The megadonors and their money don’t seem to matter much. From 2016 to 2024, Democrats outspent Republicans with little effect. Yesterday, the GOP learned the same lesson.
ALEX BERENSON – 11/04/26 – his Substack (i’m a subscriber)
How much does money matter in politics?
Maybe not as much as we think.
From 2016 to 2024, Democrats outspent Republicans by $3 billion nationally, as American elections became far more expensive than they had ever been. (They also had a massive advantage in “free media,” as legacy outlets more or less openly tried to defeat Donald Trump.)
But all that cash couldn’t save Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris. In fact, as I’ve written before, the biggest reason Democrats and legacy outlets spent so much time after 2016 pointing to (nonexistent) “foreign interference” for Trump’s win was that they couldn’t blame the Koch family or other Republican donors for outspending them.
Now Republicans are seeing the limits of what spending can do for themselves.
We do not have final figures yet, but Republicans seem to have sharply outspent Democrats this year. All by himself, Elon Musk put more than $400 million into advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts for Republicans — including almost $200 million in Texas alone to support Ken Paxton.
The result? James Talarico beat Paxton by 12 percentage points.
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Of course, Texas wasn’t the only state to go blue. Last night saw a huge Democratic wave across the board. As of this moment, the Senate race in Mississippi — Mississippi! — remains undecided.
Whether you’re on the right or left, the failure of money to move the needle — in 2016, 2024, or last night — should hearten you. Americans continue to make their own decisions and change their minds as they see fit. They don’t want to be told what to do by billionaires or anyone else.
At some point, too much spending may even be counterproductive.
Whichever side you’re on, that’s good news.
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($400 million well spent)
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