Nowhere else in the world is campaigning as expensive as in the US. Since announcing her candidacy, Kamala Harris has raised a whopping $540 million. But where does this money come from? And what are they used for?
Donald Trump is back and wants to take over the US, says Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz's latest campaign ad. With it, the Democrats send a warning to the voters against Trump and the so-called “Project 2025” - a radical plan that would give Trump more power and influence upon his return to the White House. He himself recently distanced himself from the plan so as not to alienate his voters, writes ARD.
Harris has collected 540 million
Videos of various warnings and appeals are currently flooding the important wavering states. In some of them, the so-called early voting – the preliminary submission of the votes. To fund their ads, parties need donations amounting to hundreds of millions.
For the Democrats, after the withdrawal of Joe Biden from the race for the presidency, a real avalanche of donations poured in, which poured into the coffers nearly 540 million dollars in just four weeks. In just an hour after Kamala Harris' first speech at the party forum in Chicago, where she accepted the Democratic nomination, $82 million was collected, ARD recalls.
Many private donors contribute small amounts
What is new in this case is that it is mostly about private donors who participate with small amounts. According to the “New York Times”, a third of them donated for the first time, and the large number of younger women is impressive.
Each new donation is one new voter, explains political scientist Robin Kolodny. This electoral commitment strengthens the party base, she emphasizes.
Tech billionaires prefer Harris
Large donations traditionally come in the last two months before the election. Among Trump's biggest donors, in addition to Elon Musk, for example, Tim Mellon, heir to an ultra-rich banking family from Pittsburgh. Mellon has already donated 125 million dollars to Trump's campaign, informs ARD.
And in support of Harris are quite a few technological billionaires from Silicon Valley: Reed Hoffman, co-founder of the LinkdIn network, the multi-billionaire George Soros with his son Alex, as well as the former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg.
"Personal contact is more important than TV commercials"
Electoral tours, daily appearances in different states, door-to-door campaigning and of course advertising in all forms – because the US is such a large country, the election campaign is extremely expensive, political scientist Kolodny points out. “With the money, the campaign team can also pay people who go to the homes of potential voters, send them SMS or call them. It has been established that personal contact is more important than TV ads”, explains the expert.
Although fewer and fewer people are watching conventional television in the US, Democrats have already invested $170 million in TV spots, but even more – to 200 million – in digital ads.
Lots of money are no guarantee of electoral success
In recent years, less and less money has been invested in classic television advertising, says election expert Michael Kang, quoted by ARD. Digital videos are better tailored to individual social media users.
After all, the two parties in most cases have similar amounts at their disposal, Kang summarized. According to him, financial advantage is not a guarantee of a successful election campaign. Elections are decided on the basis of other things – such as how successfully parties reach voters, how persuasive their messages are, or how well their candidate succeeds in impressing them.