Record US$14 billion spent on US election 2020 campaigns
- The Democrats in particular lost some costly wagers this year, including the Senate race in South Carolina
- Republicans spent some US$10 million in a bid to thwart New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
America’s 2020 campaigns cost some US$14 billion, a record sum showing that parties are increasingly willing to spend big on races to express visceral opposition to their rivals – even when their chances are slim.
The enormous cost of this year’s presidential and legislative elections is nearly double the cost of 2016’s races, and more than triple those of 2000, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan research group that tracks money in politics.
The Democrats in particular lost some costly wagers this year.
South Carolina’s incumbent Republican Senator Lindsey Graham easily beat his rival Jaime Harrison, who spent a record US$108 million after donations from Democrats poured in from all over the country, according to Karl Evers-Hillstrom from the centre.
“To all the liberals in California and New York, you wasted a lot of money,” Graham said following his re-election.
To be fair, a number of billionaire donors gave to keep Graham afloat – and, according to the CRP, the vast majority of his funds also came from out of state.