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Why it’s not just billionaires raising record money for Harris-Trump race

The current election is on track to bust through past records to become easily the most expensive presidential race in the United States’ history.

In part, this continues an ever-rising trend line, after a 2020 race that, at $6.5 billion, more than doubled the 2016 fundraising total. On both sides, there is a sense of near-existential stakes for the nation’s future, engaging donors from billionaires to bake-sale volunteers.

Why We Wrote This

In politics, money really does talk. Campaign donations are a form of protected free speech, with the current election on track for record spending. And small donors are a rising force.

Both teams have stressed the importance of small donors, often considered a grassroots indicator of excitement about a candidate. The money is used for everything from staff salaries to voter outreach and advertising. 

In the past five presidential elections, all winning candidates raised significantly more money than their opponents – except when Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016, despite her $230 million fundraising advantage. In the 2020 Democratic primaries, candidate Michael Bloomberg spent over $1 billion of his own cash, to little avail. 

When it comes to the current presidential election, “What’s important is that both candidates have enough money to do what they feel that they need to do,” says Michael S. Kang, a law professor at Northwestern University. “Not so much that they have more than the other side.”

The current election is on track to bust through past records to become easily the most expensive presidential race in the United States’ history.

In part, this continues an ever-rising trend line, after a 2020 race that, at $6.5 billion, more than doubled the 2016 fundraising total. On both sides, there is a sense of near-existential stakes for the nation’s future, engaging donors from billionaires to bake-sale volunteers.

The late-stage arrival of Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee created its own money boost. Surging enthusiasm helped her campaign reverse the fundraising lead that Donald Trump enjoyed before President Joe Biden exited the race. 

Why We Wrote This

In politics, money really does talk. Campaign donations are a form of protected free speech, with the current election on track for record spending. And small donors are a rising force.

Both teams have stressed the importance of small donors, often considered a grassroots indicator of excitement about a candidate. Yet how much of an impact that money will make is up for debate, and it remains only a fraction of the amount being moved by wealthy donors. 

How did elections draw such record amounts of money? 

To observers in other wealthy democracies, where elections are generally publicly funded, it may look like things have gotten out of hand. In the U.S., it comes down to the First Amendment. 

Over 7 in 10 Americans say there should be limits on how much individuals and organizations can spend on political campaigns. And there are some constraints in federal law, such as a $3,300 cap on what an individual may donate to a candidate’s campaign committee.

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