OpenSecrets: Biden raises more ‘dark money’ than Trump

Americans spend mind-blowing amounts of money on their elections. According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in the 2016 presidential election cycle the candidates spent a total of US$1.6 billion. This rose to $4.1 billion in the 2020 cycle, and it is likely to be much higher in the current election campaign.

Donations to presidential campaign funds come from individuals, political parties and political action committees (PACs). The latter pool contributions from supporters to promote or oppose candidates, as well as raising money in the first place.

They are legally independent from the campaign funds raised by candidates and parties, but they act in concert with them, for example, by funding ads that support the policies and positions taken by their candidates.

Political campaigns in the US are very expensive because they run on for a long time and involve costly advertising. As soon as a new president is elected, preparations begin for the midterm congressional elections two years later, as well as the next round of presidential primaries.

The FEC updates the figures on money raised and spent on the 2024 presidential election campaign on a continuous basis. At the time of writing the 2024 presidential campaign has already raised a total of just over $397 million by all the candidates and spent just under $294 million since January 2021. The Republicans have raised $225 million and the Democrats $103 million.

As regards spending, the Republicans have spent $191 million and the Democrats $48 million on the 2024 election campaign so far. These sums do not include the money raised by congressional and state-level campaigns but just relate to presidential hopefuls.

The big discrepancy between the two parties in