US mid-term elections estimated to cost 5.2 billion USD
(VOVWORLD) -US voters will cast their ballots in the mid-term elections and the election results will decide whether the Republican Party will continue its control of both houses of Congress. The elections are also considered a referendum on President Donald Trump. Political parties have poured money in campaigns.
 Preparations for an election in the US (Photo: AP) |
The mid-term elections are projected to cost 5.2 billion USD, the most expensive in US history. Democrats are projected to spend around 2.5 billion USD, Republicans 2.2 billion USD, and third party candidates 460 million USD.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics think tank, there has been no midterm election whose expenditure exceeded 4.2 billion USD.
The Federal Election Commission’s data shows that many funds have broken record, including a fund for a Democrat candidate running for a Senate seat in Texas which has amounted to 38 million USD. The race between Democrat Senator Bill Nelson and Florida Governor Rick Scott for a seat in Florida’s Senate cost nearly 80 million USD, the most expensive in the history of Senate election. Costs of campaigning for seats in Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, and Wisconsin are 50 million USD for each state.
Most money is spent on image advertisement. Two weeks before Election Day, the Democratic Party spent nearly 150 million USD on TV advertisement for candidates to House of Representatives, while the spending of Republicans for this was 86 million USD.
The Democratic Party is projected to spend 300 million USD more than the Republican Party for election campaigns. For the first time in 10 years, the Democrats’ spending on congress election will be higher than of the Republicans.
Political analysts say money is important to US elections. A majority of candidates who spend the largest amount of money will win. This has been true to all House of Representatives’ elections, except for one election in 2010, since the beginning of the 21st century.