Wide Open Campaign Spending: We’re Number 1
The 2020 presidential campaign between incumbent Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden, along with the races for the House and Senate, proved to be, by far, the costliest in American history up to that point. A total of $14.4 billion was spent in 2020, more than double the previous high of $6.5 billion spent in the presidential year of 2016. Then came the 2024 presidential election, which easily topped the 2020 campaign. The Harris campaign raised over $1 billion, while the Trump campaign raised about $600 million. But the striking feature was the amount of money raised by billionaire sources, mostly Republicans, who gave to Super PACs in support of their favored candidates. Most prominent was Elon Musk who gave at least $260 million and played an outsized role in underwriting a get-out-the-vote effort on Trump’s behalf, offering daily $1 million sweepstakes for voters in battleground states.
Sources: Karl Evers-Hillstrom, “Most Expensive Ever: 2020 Election Cost $14.4 Billion,” Opensecrets.org, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/02/2020-cycle-cost-14p4-billion-doubling-16/; Fredreka Schouten, David Wright, and Alex Leeds Matthews, “Musk Spent More Than a Quarter-Billion Dollars to Elect Trump, Including Funding a Mysterious Super PAC, New Filings Show,” CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/05/politics/elon-musk-trump-campaign-finance-filings/index.html.
It may be surprising to learn that only 1.8 percent of the American adult population gave more than $200 to a federal campaign in 2020. And including the many thousands of state and local campaigns going on during the same election cycle, probably no more than 4 percent of the adult population contributes money to political candidates and causes.
