Tom Steyer spent a whopping $19.2 million on TV and radio ads in New Hampshire, more than the next seven big spenders combined. Yet Steyer received a measly 10,454 votes in the New Hampshire primaries on Tuesday night, according to the Washington Post.
That means he spent about $1,837 for each vote. Apparently, you really can’t buy an election.
Tom Steyer spent $19.2 million in New Hampshire on TV and radio, per @amandawgolden, and received about 10,272 votes, per WaPo. That’s close to $1,900 spent per vote https://t.co/68tItqcrFB
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 12, 2020
The next biggest spenders were Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Andrew Yang, who dropped out of the race on Tuesday night. Sanders and Buttigieg performed best, but certainly not because they spent the most; Sanders spent $5.3 million, less than a third of what Steyer paid for advertising.
Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund manager whose claim to fame is the anti-Trump Need to Impeach campaign, has struggled to carve a niche in the crowded 2020 field. Developing electability is an art, not a science.
As Elizbaeth Warren just learned, there’s no amount of positive media coverage that can guarantee voter turnout. And, as Steyer should know, you can’t buy your way to popularity. Now, he should tell Michael Bloomberg.
