US election 2020 the most expensive in American history: Study
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Spendings this year will be more than the expenditure incurred in the last two elections combined, which is not something that the experts would have expected due to the pandemic
A research group has revealed that the upcoming US election of the year 2020 will be one of the most expensive elections in the history of American politics as the total expenditure can reach $14 billion approximately.
The Center for Responsive Politics has revealed that this election cycle is one of the most expensive elections and it is already twice as expensive as the 2016 elections which saw Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton rally against each other.
As per the study, the Democrat candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden will be the first contestant to raise nearly (or more than) $1 billion from his donors. Biden's campaign raised a record-breaking figure of $938 million through October 14, whereas Trump's campaign managed to raise $596 million.
"Even amid a pandemic, everyone is giving more in 2020, from ordinary individuals making small donations to billionaires cutting eight-figure checks to super PACs."
"Women are smashing donation records, and Americans are increasingly donating to candidates who aren't running for office in their state," it said in a statement.
The Center for Responsive Politics has claimed that an "extraordinary influx" of political donations in the final months has pushed the total spending in the elections well past the earlier estimated figure of $11 billion. The shift is being assumed to be a result of the Supreme Court battle and closely watched races for the White House and Senate.
Spendings this year will be more than the expenditure incurred in the last two elections combined, which is not something that the experts would have expected due to the pandemic. "Donors poured record amounts of money into the 2018 midterms, and 2020 appears to be a continuation of that trend - but magnified," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics.
"Ten years ago, a billion-dollar presidential candidate would have been difficult to imagine. This cycle, we're likely to see two," Krumholz said.
A majority of the spendings have come from wealthy national groups, and have majorly funded Biden instead of the current President Donald Trump. In the month of October alone, outside spending by super PACs and other big-money groups totalled nearly $1.2 billion.
"Their money machine is more powerful than ever in 2020," the Center said.
It is not just the wealthy groups that have donated money this election, the small-size groups have donated more this election cycle when compared to the other years. Joe Biden got donations of nearly $1.7 billion whereas the Republicans gained $1 billion from small groups. Overall, small donors account for 22 per cent of the money raised in the 2020 cycle. These individual donors giving USD 200 or less only accounted for 15 per cent of the money raised in the 2016 election.
In an interesting observation, more than 1.5 million women have donated to federal committees driving an increase of 37 per cent from the 2016 election — accounting for a total of 44 per cent of all donors.
The study also revealed that the Trump administration has failed to keep their old supporters in their corner as the majority of the leading industries have shifted over to Democrats' side, except fpr real estate which still favours Trump over Biden.