This year’s midterm has a massive price tag — enough to buy each American 12 Big Macs

The U.S. is on track to spend over $16.7 billion on the midterm elections, breaking a new record, according to a new analysis from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit dedicated to tracking campaign spending.

Federal election-related spending has surpassed the 2018 midterm record of $7.1 billion, while “[s]tate-level candidate, party committee and ballot measure committee expenditures” could soon outstrip the 2018 record of $6.6 billion, according to the organization’s analysis.

“We’re continuing on a pretty steep trajectory,” Sarah Bryner, director of research and strategy at OpenSecrets, told McClatchy News.

State and federal midterm-related spending has gone up markedly since 2014, according to Bryner, who adds that there are several factors that have affected the uptick in outlays.

“I think the Trump presidency was incredibly mobilizing for both the right and the left,” Bryner said, noting that his presence on the political stage likely explains the large increases seen in 2018 and 2020, and that he is still “top of mind” for many voters.

“More structurally, we’ve seen an incredible increase in outside spending: so Super PACs, unlimited donations, dark money spending,” Bryner added.

In the landmark Citizens United decision in 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that outside groups, including corporations, can spend an unlimited amount of money on elections, overturning restrictions that had existed for decades by arguing limits on political spending violated the right to free speech, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The decade following the court ruling was “by far the most expensive in the history of U.S. elections,” according to a separate analysis from OpenSecrets, which adds that the biggest donors over the last ten years have been wealthy individuals, not corporations.

“The U.S. is one of the few countries with privately funded elections,” Bryner said. “Every time I talk to a reporter from another country, they are astonished by the totals.”

The money projected to be spent on this year’s election, $16.7 billion, is more than the GDP of over two dozen countries.

Put another way, the $16.7 billion in midterm-related spending could:

• Buy every American one dozen Big Macs . Alternatively, it could be used to
• Pay for roughly a third of a million college degrees, or
• Cover slightly over one-third of Twitter’s $44 billion price tag.

By comparison, British conservatives spent 16 million pounds leading up to a 2019 election that secured them a majority in parliament, according to the Independent. Meanwhile, roughly 20 times that amount, $312 million, was spent in Pennsylvania alone leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, according to OpenSecrets.

A large majority of the American public, 77%, believe there should be limits on the amount of money that can be spent on elections, according to a 2018 Pew Research survey.

This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 4:23 PM with the headline "This year’s midterm has a massive price tag — enough to buy each American 12 Big Macs."