OPINION:
The price of a political seat has skyrocketed over the years, and according to OpenSecrets.org, the 2026 election cycle now requires candidates to be able to raise several million dollars just to make a run for office.
How can the average American compete? More to point: how can the average American even make a run for political office without becoming beholden to deep-pocketed partisans in the process?
So much for equality.
America was founded on an idea that all are created equal. But recent money-in-politics realities would suggest that some are created a little bit more equal than others.
In 2024, all congressional races’ costs came in at $9.5 billion, Open Secrets found. And it’s not as if all the seats up for grabs were statewide — meaning more voters were involved — or even highly competitive. Rep. Robert Aderholt, Alabama Republican, for instance, raised $1.5 million for his largely uncontested and safe seat — despite representing fewer than 1 million people. Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democrat, went full-court press for his reelection, raising $100 million in campaign funds.
In the end, he lost.
One hundred million dollars — to lose.
No wonder politicians don’t seem to represent the people who elect them any longer. They’re too busy representing the people who’ve paid for them to win their political offices.
It’s not just Congress.
In 2020, the Wesleyan Media Project reported historic levels spending on advertising during the general election; specifically, more than $1.5 billion went into television, digital and radio ads between April 9 and Oct. 25. The Joe Biden campaign blew $564.7 million. The Donald Trump campaign blew $426.3 million. Add in the congressional races, and that $1.5 billion soared to $15.9 billion, PBS News reported.
In 2024, it was more of the same.
“The 2024 presidential election was the second most expensive since at least 1998,” PBS wrote. In total, $5.5 billion was spent on the race by presidential candidates, political parties and independent interest groups trying to influence federal elections.”
Democrats spent about $6.7 billion in 2024.
Republicans spent about $7.6 billion.
Third-party candidates, meanwhile, spent around $500 million.
A few million here. A few billion there. The higher they go, the more dizzying the amounts become — and the more meaningless they all seem.
What’s not meaningless is the fact that politics has become a game of elites.
And when public offices become simply opportunities that are sold to the highest bidder, the public servants who hold these offices become servants to those who paid their way, not those who voted their wins. Soon enough, elections themselves become as meaningless as the dollar amounts of the money spent to elect. Soon enough, taxpayers simply become food to feed the political beast, and nothing more.
As Marina Piro with the Brennan Center for Justice said to Open Secrets: “The price of campaigning is just a very tough barrier for everyday people to overcome. … [Congress’s] members from the working class backgrounds comprise only 2 percent of Congress.”
Do the math.
It’s obvious that when it comes to today’s political elections, the system has been rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many. So much for that whole Founding Father concept of government as subservient to the people.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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