Campaign spending exploded in 2020, with more than double being spent compared to 2016 and likely driven by small-dollar donations solicited nonstop by political action committees and candidates.
A new Federal Election Commission audit showed spending reached $14.5 billion in 2020, up from about $6 billion in 2016, which broke the previous presidential election year, 2012, by a hair.
But while the new FEC auditor seemed to blame the landmark 2010 Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court case that opened up corporate spending, the real reason might be a very positive development: Small donors are getting into politics.
Campaign spending shown in the audit didn’t rise much after Citizens United until the 2020 election, as outside fundraising groups such as the Left’s ActBlue and the Right’s WinRed targeted small donors.
Transactions through the FEC appear to back that up. As with the surge in spending, transactions gradually increased after 2010 to about 110 million in 2016 and about 616 million in 2020.
Republican FEC Commissioner Sean Cooksey told us, “After Citizens United, many experts and advocates grimly predicted that corporations and big-money donors would take over American politics. It turns out they were wrong. Instead, in the last 10 years, we have seen an explosion in small-dollar contributions. Innovations like ActBlue and WinRed have made it easier for Americans to participate in electoral politics. And many campaigns, including presidential campaigns, are fueled largely by these small-dollar donors.”
