It was a staggering amount even by recent standards: Last month, crypto billionaire Chris Larsen dropped $500,000 into the campaign coffers of District 10 candidate Theo Ellington. He did so through a political action committee called “From the Neighborhood, for the City, Supporting Theo Ellington for Supervisor 2026,” allowing him to evade the city’s strict $500 limit on campaign contributions from individuals. 

It's been called the largest ever donation to a San Francisco supervisorial race. 

Within days, Ellington was scrambling to distance himself from his wealthy benefactor. The would-be District 10 Supervisor claimed he has had only “brief” conversations with the billionaire who is likely to be the largest political contributor in the city’s upcoming election. “Outside organizations make their own decisions about how they participate in elections,” Ellington told Mission Local. “They do not speak for me, or our campaign.” 

Ellington’s reluctance to embrace the association is understandable. Larsen has been a generous donor to two San Francisco Mayors, leading to charges that he has wielded unseemly influence on the city’s political life. Once a backer of former Mayor London Breed and her pet projects, he now gives on behalf of Mayor Daniel Lurie. Larsen, his wife, Lyna Lam, and his company Ripple Labs have donated $2.5 million toward Lurie’s so-called Clean Up City Hall committee, supporting the three ballot initiatives — Propositions D, E & F — that would hand extraordinary power to the Mayor.

At the same time, Larsen and his company Ripple, where he serves as chair, have been mega-donors statewide and nationally. According to a recent report Larsen and Ripple have spent $93 million in California and national politics in just the last year.

Although Larsen supported then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, Ripple has enthusiastically bankrolled President Donald Trump’s agenda. The company gave about $4.9 million to Trump’s inaugural committee followed by $5 million toward the President’s controversial ballroom.

Larsen has been a vocal opponent of the Billionaire Tax Act on California’s November 2026 ballot. He’s backed up his words with action, spending $15 million of his fortune through two PACs — and another $5 million via Ripple — to defeat Proposition 40. The measure calls for a one-time 5% tax on the state’s estimated 200 millionaires to be used to rescue California’s public health system. Larsen and his fellow billionaires have been resistant to any incursions, however minor, into their vast wealth.

Ellington’s somewhat frantic effort to separate himself from a controversial donor should not distract from his other ties to wealthy — and conservative — San Francisco political donors. Between 2022 and 2025, he served on the board of directors of Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the conservative political pressure group started by William Oberndorf. A onetime Republican and now independent, Oberndorf has been a mega-donor to national Republican candidates and causes. Locally, he was the leading contributor to the recall of three progressive members of the San Francisco School Board and as well as reform-minded District Attorney Chesa Boudin. 

The rest of Ellington’s political contributors are a who’s who of moneyed — and conservative — political donors, among them local political gadfly Garry Tan and billionaire tech investor Ron Conway. He received donations from separate branches of Govern for California, a PAC that has created regional groups to exceed local contribution limits. He also received the nod from GrowSF which has promoted him in its widely-distributed voter guide.

Before securing Larsen’s endorsement — and contribution — he had already amassed more than $488,000. His opponents, J.R. Eppler and Dion-Jay Brookter have raised the relatively modest sums of $159,000 and $145,000, respectively. Natalie Gee, aide to outgoing Supervisor Shamann Walton, said: “With money like that, there’s always an expectation of what’s in return.”

District 10 which encompasses Bayview-Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch and Silver Terrace, is among the city’s lower-income districts. It is also home to the city’s largest African-American community, and sizable Asian-American and Latino-American populations.

And it has attracted the attention of those on the opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum. Likely seeking another ally on the Board of Supervisors. But some are more exacting. Larsen, who has taken an almost fetishistic interest in online surveillance, has secured Ellington’s promise to allow the San Francisco Police Department to expand, a system that has become controversial in jurisdictions across California.

District 10 is home to a number of data centers, the engines for new technologies like artificial intelligence and crypto. Currently, Ellington is supporting the temporary moratorium on the construction of new data centers authored by current Supervisor Walton. If elected, how long he’ll be able to say “no” to the wealthy donors who funded  his way into elected office is an open question.