In 2024, spending on federal elections totaled almost US$15 billion in the United States. The United Kingdom, in contrast, spent approximately $129 million on its 2024 parliamentary elections – less than 1% of 2024 U.S. spending – despite having a population one-fifth the size of the U.S.
Indeed, most other democratic countries spend only a fraction of what the U.S. does on their respective elections.
Why do U.S. elections cost so much?
Many people may attribute the blame to Citizens United v. FEC, the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down corporate spending limits in elections.
The national equivalent of starting smoking.
And here we are, 50 years later, and the US is on its deathbed, riddled with cancer.
And as it lays dying, its most greedy and loathsome children are ransacking the house, stealing everything they can get their grubby little paws on.