Everybody knows that huge amounts of campaign donations are collected to finance our long, complex presidential campaigns. Estimates from several sites have predicted that the current election cycle will cost between four and five billion dollars before all is said and done.
That’s about four times the gross national product of Somalia.
So how much money has each candidate raised so far? How much of it came from individual contributions? How much came through various PACs and Super PACs?
We also wondered how each candidate inspired donations. What were their approaches to shaking billions of dollars out of people?
It turns out that there is a LOT of information out there about campaign donations. The Federal Election Commission website has every penny received and spent recorded for every candidate. Some sites, like OpenSecrets.org, have summaries of the data. There are, in fact, very real differences between the candidates on this question.
Unsurprisingly, Hillary Clinton has received the highest amount of money of any of the candidates, pulling in a whopping $159,903,128 so far. Bernie Sanders follows her closely with $139,810,208. Cruz is a distant third with a mere $66,547,756. And Trump is way in the back, having raised only $34,740,678.
What kind of donations were these? It turns out that Clinton received 28% of her money from PACs and super PACs, which can give as much money as they’d like without having to disclose exactly who it’s coming from. Cruz got nearly 45% of his money from PACs. Trump got 6% of the small amount that has been donated to him, but its important to remember that the billionaire has often vowed that his campaign would be entirely self-funded.
And then we have Bernie Sanders, who loudly denounces PAC money. He took in less than 1/2 of 1% of his money from PACs. So 99% of the staggering amount of money that has come to the Sanders campaign has come through direct, individual donations.
Finally, we wanted to find out just how the candidates and PAC’s went about asking for all this money. What exactly did they offer in return for the money?
At the start of his campaign, Cruz created a group of “founders” by asking the power elite to donate $500,000. These friends were told to solicit money to “bundle” into the larger amount. In return, Cruz offered dinners, meetings, and a “donor retreat”. He also held social events where donors gave up to $2,700 for a chance to meet him.
Hillary Clinton has the support of many famous people who have certainly helped her to raise money. There will be a dinner at George Clooney’s house with a price tag of $33,400. The actor is also hosting a dinner where couples will pay $353,400 for two seats at the table with the Clintons.
And back we come to Bernie. Sanders’ supporters give an average of $27 per donation. I researched events where Bernie had dinner with donors, but all I could find was a dinner where supporters got together to watch a debate, donation optional. And I found a place to donate the cost of one dinner to Bernie.
I also found a group that offered a potluck dinner “With the 99%.” Notice that it says “For Bernie,” not “With Bernie.” There was no promise of celebrity elbow rubbing, special access or private meetings.
It seems that there is, in fact, a whole lot of difference between the candidates when it comes to looking for money.
Featured image by Michael Vadon via Flickr. Available through a Creative Commons License 2.0.
