In short · Summary by AI
This Crash Course episode explains where US campaign money comes from and where it goes, noting that about $14 billion was spent on federal campaigns in 2024. Direct contributions are capped, but independent spending by super PACs and dark money groups, enabled by Citizens United and SpeechNow.org, has grown into a major and largely unlimited funding channel. The video concludes that big donors gain influence in ways that may not serve the public, while ordinary voters can still counterbalance money through their voices and votes.
- About $14 billion was spent on federal political campaigns in 2024, but only about $4.7 billion of that came from direct campaign contributions.
- Direct contributions are capped: individuals can give up to $3,500 per candidate per election and PACs up to $5,000, with the FEC enforcing federal rules.
- The 2010 Supreme Court rulings in Citizens United v. FEC and SpeechNow.org v. FEC treated independent spending as free speech, removing limits on how much can be spent to influence elections.
- Super PACs, such as Make America Great Again Inc. and America PAC funded by Elon Musk, have no fundraising limits and accounted for about 20% of total 2024 election spending.
- 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) dark money groups, such as Heritage Action and the NRA, spent almost $2 billion in 2024 without disclosing their donors.
- Campaign money mostly goes to staff, office costs, fundraising, and above all advertising, and a congressional campaign reportedly needs at least $1 million to win.
- Donors may give out of ideology, negative partisanship, or surrogate representation, and some researchers suggest big donations shape which bills reach the agenda more than how lawmakers vote.
- The video argues that voters' voices and votes are crucial counterweights to the advantage money gives candidates.
- 0:00The Scale of Campaign Spending
- 0:43Early History of Campaign Fundraising
- 1:32Direct Contributions and Their Limits
- 2:58Independent Spending and Citizens United
- 4:27Super PACs and Their Donors
- 5:46Dark Money Groups Explained
- 7:00Where the Money Actually Goes
- 8:22Congressional Races and Campaign Costs
- 9:40Why Donors Give Money
- 11:33Influence, Access, and Democracy
- 13:37Voices and Votes as Counterweights
The Scale of Campaign Spending
0:0014 billion dollars. That's the incomprehensible amount of money that was spent on just federal political campaigns in 2024. And generally, with each passing election cycle, that number only keeps growing. But get this, most Americans don't [music] donate to political campaigns. And a whole chunk of the billions thrown around in the last election were donated by Well, we don't exactly know.
0:26So, where's all this money really coming from? And where's it actually going? Hi, I'm Kushan Avidar. This is Crash Course, and we're answering big questions on US government.
Early History of Campaign Fundraising
0:4314 billion dollars is a ton of money. And some of it comes from pretty obvious sources, like spending by the Democratic and Republican National Committees, but the rest of it has to come from a bunch of different places. Now, the last time I checked, there's no mention of campaign fundraising in the Constitution.
1:03Wait, hold on. We the people Yep, still true. In fact, when the thing was first written, the idea of a politician asking regular folks for money was seen as peak cringe. It was okay to hand out free whiskey to voters, though. It was a different time. By the mid-1800s, campaign fundraising started catching on.
1:27And pretty soon, money from wealthy donors and businesses had become big enough of a deal that over time, lawmakers began to implement some actual rules around it. Today, the way you or I might be the most familiar with financially supporting a campaign is through campaign contributions. Those are direct donations to a candidate.
Direct Contributions and Their Limits
1:48These can come from individual donors, like you and I, or by political action committees, also known as PACs. But in 1971, the Federal Election Campaign Act laid out requirements for campaigns to report all their donations. And an amendment implemented in 1974 introduced strict caps on how much and how often someone can give to individual candidates and their campaigns per election cycle.
2:19Like, did you know campaigns can't take more than $50 cash if it's given anonymously? And a single person can't give more than $3,500 to a campaign each election. Meanwhile, for PACs, contributions can't surpass $5,000. Plus, each state can set its own limits for how much you can contribute in their statewide elections.
2:45There are a lot of rules. And when it comes to federal elections, it's up to the Federal Election Commission, or FEC, to make sure they get followed. So, in 2024, out of that $14 billion spent on federal campaigns, campaign contributions only made up about $4.7 billion. But there's a whole other way to spend money on campaigns.
Independent Spending and Citizens United
3:06Independent spending. That's where, instead of giving directly to a campaign or party, donors spend as much of their own money as they'd like to boost advertising, organize rallies, or even help fund outside groups in support of a candidate. And those FEC rules don't apply. Now, it might seem like a sort of shifty loophole in the system, but the fact is it got the okay from the Supreme Court.
3:35In the 2010 case Citizens United v. FEC, the court ruled that independent spending by corporations, unions, and nonprofits counts as free speech. And later that same year, SpeechNow.org v. FEC built on that decision to include individuals, too. So, really, the only limits to how much you can spend to influence an election is how deep your pockets are.
4:01And this decision had huge consequences. Since 2010, independent spending has become a powerful, quickly growing way of putting your money into your politics, especially for corporations and nonprofits. It led to the creation of new organizations whose express purpose is to inject massive amounts of independent spending money into elections.
4:25And it's paved the way for corporations and the very wealthy to have more influence than ever on elections, while simultaneously getting around the rules that were supposed to keep donations transparent. The most common independent spending organizations are super PACs, also known as independent expenditure-only committees.
Super PACs and Their Donors
4:43These are organizations like Make America Great Again Inc., Win Senate PAC, Democracy PAC, created and funded by billionaire George Soros, and America PAC, funded by trillionaire Elon Musk. Super PACs aren't allowed to collaborate with the candidates they like or directly contribute to them, because then that would be a campaign contribution and have to follow the FEC rules.
5:07And super PACs do also report who their donors are to the FEC. But there's no limit to how much a super PAC can raise and spend. In fact, about 20% of total spending in the 2024 election came from super PACs. But hold on to your ballots, cuz we're not done here yet. There's yet another, much more secretive way that billions of dollars get poured into elections.
5:35501(c)(4)s and 501(c)(6)s. That was anticlimactic. 501(c)(4)s and 501(c)(6)s are another type of independent spending organization. Basically, they're politically active nonprofits like Heritage Action, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, or the NRA. With no limits on how much they can accept from a single donor and no requirement to reveal who gave it, which is why you also might hear them called dark money groups.
Dark Money Groups Explained
6:05Much like super PACs, groups like these aren't allowed to coordinate directly with campaigns, but they still spent almost 2 billion on the 2024 election. And while there are some suggested restrictions on dark money groups, like they aren't supposed to spend more than half their budget on political advocacy, the reality is they can get around rules like that by funding issue ads, which are meant to influence voters by advocating around certain issues that happen to align with certain candidates.
6:39And since there's no way of knowing where the money's coming from, it can be hard for viewers to decipher the perspective or motive behind the information in the ad itself. So, independent spending by super PACs and dark money groups are responsible for billions of dollars of election spending. That's a whole lot of money.
Where the Money Actually Goes
7:00And where is it actually going? Well, like I mentioned earlier, all that super PAC and dark money group cash can't go directly to candidates themselves, so that all gets funneled into independent issue ads and political outreach. But we also need to look into where exactly all those campaign contributions are going to.
7:21To find out, let's focus on congressional races with our good friend Congressperson John J. Johnson. >> Yes, sorry. I am back-to-back for the next 4 years. Just give him a quick minute. Okay. Thanks, Kusha. You look very handsome. They let you sleep, don't they? Now, when it comes to spending on congressional races, not every candidate or every race attracts the same amount of funding.
7:50The more competitive a race is, the more dollars are generally going to get spent, which makes sense. In a tight race, your money actually stands a chance of swaying the outcome. It can feel like a good investment. So, you won't find Democrats pumping millions of dollars into a congressional race in deeply Republican Idaho, where the money's unlikely to help them win.
8:12And when it comes to individual candidates, thanks to the incumbency advantage, folks who are running for re-election tend to be able to fundraise more due to name recognition and connections that come with having already done the job. Which helps explain why a whopping 90% of congress people like me who run for re-election win.
Congressional Races and Campaign Costs
8:32But once a campaign's got those benjis in the bank, what do they do with them? Well, a decent chunk of it goes toward keeping the campaign machine chugging along, paying for our staff, our office space, supplies, sending you desperate texts at all hours of the day and night. You know, stuff like that.
8:50And because elections in the US last a really long time, this can end up being a pretty significant amount. Some of it even gets spent on raising more money to help support the campaign marathon. But far and away, the biggest chunk of cash gets spent on ads telling voters why I'm the best choice or why my opponent stinks.
9:14All in all, it's estimated that you need a campaign chest of at least $1 million to win a congressional race, totally separate from independent spending, from super PACs and dark money groups. Sorry, I got to take this. Go for it, Justin. And he's gone. So, we know where campaign money goes, but you have to wonder what's actually in it for those billionaires, corporations, and special interest groups.
Why Donors Give Money
9:42These folks throwing millions of bucks at these campaigns. And are their reasons for donating different from regular voters like you and me, donating spare change toward a campaign we believe in? It's interesting. When regular people like you and me finally say, "You know what? I will put some of my hard-earned money towards this congressperson who keeps texting me."
10:04It's usually for the reasons you think. We like that candidate's vibe and we want to help them win. Although, sometimes there's some negative partisanship behind these donations, too. A strong hatred for the opposing party motivating people to support anybody running against the bad guy. And as politics become increasingly nationalized, some folks might turn to surrogate representation where they donate to a candidate who isn't even running in their area.
10:30Like when progressives in Missouri give to Bernie Sanders in Vermont or conservatives in California give to Ted Cruz in Texas. Especially when they feel like the options in their own state don't represent them. You can think of it as saying, "If you can't have my vote, at least have my money." And surrogate representation isn't just for the little guys.
10:51Sometimes those high-level spenders will also drop the big bucks in areas where they aren't actually based. But when it comes to big money donors who actually drive the election fundraising machine, the theoretical motivations are a little different and a little murkier. One possibility is that these big funders are essentially buying a candidate's support once they're in office.
11:15One theory proposes that these big donations are basically a legal bribe. I fund you, you get elected, you vote like I want you to on issues that matter to me, my corporation, or for special interest. Or in the case of Elon Musk recently, gift me my own government task force. It sounds believable, right?
Influence, Access, and Democracy
11:38But when political scientists have actually researched the issue, they haven't found strong evidence that donations actually translate directly to a yay or nay on key legislation. Although they do seem to influence which bills make it onto the agenda in the first place. So, maybe big donors aren't after buying votes per se, it's more a matter of getting a vote to happen in the first place.
12:01Putting money toward like-minded candidates is also a way to make connections around issues a donor and a candidate have in common. Like the Planned Parenthood Action Fund supporting a pro-choice candidate. It's a little like buying someone a coffee at a networking event. So, when the NRA donates to a candidate who opposes gun control, it's possible that the organization isn't really buying the candidate's support, but instead making important political connections and backing somebody who already shares
12:34their views, who will be more likely to support their organizations' interests. And once those connections are made, it makes sense for an organization to continue to fund that candidate. So, when the time comes and that successfully elected lawmaker needs to craft some new policies, they know where to turn for advice.
12:51All of these theories can be great things for the large donors themselves, but they're not necessarily in the best interest of the people. Even though that's the thing elections are supposed to be about in the first place, right? It does that. Why can't you just work? The boatloads of money it takes to win an election these days is a pretty new phenomenon.
13:18But it's not all doom and gloom for us regular people. Money is important, but it's not the only thing that makes an election go around. And while people like you and I may not have the big bucks, we have [music] two other things that are absolutely crucial when it comes to counterbalancing the advantage all those dollars can give a candidate.
Voices and Votes as Counterweights
13:40Our voices and our votes. So, why don't more people use them? We'll get into that next time on Crash Course Big Questions on US Government. This episode of Crash Course Big Questions on US Government was produced in partnership with USAFacts, a non-partisan civic tech project that makes government data easier to understand.
14:00[music] For more resources that go along with these videos, go to usafacts.org/crashcourse. Thanks for watching this episode of Crash Course Big Questions on US Government, which was filmed in Indianapolis, Indiana and was made with the help of [music] all these nice people. If you want to help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever, you can join our community on Patreon.
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