US Elections 2020: Who is the King Maker?
US Elections results are about to be announced! Meanwhile, we wondered, who really is the "King Maker" in the US?
Without money, nothing gets done.
To win the White House Throne, even the most deserving leaders need money more than power.
This year, in the ongoing presidential elections in the United States of America, every record on "money spent" has been broken. Any guesses on the amount?
$14,000,000,000.
Stop counting the zeroes. It is $14bn (~Rs. 1 lakh crores).
Indeed a grand amount, which is set to become the costliest election in the world, beating the previous record of “The Great Indian Election 2019” (~$8bn).
There are two major political parties in the United States: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
In order to win the elections, the political parties spend billions of US dollars. How much? Here:
Some deep pockets they got there!
It has always been a close call between the Democrats and the Republicans when election expenditure is taken into account.
But things have changed this year. This election expenditure ratio of the two parties has been very skewed. The Democrats have increased their spending by more than 3X with Republicans spending 1.5X the 2016 election expenditure.
Does it mean that spending more on elections gets you the Ultimate Throne? Financially speaking, by spending more, one should also get a higher Return on Investment.
Let’s see if that is the case:
In the last two elections, the party spending less has actually got a higher share of votes.
But just by getting a higher share of votes, a party does not reach the majority.
Check this out:
Getting more votes does not mean you get to become the President of the US (as is evident from the 2016 elections, where Democrats got more votes but significantly lesser seats in the United States Congress).
And even by getting just 7% more “vote share”, you can get more than double the seats from the opposition.
The election system in the US is very different. Just by winning in 11 or 12 States out of the 50 states and not getting the majority vote share, a political party can win the elections.
To understand more about how the US Elections function, watch this video (5 minutes).
But, there is a bigger question here.
Who on earth, even during a pandemic, is providing so much funding to these parties?
Well, here you go:
A drastic shift can be seen in funding for this election from Large Corporations, Individual Donors, and Political Action Committee (PAC) to Small Individual Donors (who donate less than $200) and Self-funding.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, women donors have also increased to 44% in 2020 elections as compared to 37% in the 2016 elections.
Where are they spending this money?
With social distance norms being followed due to the Pandemic, making on-stage campaigns difficult, the political parties have now shifted their focus to online political advertising.
According to advertising-tracking firm Advertising Analytics, more than $8 Billion has been spent on TV, radio, and digital spots. A lion’s share of this ad spends has gone to Facebook and Google (of course).
This election has made the Online Advertising “Great” Again (if nothing else).
Who's the kingmaker? You decide.
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By: Pranav Agarwal