The 2024 presidential campaign was more than just strangest campaign Our country has never experienced this before. most expensive political activity In history. For this reason, democracy supporters are concerned that young people are completely losing the opportunity to run for office due to rising campaign costs.
This year’s numbers are impressive. President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris spent a combined $5.5 billion on the presidential campaign, but that spending explodes when Congressional races and outside spending are factored in. These elections will bring the total amount spent in the 2024 elections to a staggering amount. $15.9 billionThat’s nearly enough to provide every child in America with free school lunches for one year.
The cost of running for Congress is also higher than ever before, and is actually rising faster than the cost of running for president. Young Americans looking to make the leap from local political campaigns to federal office are increasingly finding themselves held back by a multimillion-dollar salary barrier.
And long-time incumbents in both parties have no problem maintaining the status quo.
It’s important to remember how much election costs have risen over the past decade. In 2013, the average person elected to the House of Representatives was $1.6 million For privilege. By 2020, prices rose to 2 million dollars. The total amount now exceeds $2.4 million. This narrows the field of local candidates to politicians with large donor networks or, more commonly, candidates with independent assets who can finance their own campaigns.
issue an alarm
This is a wake-up call for candidate recruiting organizations. run for somethingtrained and supported 191 potential winners this cycle. Los Morales Roquette, the group’s co-executive director, cited rising campaign costs as one reason why Congress is becoming increasingly out of touch with the communities it represents.
“In a system where the cost of running for office continues to rise, political power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and well-connected, and ordinary people who want to run for office and have valuable perspectives but lack the financial resources People will be sidelined,” Morales Roquette told me. “Our hope is to break down some of those barriers by showing young candidates that it’s possible to run for office without raising millions of dollars, even at the local level. is.”
It’s a concern also shared by the growing number of Millennial and Gen Z candidates running this year. Cheyenne Hunt, a 26-year-old Congressional primary campaigner in California’s 45th District, shared her frustrations with how the paid campaign system maintains the status quo.
“What deeply bothered me about this system is that there’s a reason why almost everyone in Congress looks the same, comes from the same background, and is of the same socio-economic status,” Hunt said. told Slate’s Shirin Ali. “That’s because they are in a position to easily raise money from their personal networks.”
The battle between billionaires and their money
A growing network of candidate training organizations is now working to break down these barriers, but they are struggling against record amounts of unaccountable corporate and billionaire funding.
This is especially true for efforts to involve more women in the political process. Still, some groups including she should run awayfounded in 2011, Emily listwas founded in 1985 and has established itself as a successful organizer in the field. another, make america appearoffers a wide range of candidate boot camps for women running for legislative or judicial office.
Politics has always been an exclusionary game, but never in the years since the Supreme Court’s decision has the bar been raised so high and so quickly. citizens united. Justice John Roberts’ decision to effectively unleash the floodgates of dark money into politics forever changed the contours of what it takes to get elected, making it even harder to remove long-serving incumbent politicians from power. Ta.
To return our politics to something similar to what it used to be.citizens united The times will bring bold policy changes at the federal level, but that seems unlikely in Congress, where Republican and Democratic control could flip multiple times over the next four years.
Still, Morales Roquette believes there is an opportunity for gradual change through the “expansion of the public financing system” that already exists. over 30 states and “reducing the cost of campaign tools” that modern teams rely on for nearly every aspect of running a campaign.
This is tough on America’s billionaire megadonor list, which benefits from the outsize role that campaign finance plays in building political alliances and blocking reform. Top 50 Mega Donors in the United States Donated over $2.5 billion During the 2024 cycle, that bulk of money will support Republicans by a 2-to-1 ratio.
another target
For these powerful plutocrats, less reliance on big donations and a larger constituency means a system they cannot easily control. For lawmakers responsible for campaign finance laws, a fairer election environment seems more like a threat to their jobs than a democratic necessity. In order to break through these deep-seated interests, candidate recruitment organizations are starting to operate from local offices, which are grassroots bases.
“We target down-ballot elections, where fundraising standards are often lower than high-profile federal elections,” Morales Lockett said. “These ballot positions are often more accessible to first-time candidates and can have a significant impact on their communities.” They also allow new candidates to build constituencies and ultimately It also provides the basis for a more ambitious campaign for Congress.
We have already seen the impact of generational change on the national conversation. In 2018, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise election to the House of Representatives sparked a wave of voter engagement and organizing among young people and nonwhite progressives.
In 2024, nearly one in four candidates running for Congress will be from the Millennial or Generation Z age groups. While this is just a fraction of all races held this year, it represents a consistent growth in political representation for both generations. Unfortunately, these candidates lose at a higher rate than older candidates. But their victory would give the aging Congress a real impetus for political change.
The powerful influence of generational representation
In 2022, Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost becomes the first member of the Gen Z population (although, as he revealed, it wasn’t an easy road). The 27-year-old freshman lawmaker defended gun control reform using the words of a generation scarred by regular school shootings.
Within a year, Frost authored legislation that led to the creation of the Federal Gun Violence Prevention Agency. Now, Frost’s approach has become a new national model, with 13 states adopting their own versions of the office, including Minnesota. discuss ideas.
As the Frost Gun Violence Prevention Office reminds us, small generational factors can have big effects in places like Congress. No wonder America’s richest Americans, who stand to lose the most, are actively lobbying both parties to delay action on campaign finance reform. nevertheless can Complete.
Morales Roquette urges young candidates not to lose hope. “Young people too often feel like they can’t afford the high costs, don’t have access to the funding infrastructure they need to compete, or can’t afford to take time off from work to be fully active. We are here to help all these young people.
