Barnes & Noble

Quick Take

On campaign money, Barnes & Noble itself keeps a light footprint: no corporate PAC, no reported federal lobbying since a $10,000 outlay in 2009, and OpenSecrets attributes the $113,511 in 2024 cycle contributions on its organization page to individual employees and affiliates, not the company.[3] Where the company is not quiet is book access: it promotes Banned Books Week, publicly defended selling challenged titles when a Virginia Republican tried to restrict them in 2022, and in 2023 joined publishers in an amicus brief opposing Texas's HB 900 book-labeling law.[19][20] The largest documented political money sits one level up. Owner Elliott was founded and is led by Paul Singer, who gave $5 million to the pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. and $10 million to the Senate Leadership Fund during the 2024 cycle, ranking among the largest Republican donors nationally.[4][5]

Who Actually Owns the Biggest Bookstore in America

Barnes & Noble was a publicly traded company until August 7, 2019, when it became a wholly owned subsidiary of funds advised by Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited, the firm that had purchased the United Kingdom's largest bookseller, Waterstones, a year earlier.[1] Founder Leonard Riggio, who built the chain from a single Manhattan bookstore, retained no formal role after the sale.[6] Elliott installed James Daunt, founder of the independent Daunt Books shops in London, as chief executive of both chains, and Daunt has run the turnaround by handing store managers more control over what they stock and display, a decentralization widely credited with returning the chain to growth and new store openings.[7] Under Daunt the chain opened 57 stores in 2024 and more than 60 in 2025, with another 60 planned for 2026, and it crossed 700 bookstores by late 2025 after dipping below 600 in 2023.[17][18][24] It has also turned into a rescuer of storied independents, acquiring Denver's Tattered Cover out of bankruptcy in July 2024 and agreeing in September 2025 to buy the 174-year-old Bay Area chain Books Inc. out of Chapter 11 for $3.25 million, keeping both brands alive.[22]

Elliott Investment Management is the activist hedge fund founded by Paul Singer in 1977, with roughly $70 billion or more under management, and Barnes & Noble sits in its portfolio alongside Waterstones and the stationery chain Paper Source, which Elliott bought out of bankruptcy in 2021.[8] In November 2024 Barnes & Noble sold its own publishing arm, Sterling Publishing (rebranded Union Square & Co.), to Hachette Book Group, sharpening its focus on bookselling.[23]

Where the Money Actually Goes

The corporate entity is close to silent in federal campaign finance. Barnes & Noble operates no corporate PAC. OpenSecrets records $113,511 in contributions on the company's organization page for the 2024 cycle, money that under OpenSecrets methodology comes from individual employees, owners, and their family members rather than from the company itself, and shows no reported federal lobbying in 2024; the last lobbying figure on the company's profile is $10,000 in 2009.[3]

One entity must not be folded into these numbers. Barnes & Noble Education, the college bookstore operator spun off as a separate public company in 2015, keeps its own OpenSecrets profile with its own small totals ($1,169 in the 2024 cycle) and is not part of the retail chain Elliott owns.[9] The two share a name and a history, not a ledger.

The ownership layer is where the large, documented political money lives. Paul Singer, Elliott's founder, president, and co-CEO, is a longtime Republican megadonor: $5 million to Make America Great Again Inc. in the 2024 cycle, a $10 million June 2024 contribution to the Senate Leadership Fund that was his largest federal donation on record at the time, and tens of millions more across Republican committees, ranking among the largest donors to Republican causes in 2024.[4][5][10] Singer's giving has its own internal texture: he funded opposition to Donald Trump's 2016 nomination before later supporting him, he put $1 million into launching American Unity PAC in 2012 to back Republicans who supported same-sex marriage, and he chairs emeritus the free-market Manhattan Institute.[11][12] Singer's donations are his own, made as an individual; Barnes & Noble the company has made no equivalent commitments, and the two subsets should not be merged.

Where Barnes & Noble Stands on Book Access

The company's most visible public posture runs through the fight over book access. Every September it promotes Banned Books Week, the campaign organized with the American Library Association, publishing an annual banned books reading list and adding in-store banned book displays that recognize titles challenged on what it describes as moral, religious, or political grounds.[13][14] The record goes beyond marketing. In 2022, after Virginia Republican delegate Tim Anderson and congressional candidate Tommy Altman asked a court to bar Barnes & Noble from selling Gender Queer and A Court of Mist and Fury to minors without parental consent, the company publicly defended stocking a broad range of titles, saying "As booksellers, we carry thousands of books whose subject matter some may find offensive"; a Virginia Beach judge later dismissed the petition and found the underlying obscenity law unconstitutional.[20][21] In November 2023, Barnes & Noble went further and joined Penguin Random House and other publishers, booksellers, and authors in an amicus brief to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals opposing Texas's HB 900, the READER Act, in Book People v. Wong, arguing the law's vague content-labeling mandates would strip students of access to widely taught literature.[19] So while the company stays out of campaign finance, it has taken documented public positions against specific book restrictions, even if it has not weighed in on every state measure.

A Union Drive in the Stacks

Beginning in early 2023, workers at individual Barnes & Noble stores began organizing with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the UFCW, and the first contracts were ratified at the Union Square flagship and Park Slope stores in June 2023, in Bloomington, Illinois in November 2023, and at the West 82nd Street Manhattan store in March 2024, with union campaigns reporting nine organized stores across six states by 2024.[15][16] The organizing wave and the disputes behind it (pay, scheduling, safety) are workplace conduct matters between the company and its employees, reported here for completeness rather than as a political signal.

What They Sell and Where

Barnes & Noble sells new books, the NOOK e-reader line, toys, games, music, and cafe service across more than 700 bookstores nationwide, plus barnesandnoble.com.[24] As a private company it publishes no annual report or proxy statement, so the diversity, human capital, and governance disclosures a 10-K would contain do not exist for it. Its documented public positions run through its retail programming and the book-access statements described above, not corporate political spending. The chain has been opening dozens of new stores a year since 2022 under Daunt's management.[7]

Footnotes

[1] "Elliott Completes Acquisition of Barnes & Noble," Exhibit (a)(5)(B), SEC EDGAR, August 7, 2019. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/890491/000110465919044418/a19-11220_14ex99da5b.htm

[2] Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly, "Elliott Completes Purchase of B&N," August 7, 2019. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/80868-elliott-completes-purchase-of-b-n.html

[3] OpenSecrets, Barnes & Noble organization profile, accessed August 22, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/barnes-noble/summary?id=D000031808

[4] NPR, "How billionaire and Trump donor Paul Singer could benefit from Maduro's removal," January 7, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/01/07/nx-s1-5668254/how-billionaire-and-trump-donor-paul-singer-could-benefit-from-maduros-removal

[5] David Moore, Sludge, "Facing Dem Scrutiny, Alito Benefactor Paul Singer Donates $10 Million to GOP," July 19, 2024. https://readsludge.com/2024/07/19/facing-dem-scrutiny-alito-benefactor-paul-singer-donates-10-million-to-gop/

[6] Retail Dive, "Barnes & Noble's new owner closes sale," August 2019. https://www.retaildive.com/news/barnes-noble-new-owner-close-sale/560504/

[7] Mark Faithfull, Forbes, "How An Englishman In New York Turned The Page On Barnes & Noble," December 22, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/markfaithfull/2022/12/22/how-an-englishman-in-new-york-turned-the-page-on-barnes--noble/

[8] Nadine El-Bawab, CNBC, "Barnes & Noble owner buys stationery retailer Paper Source out of bankruptcy," May 11, 2021. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/11/barnes-noble-owner-buys-paper-source-out-of-bankruptcy.html

[9] OpenSecrets, Barnes & Noble Education organization profile, accessed August 22, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/barnes-noble-education/summary?id=D000089829

[10] U.S. News & World Report, "The Biggest Political Donors of the 2024 Election," November 5, 2024. https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2024-11-05/the-biggest-political-donors-of-the-2024-election

[11] Institutional Investor, "Paul Singer's Fight for the Soul of the GOP," October 30, 2017. https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2bsw3hq9l8lt16xa3v3sw/corner-office/paul-singers-fight-for-the-soul-of-the-gop

[12] NPR, "SuperDonor Backs Romney, And Gay Marriage," April 2012. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/150426158

[13] Barnes & Noble, "Banned Books Reading List," September 22, 2024. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/banned-books-week-2024/

[14] WGN-TV, "Some Barnes & Noble stores add 'banned book' sections amid recent controversy," March 3, 2022. https://wgntv.com/news/some-barnes-noble-stores-add-banned-book-sections-amid-recent-controversy/

[15] Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, "Illinois Barnes & Noble Workers Win 1st Union Contract Joining NYC Stores in Historic Win," 2024, accessed August 22, 2026. https://www.rwdsu.org/news/barnes-noble-ratification-bloomington

[16] UFCW, "Barnes & Noble Union," accessed August 22, 2026. https://www.ufcw.org/actions/campaign/barnes-noble-union/

[17] Dani James, Retail Dive, "Barnes & Noble plans to open over 60 stores in 2025," April 18, 2025. https://www.retaildive.com/news/barnes-and-noble-plans-sixty-store-openings-2025/745756/

[18] Retail TouchPoints, "Barnes & Noble Plans 60 New Stores in 2026," January 27, 2026. https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/news/report-barnes-noble-plans-60-new-stores-in-2026/616619/

[19] "Penguin Random House, Barnes & Noble, and Partners Join Together in Opposition to Texas HB900, File Amicus Brief Supporting Plaintiffs in Book People v. Wong," Barnes & Noble Inc. press release, November 20, 2023. https://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/press-release/penguin-random-house-barnes-noble-partners-join-together-opposition-texas-hb900-file-amicus-brief-supporting-plaintiffs-book-people-v-wong/

[20] The Advocate, "GOP Politician Targets Barnes & Noble With Legal Action for Queer Book," May 20, 2022. https://www.advocate.com/news/2022/5/20/gop-politician-targets-barnes-noble-legal-action-queer-book

[21] WAVY, "Judge dismisses VB delegate's lawsuit against Barnes & Noble over books pulled from VBCPS," August 31, 2022. https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/virginia-beach/judge-could-rule-if-two-books-previously-found-in-vbcps-are-obscene/

[22] "Barnes & Noble to Acquire Books Inc.," Barnes & Noble Inc. press release, September 3, 2025. https://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/press-release/barnes-noble-acquire-books-inc/

[23] Hachette Book Group, "Barnes & Noble Announces the Sale of Sterling Publishing to Hachette Book Group," November 18, 2024. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/in-the-news/barnes-noble-announces-the-sale-of-sterling-publishing-to-hachette-book-group/

[24] "Barnes & Noble Re-Opens in Long Beach," Barnes & Noble Inc. press release, November 13, 2025. https://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/press-release/barnes-noble-re-opens-long-beach/