Republican billionaires are pumping hundreds of millions into keeping Republicans in control of Congress, based on the assumption that more money wins elections. However, the past three presidential elections show that simply having more money than your opponent is not enough to win.

In the 2016 race, Hillary Clinton’s total spending exceeded Donald Trump’s by more than $300 million, according to OpenSecrets’ 2016 presidential race data. Clinton spent $770 million, while Trump spent $433 million. Clinton raised more from both the candidate’s committee and outside money.

In the 2020 presidential election, total spending from these sources shows that Joe Biden outspent Trump by more than $500 million, according to Open Secrets.

Open Sources also reported, from the same two sources, that in the 2024 race, Kamala Harris’s total spending exceeded Trump’s by more than $500 million. These figures are based on FEC data released electronically on February 6, 2025.

Trump had a couple of possible advantages in 2016 and 2020. In 2016, Trump used the media so widely that OpenSecrets credited that coverage with being worth about $5 billion. That figure is unprovable, and Hillary Clinton didn’t need to establish her political philosophy.

She was well known before she ran. She had served as U.S. First Lady, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State. In 2020, Trump’s advantage was that he was the incumbent president and used public media to carry his campaign message.

Still, Trump’s image and reality were that his campaigns had more funding from the billionaire class than his Democratic opponents. The Washington Post’s FEC-based analysis through June 20 found that Republican-leaning donors gave $1.7 billion, compared with $832 million from Democratic-leaning givers.

As reported in filings available before the October reporting deadlines, 14 major billionaire donors funded Republicans, 3 funded Democrats, and one contributed to both. This was before Elon Musk donated $158 million to the main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans.

The Republicans will benefit from the billionaire class pouring money into efforts to blunt the Democratic surge in the polls. However, as we can see, even hundreds of millions more don’t help a candidate or a party unless that money taps into the........

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