Kansas' attorney general joined a sweeping lawsuit to block a merger between two big owners of local TV stations. Five days later, his office got an unusual donation.

It was an $8,000 contribution from Chris Ruddy, an ally of President Trump and chief executive of Newsmax, the conservative news channel. Ruddy vocally opposed the merger and attacked federal regulators for rubber-stamping the deal.

It was Ruddy's first donation to the AG. He wasn't alone.

Attorneys general and political groups associated with them are raking in record amounts in corporate donations as businesses increasingly turn to them for antitrust matters and the federal government has stepped back from antitrust trials.

Companies donate to AG offices because they "want to have an open line of communication," said Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, noting that donations don't affect his decision-making.

Through a spokesman, Ruddy declined to comment on his donations.

Both the Republican and Democratic attorneys general associations are on track to have their most successful fundraising years ever, a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal filings found. The two groups, better known as RAGA and DAGA, collected a record-breaking $37 million in the first half of 2026 between them.

"This is an unmistakable recognition of where the power has shifted," said William Kovacic, a George Washington University law professor and former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. "Whether those contribution efforts will generate the results they want is another question."

The Journal reviewed state and federal records to identify donations to state AGs and their groups. Political donations aren't all public, and many donations fall under reporting thresholds or go toward more opaque entities.

Netflix donated $125,000 apiece to RAGA and DAGA this year, its largest-ever donations to both groups. Until earlier this year, the company was competing with Paramount to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming service.

Anthropic gave $250,000 to RAGA, its first-ever donation to the group. The five-year-old AI company's CEO, Dario Amodei, has been calling for greater regulation of artificial intelligence than what the White House has proposed.

Both RAGA and DAGA received around 90% of their contributions from corporations over the past several years, a Journal review of filings found.

The two organizations are spending the money as fast as they are fundraising, with 30 attorneys general seats up for election in November.

RAGA has already spent $6.45 million this cycle defending a contested seat in Iowa and allocated more than $1 million apiece in Georgia, Kansas, Ohio and Texas, according to a strategy memo viewed by the Journal.

"AG races are no longer downballot afterthoughts," said RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper. Democratic AGs view themselves as a counterweight to the Trump administration, said DAGA President Sean Rankin.

Nexstar deal

TV-station owner Nexstar Media Group struck its deal to buy rival Tegna in the summer of 2025. The $6.2 billion merger was cleared by officials at the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department in March. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Two days after the merger was announced, satellite-television provider DirecTV donated $3,000 to the California attorney general. DirecTV donated $3,000 to the Illinois attorney general in September and $3,000 to the Kansas attorney general in December.

In March, California led a group of attorneys general suing to block the merger. DirecTV filed its own lawsuit the next day attempting to stop the combination.

"A contribution has never guided the Attorney General's decisions, and it never will," said a spokesman for California Attorney General Rob Bonta's campaign.

On April 9, Newsmax donated $100,000 to RAGA-the company's first donation to the group since 2022 and its largest ever. Newsmax said it is opposing rival Fox Corp. on legal and regulatory matters, including the cap on TV ownership. Fox, which shares common ownership with Journal parent News Corp, has donated roughly $50,000 annually to both RAGA and DAGA in recent years. Nexstar also made a donation to RAGA this summer, although the amount couldn't be learned.

Comcast, another Nexstar competitor, also contacted state AGs to express its concerns about the merger, according to people familiar with the situation. In June, Comcast donated $5,000 to Kobach, the Kansas attorney general. The company routinely makes six-figure donations to both RAGA and DAGA.

Nexstar had done its own lobbying to state attorneys general. Executives at the company made their case for the deal at RAGA's s annual meeting in Sea Island, Ga., in January, according to people familiar with the situation.

Nexstar has said the deal is "pro-competitive" and "will make local stations stronger and support continued investment in local journalism and fact-based news."

Breaking with Trump

Republican AGs, accountable to state voters, are among the few regulators that regularly break with the Trump administration. Three of the 13 attorneys general suing to block the Nexstar deal are Republican.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department, after Trump intervened, agreed to settle its antitrust lawsuit against concert promoter LiveNation, which aimed to force the company to sell its Ticketmaster subsidiary, the Journal reported.

A bipartisan group of 34 attorneys general continued with a trial. In April, a jury found that LiveNation illegally monopolized the ticketing market for major concerts in the U.S. LiveNation and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Paramount CEO David Ellison met with a number of Democratic attorneys general in February to make his case for a proposed acquisition of Warner, according to people familiar with the meeting.

In the meeting, Ellison discussed why he would be a good steward of Warner's cable-news business, CNN, which has often been critical of Trump, among other things. Shortly after, Paramount announced its $81 billion deal for Warner.

Ellison also had a closed-door meeting with a team of Republican AGs, voicing his concern about Netflix's proposed merger with Warner, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Then, on Feb. 24, a group of Republican AGs sent a letter to the Justice Department voicing concerns about the Netflix proposal. Netflix abandoned its pursuit a few days later.

RAGA and DAGA haven't reported any contributions from Ellison or Paramount.

In July, a coalition of Democratic attorneys general, led by California, sued to block Paramount's deal for Warner. A trial is set for next year.