Campaign spending in the 2020 U.S. election

The 2020 U.S. election cost nearly $14 billion, making it the most expensive campaign in U.S. history, according to projections made by the Center for Responsive Politics. That total, which includes spending on races for the White House, the Senate and the House, is double the amount candidates spent during the last presidential election cycle. Overall, candidates spent around $7 billion on congressional races this year.

According to the Federal Election Commission, candidates who made it past their primaries spent a little over $2.2 billion, split evenly between candidates for the 435 House seats and those running for the 35 Senate seats up for election this year.

Democrats outspent Republicans in races for both the House and the Senate, but in the Senate, the difference in spending was stark. Democrats ran up a $280 million advantage, 64% more than Republican candidates’ total spending.

Despite that huge financial advantage, Democrats, who needed to pick up four seats to win an outright majority in the Senate, managed to net only one. They flipped seats in Arizona and Colorado, but lost their seat in Alabama, which Doug Jones had held since winning a special election in 2017.

In Senate races where Republicans outspent their Democratic rivals, they won every time. Democrats won just over half the races in which they outspent their Republican opponent.

The biggest sinkholes

The two most expensive races Democrats lost were against longtime Republican incumbents in Kentucky and South Carolina. The contests against the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and Lindsey Graham, respectively, gained national attention and were funded by large-dollar contributions of $200 or more that overwhelmingly came from out of state.

A Republican strategist involved in several key races said the scale and out-of-state nature of Democratic fundraising helped Republicans drive home their argument that Democratic candidates were in league with national political figures such as Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Both Democratic challengers – Amy McGrath in Kentucky and Jaime Harrison in South Carolina – spent more than double the dollars per vote compared to their opponents.

Despite the nearly $200 million Democrats spent on these two races – more than a quarter of what they spent on all Senate races – both Harrison and McGrath failed to significantly trim their opponents’ winning vote margins.

Harrison shattered U.S. Senate campaign fundraising records this year, amassing a stunning $109 million to unseat Graham. He spent $106 million on the race, whereas Graham spent just $60 million. Despite pre-election polls showing the candidates running neck-and-neck, Harrison still lost by more than 10 percentage points.

McGrath, who boasted a $32 million advantage in Kentucky, lost to McConnell by 20 points, the largest loss for Democrats in that race since 2002.

Georgia: Democrats’ last chance

Even though the big spending in Senate races during this year’s general election did not win them an outright majority, Democrats still have one last chance to edge control of the chamber by picking up both of the two Georgia Senate seats that will be decided in a runoff election on Jan. 5.

Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue face challenges from Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

Senate Democrats are already calling on their supporters to funnel campaign contributions to the two Georgia candidates, as the balance in the Senate and the chance for a Democratic sweep of Congress and the White House comes into view. As of Nov. 24, both Democratic candidates had amassed at least $4.5 million in donations through ActBlue, the leading Democratic fundraising platform, with contributions likely to pile in over the next few weeks.

In Georgia, Democrats have another shot to prove that big spending can lead to big upsets in the Senate, while Republicans likely have to survive another onslaught of out-of-state spending to hold onto their seats.