Are the very rich taking control of American politics?

The world’s richest man now sits close to the president-elect and uses his powerful social media platform, X, to opine on everything from daylight saving time to visas for skilled workers. As the new administration takes shape, the number of multimillionaires and billionaires moving to Washington is increasing. While this is good for Washington area real estate agents, is it good for democracy? Does anyone who wins 14 million dollars per day be able to appreciate the importance $1,976.00 (the average monthly Social Security payment) is intended for millions of Americans?

We are right to fear that the very rich have too much influence. It is therefore important to check whether those who are actually elected, and therefore the final decision-makers, have a life closer to that of the average American. One way to look at it is to track the number of people who ran for office and made significant contributions to their campaigns from their own pockets. To do this, we used data collected by Open Secrets count all presidential, congressional, and Senate candidates in a primary or general election who contributed $1 million or more to their campaigns from personal funds during the years 2018 through 2024. Only a very small fraction of Americans can donate that much money to a campaign; especially since the average net worth of an American is $1,063,700.

Here’s what we found:

• In total, over four election cycles from 2018 to 2024, 183 candidates contributed more than $1 million in personal money to their campaigns.
• Among them, only 33 candidates, or 18%, won their races.
• Of those who won, seven were starters.
• Among them, the majority were Republican; only 51 Democrats, or 28 percent of candidates, contributed more than $1 million to their campaigns. Republicans made up 68% of all candidates, contributing more than $1 million to their campaigns. (There were 8 independent candidates included in the total.)
• The average cost per vote varied considerably.
• Longtime presidential candidates spent the most per vote.

Table 1 presents the personal spending of Senate and Congressional candidates in three ways. Because the range of spending is wide, the median figure is lower than the average figure. So, for example, in 2024, Democratic Representative David Trone (D-MD) spent a whopping $62,771,000 on his primary campaign against Angela Alsobrooks, only to lose to her. 10% of voting in the primary. At $219 per vote, Trone’s spending was well above the median and average for 2024 congressional candidates.

While personal expenses incurred in some Senate and Congressional campaigns are high, they are far from comparable to those spent by some long-shot presidential candidates in an attempt to win their party’s presidential nomination, as illustrated by table 2. The biggest spender was North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who received so few votes before dropping out of the race that he ended up spending more than $27,000 per vote.

The fact is that most rich people who spend personal money on election campaigns lose a lot of money. Why do they do it? There are probably psychological reasons; a simple old conceit or belief that, “If I am so rich, why am I not powerful?” Some probably think they can “give back” to the country that made them so rich. Some probably have a passion for a big issue. For example, Tom Steyer had a strong conviction that we must face the threat of climate change. Others mistakenly believe that a genius in business is the same as a genius in politics. This may be the case for Donald Trump, but not for many others.

Should the failure of self-funded politicians make us feel better about the state of democracy? Only a little. Instead of running for office, many very wealthy people use their wealth to lobby, fund advocacy organizations, and avoid political accountability via dark money. And many of them form relationships with politically savvy people, which is how the richest man in the world appears to be sitting to the right of the president-elect. Will the interests of Elon Musk and Donald Trump align, and more importantly, will their policies align with the interests of voters?

In 2013, three political scientists studied the political views of more than 100 wealthy Americanswhose median wealth was $7,500,000.00. They found large differences between the political preferences of the wealthy and those of average Americans. Although wealthy individuals often have different priorities, their influence on democracy can vary depending on their ability to shape policies or political outcomes.