By Albert Serna Jr. and Anna Massoglia, Open Secrets
The 2024 election marks a historic moment in U.S. politics, not only for candidates but also for the record sums of money spent on political campaigns and ballot measures nationwide.
Leading up to Election Day, billions of dollars flooded efforts to sway voters to support one candidate or issue over another. Some races are still too close to call but one thing is for certain: unprecedented sums of money flooded 2024 elections.
1. Cost of election to top $20 billion … but money doesn’t always win
OpenSecrets projects that the combined total for state and federal election spending in the 2023-2024 cycle will exceed $20 billion.
About $16 billion of that went to influence federal elections and another $4.6 billion was raised by state candidates, party committees and ballot measure committees for 2023 and 2024 elections.
But big money doesn’t always result in a win.
Despite Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and outside groups outraising former President Donald Trump’s camp by hundreds of millions of dollars, the former president’s win in Wisconsin put him over the threshold of 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.
OpenSecrets’ analysis of the most recent Federal Election Commission filings found that Harris’ campaign raised over $1 billion through mid-October, nearly three times the roughly $382 million the president-elect’s campaign raised during the same period.
Outside spending is much closer with groups supporting Trump or opposing his opponents reporting about $1 billion in spending through Election Day while groups boosting Harris or attacking Trump reported spending $1.05 billion on the race.
2. Unprecedented outside spending
The 2024 election cycle has broken the record for outside spending, with about $4.5 billion in spending reported by independent groups such as super PACs prior to Election Day. The bulk of that has come in the form of independent expenditures, money spent to buy things like ads and mailers that explicitly advocate for a candidate’s election or defeat.
Individual donors, organizations and unions can pour an unlimited sum of money into these kinds of expenditures to help sway voters. Conservative political committees have spent more than $2.2 billion on federal elections this cycle while liberal political committees have reported spending $1.7 billion.
Future Forward USA is the top outside spender of the cycle. The Democratic hybrid PAC has reported spending more than $517 million on outside spending – most of which has gone to attack former President Donald Trump or support the Harris campaign.
The top conservative outside spending group, Make America Great Again Inc., has spent over $364 million boosting Trump and attacking his opponents this cycle. Over $251 million of that has been spent on attack ads opposing Harris, and Biden before her. The super PAC has only spent a quarter of that amount – roughly $58 million – directly supporting Trump.
3. Top donors had outsize influence
The two main presidential candidates pulled in millions of dollars from sources ranging from billionaire megadonors to small-dollar funders.
About 44% of all the money raised to support Trump came from just 10 individual megadonors.
The president-elect and affiliated outside groups took in over $481 million from 10 individuals, including just over $118 million from Elon Musk. Other donors include conservative billionaire Timothy Mellon who gave $150 million to outside groups supporting Trump.
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Las Vegas-based billionaire and Las Vegas Review-Journal owner Miriam Adelson was the third biggest donor, contributing just over $100 million in support of Trump. Adelson has been one of the former president’s biggest donors and even helped finance Trump’s legal battle against Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election.
Mellon, Musk and Adelson’s combined contributions account for a third of Trump’s money, OpenSecrets’ analysis found.
On the other side of the aisle, the top 10 donors to elect Harris only accounted for nearly 8% of her campaign and outside groups’ total contributions.
Harris’ top supporter was Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who gave $38 million to boost her presidential bid. Billionaire and media mogul Michael Bloomberg is second on the list of top Harris donors, giving $19 million in support of the vice president.
The Harris camp has only pulled in just over a quarter of what Trump has from their top ten donors, whose contributions collectively totaled $126 million for the cycle — totaling less than the giving of just the top Trump donor.
Both presidential candidates’ campaign committees also made attempts to appeal to grassroots supporters.
Harris’ campaign committee raised about 42% of its funds from small donors giving under $200 — totaling $428.7 million — while Trump’s campaign brought in less than 30% of its funds from small-dollar donors, totaling about $109.3 million.
4. Billion-dollar dark money
OpenSecrets’ analysis on the 2024 elections found that dark money accounts for over $1 billion in total contributions to independent groups like super PACs.
Dark money refers to funding from unknown sources, generally from politically active 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups that do not disclose their donors or shell companies. While super PACs are required to disclose their donors, many nonprofits are not and enable political committees to hide the ultimate source of their fundings.
Future Forward USA PAC, the top outside spender of the cycle, is a hybrid PAC that took more than $136.4 million in unnamed contributions from its allied dark money group Future Forward USA Action. The super PAC spent a whopping $517 million to help support Harris’ campaign.
Senate Democrats’ flagship dark money group, Majority Forward, has poured over $113.2 million into political committees spending on 2024 elections. That includes about $70.8 million to Senate Majority PAC and more than $29.4 million into the liberal Last Best Place PAC.
On the other side of the aisle, a pro-Trump dark money group named Building America’s Future has made tens of millions in contributions to super PACs. That includes $16 million to Duty to America PAC and millions more to Stand For Us PAC and Future Coalition PAC. All three super PACs spent to oppose Harris and Building America’s Future also poured money into its own efforts to chip away at Harris’ voter base.
Dark money groups like 501(c)(4) nonprofits that do not disclose their have also reported tens of millions in spending to the FEC. Conservative dark money groups have reported spending more than $9.9 million, according to filings analyzed by OpenSecrets, while liberal dark money groups have over doubled that amount spending about $25 million this cycle. Dark money groups have poured hundreds of millions more into super PACs.
5. Ballot measures break records, and banks
Ballot measure committees are projected to raise $1.4 billion during the 2023-2024 election cycle. From state to state, contributions to support or defeat various ballot measures this cycle have already broken several records. But they also broke the bank of some corporations placing big bets on measures that didn’t pass.
Florida’s Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana for adults 21 or over, attracted more than $179 million – making it the cycle’s most expensive measure, more than all other marijuana-related measures combined.
While the majority of Floridians voted for Amendment 3, the measure did not secure the 60% of the vote required for constitutional amendments.
The bulk of that unprecedented money went to support the failed amendment — with about $125 million of that from a single company. Cannabis company Trulieve’s entire third-quarter revenue, announced on Election Day, totaled $284 million.
Florida also failed to pass Amendment 4, a ballot measure that would have codified the right to abortion. The measure’s supporters raised over $119 million, accounting for the bulk of the roughly $130 million raised overall.
