Republicans focused on fundraising – particularly fundraising consultants – during the 2022 election, while Democrats poured more money into staff salaries and media, a new OpenSecrets analysis found.
Candidates, party committees, leadership PACs and joint fundraising committees spent over $4 billion through Sept. 30, the period covered in this analysis. That total jumped to $4.8 billion by Oct. 19, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of pre-general reports.
Fundraising was by far the biggest difference between parties’ federal spending during the 2022 election cycle. That includes expenditures on data, events, mailings, calls, consultants and other fees related to fundraising.
Democratic candidates and party committees outraised their GOP counterparts by a combined $393.1 million through Oct. 19, but Republicans spent nearly twice as much money on 2022 election cycle fundraising efforts.
Republican candidates, party committees, leadership PACs and joint fundraising committees spent more than $526.8 million on fundraising and brought in a combined $2.6 billion – about $1 for every $5 raised. Democrats spent $216.1 million to bring in around $3 billion. That’s about $1 for every $14 raised.
Republicans, who spent less money overall on staff wages and salaries, poured almost twice as much money into fundraising consultants as Democrats during the 2022 election cycle.
Over $186.2 million of the total spent by GOP campaigns during the 2022 election cycle went to fundraising consultants, while Democrats paid fundraising consultants a collective $90.6 million. That’s 8.7% and 4.8% of the total spent by Republicans and Democrats, respectively.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) spent $16 million on fundraising during the 2022 election cycle, over 72% of the $22 million his campaign spent through Sept. 30. Around $8.6 million alone went to fundraising consultants, an OpenSecrets analysis found – with the caveat that the McCarthy campaign also spent more money than the average Republican campaign on staff wages and salaries.
McCarthy is poised to be the next speaker of the House, although Republicans are far from unified. The speaker is reportedly courting both moderates and far-right members of his party.
Just four campaigns with spending topping $1 million during the 2022 election cycle spent over half of that on fundraising consultants, an OpenSecrets analysis found. All of them were Republicans – Sens. Joni Ernst (R–Iowa) and Bill Hagerty (R–Tenn.), Rep. Jackie Walorski (R–Ind.), who died in a car crash on Aug. 3, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.)
McConnell is not up for reelection until 2026. In the off years, campaigns typically focus on raising money for reelection bids. The minority leader also fundraises for the rest of his caucus.
An overwhelming majority of the money McConnell’s campaign spent during the 2022 election cycle went to fundraising. Of the $4.8 million McConnell’s campaign spent over the 2022 election cycle, nearly 76% went to fundraising consultants.
The McConnell and McCarthy campaigns did not return requests for comment.
Democrats spent more on staff salaries and wages, Republicans hire fundraising consultants
Democratic candidates, committees and leadership PACs also spent far more money on wages than Republicans.
Overall, Democrats spent about 14.7 % – or $278.3 million – of the money they raised on wages and salaries. Republicans spent $169.8 million, 8% of total GOP candidate, committee and leadership PAC spending.
When looking only at campaigns, just 3.6% of all the money Republicans spent went to wages and salaries compared to 10.5% of the money spent by all Democratic campaigns.
The staffers of Democratic campaigns and party committees pushed to unionize during the 2022 election cycle. Staffers at the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have formed unions recognized by committee leadership.
Republicans were skeptical of the push by Democratic staffers to unionize, with one former GOP official telling Insider that unionizing was a “nonstarter.”
“Republicans are looking at what Democrats are doing and scratching their heads,” Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee communications director and founder of the communications firm Douglas Media, told Insider. “It seems to be not compatible with the realities of political campaigns.”
Republican candidates, committees and leadership PACs did spend more money on consultants, employees they would not have to pay for benefits or payroll tax on. Strategy consultants are often classified as independent contractors rather than employees to avoid paying certain Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Republicans spent $93.4 million on campaign strategy and communications consulting through Sept. 30 and another $13.5 million on media consulting. Democrats paid $57.2 million and $8 million for these types of consultants, respectively.
Democrats devoted 40% of their spending to media
Democratic campaigns and party committees reported spending about $78.3 million more on web ads, the primary vehicle to solicit small individual contributions to these online fundraising platforms, to the Federal Election Commission than Republicans. Democrats also reported raising more money from individual contributions of less than $200, bringing in a combined $445.4 million to $331 million by Republican candidates and party committees.
Nearly $1.9 billion of Democrats’ fundraising total came in through the online fundraising conduit ActBlue, while the Republican online fundraising platform WinRed brought in just over $1 billion through Oct. 19. WinRed struggled with online fundraising during the second quarter of 2022, the New York Times reported, bringing in 12% less money from the first to the second quarter while ActBlue contributions jumped 21% for the same period.
Overall, Democratic candidates, committees and leadership PACs reported pouring more money into media – including web ads, broadcast ads, print ads, media production and consulting – during the 2022 election cycle than their Republican counterparts. But for party committees specifically, total spending on media was about even between Republicans and Democrats.
More than 29% of the total spent by the GOP went toward media through Sept. 30, according to OpenSecrets data. Democrats devoted 40% of their spending to media.
Incumbent Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D–Va.), who won reelection in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District by a razor-thin margin in what the Cook Political Report rated a toss-up, spent more than 80% of her campaign’s cash on media. That money went overwhelmingly to broadcast ads, according to OpenSecrets data, and another 13.6% went to web ads.
Spanberger’s campaign did not return requests for comment.
Committees Researcher Andrew Mayersohn contributed to this report.
source
Source: OpenSecrets.org
