Democrats Spent $9 More Per Vote Than Republicans — And Kamala Still Lost

Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies outspent former President Donald Trump and Republicans by nearly $600 million, a disjunction that did not translate into victory.

Harris and allied outside groups spent around $1.7 billion, compared to $1.1 billion by Trump and allies, according to OpenSecrets.  Based on the number of votes tallied thus far, that means Democrats spent $24 for every Harris vote while Republicans spent $15 for every Trump vote.

It’s not the first time Trump defeated a candidate who outspent him In 2016, the Hillary Clinton campaign and its allies outspent Trump by 78%. In 2020, Joe Biden’s side outspent him by 49%. The figures suggest that big money operations may no longer be the key to securing victory in a presidential election.

Post-election news reports said that despite Harris raising more than $1 billion — in addition to more than $600 million from outside sources — the campaign is now $20 million in debt.

The Harris campaign spent $430 million on media buys and production, and $26 million on text messages, according to Federal Election Commission filings. More than $100 million each was disbursed to Gambit Strategies, Bully Pulpit Interactive, and Dupont Circle Strategies. 

Most of Harris’s outside spending — about $400 million — came from Future Forward USA, according to OpenSecrets. The group, designed to accept contributions larger than the campaign could legally accept, was funded by multi-million dollar donations from people like LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, Google’s Eric Schmidt, and Ilinois’ Jay Pritzker. A union representing government workers also chipped in $1 million.

Elon Musk’s America PAC, by comparison, spent some $130 million on Trump’s behalf.