The 2020 election has generated a record $13.3 billion in federal campaign contributions, funding a barrage of political advertising that strategists say risks blurring candidate messaging.
The unprecedented outpouring of campaign cash raised through Sept. 28 is more than 75% above what was donated during the same period in the 2016 election, according to a cumulative total of disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. It comes amid a high-stakes fight for control of the White House and the Senate that has been intensified by the battle over the replacement of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Support for and opposition to President Donald Trump is driving both small-dollar donors enabled by the internet and big donors empowered through a largely deregulated campaign finance system, said Sarah Bryner, a campaign finance researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics. The donors seem unfazed by the pandemic and economic downturn, Bryner said in a phone interview.