How much is being spent on the November 8 midterm elections?

• How much is being spent on the US midterm elections?
• US midterms are on November 8.
• Control of Congress is at stake.

In the midterm elections on November 8, Americans will choose all the members of the House of Representatives, a third of the senators and thousands of local and state officials, including several governors.

So how much is being spent on the midterm elections which will be held next month? Voters are ready to cast their ballots for Democrats or Republicans.

How much is spent on the US midterm elections?

“There are two important things in politics. The first is money and I don’t remember the second.» The phrase, attributed to Republican Senator Mark Hanna in 1895, is still valid in 2022, a year in which the financing of US legislative campaigns is expected to reach unprecedented heights.

OpenSecrets.org, which tracks the money used in politics and its impact on elections, estimates that the cost of the midterm election, which will be held on November 8, will exceed $9.3 billion, reported the EFE agency. Filed Under: How Much Will Elections Cost?

Control of Congress is at stake

According to EFE, out of that amount, $4,800 million has already been spent, 55.83% by the Republicans, currently in opposition, and 42.6% by the Democrats.

Control of Congress is at stake as the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and just over a third of those in the Senate will be voted on in November, and the possibility of both chambers changing from Democratic to Republican majorities, has increased.

Seeking to finance the campaigns of the parties in federal elections

«It’s a recession-proof sector,» jokes Michael Toner, a lawyer and former president of the Federal Election Commission, who points out to EFE that these records are broken in each cycle. In the 2018 election, $7.1 billion was spent.

The polarization of the country, the tight margin expected in the polls and the January 2021 Supreme Court ruling revoking limits on companies and unions to finance party campaigns in federal elections, explain the increase. Filed Under: How Much Will Elections Cost?

Currently it is “much more expensive to communicate on a large scale”

And, also, currently it is “much more expensive to communicate on a large scale”, adds the expert. With less than three weeks to go before the legislative elections, the weighted average of FiveThirtyEight polls gives the Democrats a 55% chance of maintaining control of the Senate and only a 19% chance of doing so in the House of Representatives.

At this point in 2018, candidates for the House of Representatives had spent 30% less than now, and half those who aspired to the Senate. The largest individual contributor has been the investor and philanthropist George Soros, who has contributed $128.4 million to the Democrats, EFE detailed.

Super PACs have raised just over $2 billion dollars and have already spent half

Special mention should be made of the so-called Super Political Action Committees (Super PACs), which emerged in 2010. Support groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts but are prohibited from donating that money directly to a candidate and coordinating with him.

According to EFE, OpenSecrets reports that as of this week, 2,394 Super PACs indicated that they had raised just over $2 billion dollars and had already spent half. This amount is equivalent to approximately 20% of the total estimated cost, giving them a prominent role. Filed Under: How Much Will Elections Cost?

How much is spent on the midterm elections?

“Often they are managed by someone close to the candidate, someone from their old staff, for example. And in some cases they are founded by a relative. The rich father of a candidate cannot donate a million directly to him, but he can give it to a Super PAC that benefits his son,” Andrew Mayersohn, an OpenSecrets researcher, tells EFE.

The independence of these entities with respect to their beneficiary is therefore relative, he adds. «That word means something different to a lawyer or an investor than it does to any ordinary citizen wondering who is behind the ads he sees on television.»

The 2022 US midterms are right around the corner

They are groups like the Senate Leadership Fund, the one that has raised the most money, with almost $225 million for the Republicans. Or like the Congressional Leadership Fund, which follows on the list with $220 million for progressives.

“They have definitely helped drive this unprecedented level of spending. And they do not contribute to a positive campaign environment, since they tend to make more aggressive announcements than the candidates because they do not have to worry about tarnishing their image in the same way that an applicant would,» says Mayershohn. Filed Under: How Much Will Elections Cost?

Major organizations are also financing many candidates

Each PAC defends its own interests and there is no shortage of familiar faces behind them. Actress and activist Jane Fonda has founded the Jane Fonda Climate PAC with the explicit goal of «doing what it takes to defeat the fossil fuel supporters.»

Behind the financing of many candidates there are also important organizations such as Planned Parenthood, which has opened a fund to support candidates who defend federal legislation that once again protects the right to abortion after the Supreme Court’s ruling against it.