What role does money play in US election campaigns?
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have each raised hundreds of millions so far this election cycle. Where does all that money come from, where does it go, and is it worth it? Let's take a look at recent history for clues.
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00:00Running for president has always been expensive, but campaign budgets have exploded in recent years,
00:06from a few hundred million dollars in 1980 to nearly four billion in 2020.
00:12Where does it all come from?
00:15Individuals and corporations.
00:18And the money flows to campaigns and political action committees, or PACs.
00:22Individuals can only give a few thousand dollars to a candidate's campaign,
00:26but can get around this by donating to PACs, which then give money to the campaigns.
00:32Corporations can only contribute to PACs.
00:35To escape all the limits, there's a different category of so-called super PACs
00:40that can spend money to influence the election, usually on advertising,
00:44but are not allowed to coordinate with the candidate's campaign.
00:48A lot of money going a lot of places, but does it matter?
00:52Let's take a look back at that spending chart.
00:55If we break it down by how much each party spent in each election,
00:58we see Democrats started spending much more than Republicans,
01:02starting about 10 years ago, ahead of the 2016 election.
01:06That year, Hillary Clinton outspent Donald Trump by almost 2 to 1.
01:11Yet, she lost.
01:13The loser also spent more in 1984, 1996, and 2004.
01:19So, why isn't money the definitive answer to winning an election?
01:24There are many factors, the decreasing reach of expensive TV ads,
01:28and rising partisanship among them.
01:32So, donors know that giving money is a gamble.
01:36Why do wealthy people give so much?
01:39Some are gambling that they're backing the winner,
01:41and want to have influence after the candidate takes office.
01:44Some give to both sides, so they're on record for donating to the winner either way.
01:49And some just believe in their chosen candidate, whether they need the money or not.