According to research, the largest share of political spending was attributed to private equity and hedge funds in the year leading up to 2020. The majority went to campaign contributions.

According to Americans for Financial Reform’s first review by CNBC, it was the highest amount this sector of the financial market spent on lobbying or campaign contributions over a two year election cycle. The amount spent on lobbying and campaign contributions in the 2015-16 election cycle was barely over $500 million, according to the group.

This study does not include any breakdowns of party affiliation or who received most money. CNBC reported that Americans for Financial Reform said that they are working to create that set of data.

This comes as Democrats in Congress seek to improve regulation of these industries. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was one of a number of Democratic legislators who were recently reintroducedThe Stop Wall Street Looting Act seeks to close the loophole of carried interest that has been exploited by private equity companies for many years. It also targets transparency firms about fees and returns.

Americans for Financial Reform refers to itself as an independent coalition of over 200 members that include the AFL-CIO (the NAACP), the Color of Change (the Color of Change) and Common Cause. The group hopes to illuminate the power wielded in Wall Street by these “powerful Wall Street titans” through this research.

Ricardo Valadez from AFR’s private equity campaign management, stated in a statement that private fund managers spend money on politics to “preserve favored tax loopholes” or “forecast more comprehensive reform,” CNBC was provided with.

It analyzed the expenditures on lobbying, campaign contributions, and other activities during the 2020 election cycle. This included both individual contributors and committees of political action linked to various fund funds. The study found that $547 million was the largest amount of money spent on donations for candidates seeking federal office.

Over $78 millions went to lobbying. Research shows that private equity spends more lobbying ($70 million) than did hedge funds ($8.5 million).

Campaign contributions were more evenly distributed than spending. Private equity sector contributed more than $262 million, and hedge funds brought in over $285 million.

The organization previously provided CNBCResearch has shown that $2.9 billion was invested by Wall Street’s larger community (banks and trade associations) in political initiatives over the past election.

Data from the Center for Responsive Politics shows that those in the investment and securities industry combined to give over $74 million to back President Joe Biden’s 2020 run for president,  a much larger sum than what Donald Trump raised from Wall Street.

Americans for Financial Reform stated that Citadel ($67million), Blackstone ($43million) and Susquehanna International ($30 million) were the firms with the highest campaign contributions to federal campaigns.

Cerberus Capital was followed by Apollo Global, Cerberus and Carlyle Group as the largest lobbyists in the last cycle, according to the organization.