US election spending

Where does it go? Sometimes on ads like these!

Students of American Politics will be familiar with the fact that the system is awash with money. Many years ago, Mark Twain said that, "We have the best democracy money can buy." The cost of US elections is, on the surface at least, breathtaking. According to OpenSecrets the 2020 cycle saw a doubling of spending compared to 2016, coming in at nearly $15 billion. Just under half of this was on the presidential race, but more than half was directed towards Congress. The average cost of winning a seat in the House nearly $3 million, and the average Senate race ten times that - with Raphael Warnock spending $181 million to secure victory in Georgia. Part of the reason for such large sums being devoted to elections campaigns is partly due to the fairly loose restrictions on how much candidates, and supporters, can spend - rules that have become much more lax as an outcome of Supreme Court decisions such as Citizens United and then McCutcheon v FEC. It's also because the USA is a large country, geographically, and in population terms. As such, it should come as no surprise that elections are expensive. By comparison, the last time I looked, India's 2024 contest is also likely to be up there in cost terms.

So, anyway, this is what the money can get you.