Big Money’s Tiny Impact on the Presidential Campaign

This was supposed to be a great year to buy an election. Thanks to recent court rulings, after all, billionaires are allowed to spend freely to elect their chosen candidate. But so far, money has not seemed to matter. As the numbers reveal, there is little correlation between independent ad spending (which often comes from super PACs and special-interest groups) and primary results, especially for Donald Trump.

–MICHAEL SCHERER

[This article contains a table. Please see your hard copy.]

PRIMARY AND CAUCUS WINS MONEY FOR MONEY AGAINST ($ IN MILLIONS) TRUMP 18 $0.23 $35.7 CLINTON 18 9.3 3.3 SANDERS 9 2.2 0.06 CRUZ 8 13.8 7.2 RUBIO 3 39.7 8.3 KASICH 1 12.9 2.8 BUSH 0 78.4 3.2 CHRISTIE 0 17.9 3.6 CARSON 0 3.7 0.01

SOURCE: CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS