Candidates in the US elections broke the fundraising record this year, raising a total of 15.9 billion dollars (approximately 14.5 billion euros), according to the OpenSecrets organization which compiled the data.
This total concerns both presidential candidates and those running for a place in Congress. It exceeds the previous record, set in 2020, which was $15.1 billion spent. It’s also more than double the 2016 election cycle, when $6.5 billion was spent.
In the race for the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris has attracted the most funds, with more than $1 billion raised, with small donors contributing 40%. To this were added 586 million from political committees supporting it.
The campaign of his Republican rival, Donald Trump, raised $382 million, 28% from small donors. Support committees raised $694 million. The top contributor is Timothy Mellon, an 82-year-old banker who contributed $197 million to Republican candidates and Mr. Trump. Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, as well as Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, Miriam Adelson and Kenneth Griffin – businessmen and women – also each contributed more than $100 million to Republicans.
On the Democratic side, businessman Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York (2002-2013), is the main donor, with $93 million. The financier George Soros, for his part, contributed $56 million through his support committee.
The majority of the amount, $10.5 billion, was spent on advertising campaigns. The campaigns of Mr. Trump and Mr.me Harris spent a total of $2.6 billion on advertising between March and 1is November: 1.6 billion for the Democrat and 993 million for the Republican.
Among the pivotal states, it is in Pennsylvania that the candidates concentrated their spending, ahead of Michigan and Georgia.
Although Americans spend more and more time online, social networks accounted for only 17% of the two presidential candidates' advertising spending. Democrats spent $132.4 million on Meta networks (Facebook and Instagram), compared to $24.7 million for Republicans. The latter, on the other hand, spent 1.1 million on X (formerly Twitter) – owned by Elon Musk – compared to just $150,000 for the Democrats, according to AdImpact.
