Frequently Asked Questions: How much does a US election campaign cost?

Election campaigns in the US are more expensive than anywhere else – only those with the necessary cash can win. How are the funds going? Will Donations to Biden Benefit Kamala Harris Now?

How much does an election campaign cost in the US?

It is in crores. According to Open Secrets, an organization that documents campaign donations, US$14.4 billion (about €13.2 billion) was spent on the 2020 election. Of this, about $5.7 billion was attributed to the presidential election campaign and $8.7 billion to the votes in the US Congress. This means that the presidential campaign, at the end of which Donald Trump had to admit defeat to his Democrat Joe Biden, was more than twice as expensive as the race four years ago, with expenses of about 2.4 billion dollars.

How does US campaign finance work?

Direct donations to candidates and parties are limited. Typically, super funds are large donations that accept unlimited amounts and use them to promote specific candidates or political causes. “Pac” stands for “Political Action Committee”. Candidates use this to fund expensive TV ads. Who is behind the donations is not always transparent. But there are also many smaller donations from private individuals.

What has been collected so far in the 2024 election campaign?

Information from Open Secrets and the US Federal Campaign Finance Authority FEC is available here. For all presidential candidates – including those who have already dropped out of the race – they consistently report a previous income of US$660 million (about €606 million). Of this, about 215 million went to Biden and 196 million went to Trump. The amount of donation will surely increase as the election date approaches. According to the FEC, at the last poll in 2020, Biden collected about $1.1 billion and Trump about $790 million. It was more than $4 billion for all presidential candidates.

What's next for Biden's donations?

Recently, there was a debate in the United States about whether Biden and his running mate Harris could give the millions in donations that they had already collected before withdrawing from the presidential race to someone else. Harris probably had access to campaign gear and collected Biden donations because she was part of his re-election campaign.

But donations have also flowed in for Biden since his withdrawal: ActBlue reported that Harris had received $46.7 million (about 43 million euros) in small donations by Sunday evening (local time) after he announced his candidacy. This is the biggest fundraising day of the election campaign this year.

How is it in Germany?

Nowhere else in the world has election campaign spending begun to reach levels comparable to those in the United States—not even Germany. For the SPD, for example, the 2021 federal election campaign cost about 15 million euros, Chancellor Olaf Scholes (SPD) once revealed in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. According to the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the SPD spent around 24 million euros on the 2017 federal election campaign, and the CDU and CSU union parties together spent around 30 million. The FDP, Greens, Left and AfD invested between 3 and 6.5 million euros.

(Source: DPA)