Living in the COVID-19 World ... and Beyond #53: Money and Elections

I have known for a long time that money has a huge influence on elections, and that more and more money is being spent on elections each election cycle.

And I was still surprised to learn the magnitude of the spending.

In 2020, $14.4 billion was spent on federal elections, combining presidential and congressional figures.   This was more than double the amount spent in 2016, which had been, up until that point, the most expensive election cycle in U.S. history.

Even more concerning is looking at where that money is coming from.   Forty percent of all political donations come from the top 1% of the top 1% of wealthiest people in the United States.   Just to be clear … it is not from the larger number of the top 1% of wealthy people.   It is from 1% of those people which I compute to be about 24,000 people.   So, 24,000 people contribute 40% of the money in federal elections.   My simple math says that those 24,000 people contributed approximately $5.8 billion in 2020.

And all indications are that far more money will be spent in the 2024 federal election cycle.  And I would guess that the percentage coming from the very wealthy will at least stay the same if not increase to greater than 40%.  Remember Elon Musk himself suggested early this summer that he would contribute $45 million per month in support of Trump’s campaign.

In this context, it is hard to think about my $100 contributions or even if I chose to give $1000 in support of a candidate that I particularly liked.    And, of course, all the small donations add up to big money also … it just takes many of them to equal what one of the 24,000 wealthiest people might give.

Some of my friends have organized small events to fundraise for candidates of their choice … to multiply the impact of their preference and their donation.   These are increasingly being done on-line … so the process is simple enough.  

But the top 1% of wealthiest people in the United States have about 30% of all the wealth in the United States, and if you extend that, the top 10% wealthiest people in the U.S. have over 66% of the country’s wealth.   So smaller donations can never add up to enough to negate the influence of the wealthiest folks … if they choose to donate to influence election outcomes.

The solutions to address these issues must be about changing laws and regulations to create a more level playing field for elections.   And ultimately the great economic inequality in our country and in the world must be faced, tackled, and corrected for elections to truly be democratic.

What are your thoughts about the influence of money in elections?