax credits and school privatization, WHYY reported in 2021.
READ: Billionaire Jeff Yass Pours $110 Million Into Republican Midterm Push
“We already knew Frank Farry voted to raise the gas tax, block the minimum wage and give big tax breaks to data centers while his law firm represented the Bucks County data center developers. Now we find out his campaign is being bankrolled by a billionaire who wants to defund our schools, forcing property taxes to go up in Bucks County,” said Hartnett Albillar, who currently serves as Bucks County Clerk of Courts.
In June, Farry voted in support of increasing the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program and nixing the sales tax exemption for data centers.
The EITC allows individuals and businesses to redirect tax dollars to support K-12 scholarships to eligible families to approved non-profit organizations – including private and religious schools. The support comes as tax breaks for donors who contribute, or taxpayer-funded vouchers.
READ: Pennsylvania House Democrats Just Introduced a Bill That Could End Dark Money in Our Elections
Farry alleged in his email response that Hartnett Albillar had accepted “millions of dollars” from senators in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, without naming them. He also alleged she had taken campaign donations from “California billionaires,” without noting specific individuals or organizations.
On Friday, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur G. Steinberg issued the following statement on these campaign revelations:
“Frank Farry represents 254,698 constituents in Bucks County, but is running a campaign that is 70 percent funded by one MAGA billionaire who backs election deniers. Jeffrey Yass is not shy about his agenda: elections only count when they go his way; destroy public education to expand profits for private and charter school operators; and break up unions to force workers into total submission to employers.”
