I know it must be expensive traveling around to states and paying staff, but with social media and the internet as a whole, the general public doesn’t need to see the candidates to know their policies. So unless it’s just for favorable policy down the line, why do they donate so much? Are there other expenses besides logistics, pr, and payroll?
In: Economics
The 2020 US federal elections, for example, were estimated to have used $14 billion USD for campaigning.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/election-us-2020-54696386
That’s a lot of money. Elections are just giant ad campaigns, and ads cost money. It’s not just flying the candidate and the immediate staff around to go to free events and post on twitter for free. There’s TV ads. Internet ads. Billboards. Campaign signs all over roads.
Now, could you run without a giant advertising budget? Yes, but you’ll probably lose to someone spending billions. But what if it’s a 2 party system, surely the people already know without ads? Sure, but people already know what Coke is. Do you think Coke spends money on ads because for the fun of it? No, it works. Even if people already know who you are.
Now, do any candidates have the money to fund this ad campaign themselves? Well, sure, some might. But most don’t, most can only run (competively in the ad arms race) on donations. And companies have deep pockets to donate to candidates or parties they like the plans of, and hope they turn into policies. And there’s definitely no wink wink going on, the donations clearly have NO bribe based impact on the policies themselves. And when they hedge their bet with support to all sides, it’s just because they love democracy.
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