Published Sep. 3, 2026at1:53pm
Crypto billionaire Chris Larsen donated half a million dollars to a group supporting Theo Ellington in the District 10 supervisor race.
The $500,000 (opens in new tab) is among the largest single donations to a third-party group supporting a lone candidate in San Francisco history.
San Francisco’s wealthy regularly spend six-figure sums on city ballot measures, but such donations aren’t typical in races for elected office, according to data from the San Francisco Ethics Commission. Large donations are routinely made to third-party groups spending on multiple candidates.
Donors are limited to $500 in direct contributions to candidates, but third-party groups can accept donations of any size.
The donation was made to a political action committee (opens in new tab), founded two weeks ago, with a clunky name: From the Neighborhood, for the City, Supporting Theo Ellington for Supervisor 2026.
Theo Ellington is campaigning to replace Shamann Walton as District 10 supervisor. | Source: Thomas Sawano/The Standard
Neither Ellington nor a spokesperson for Larsen was available for comment.
Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin has long derided the shocking rise of spending in Board of Supervisors races, a force he calls “corrupting.”
“It’s like a tsunami. It’s like that flood that just happened in Nepal. It is beyond comprehension,” Peskin said. “That’s the kind of money people spend to put someone in the U.S. Congress.”
For comparison, Michael Moritz, chairman of The Standard, gave a $250,000 contribution to a GrowSF PAC supporting Alan Wong’s District 4 supervisor campaign in June. That donation was already considered outsized.
As of early September, Ellington had more in his campaign account — about $472,000 — than opponents DJ Brookter, with $129,000, and JR Eppler, $151,000.
Larsen is one of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s key supporters, having donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to independent groups backing the mayor’s allies in the June election.
Larsen and his wife have also pledged millions of dollars to a committee, Clean Up City Hall, that is supporting measures to modernize city contracting, consolidate power over city commissions in the mayor’s office, and raise the signature threshold for propositions to qualify for the ballot.
Brookter had choice words about Larsen’s donation.
“District 10 deserves a supervisor who answers to the neighborhood and its residents, not to the donors writing half a million dollar checks,” Brookter said in a statement. “Voters should ask themselves a simple question: when tech billionaires and corporate interests are this invested in a district race, whose interests will actually be represented in office?”