Our recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses campaign finance.
Congressional candidates poured about $300 million of their own money into self-funding campaigns in the 2022 midterm election cycle but few ultimately won their races, a new OpenSecrets analysis found.
According to year-end disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission, the majority of the self-funding candidates were Republicans, investing around $211 million of their own money into the contest. Democratic candidates, on the other hand, self-funded $86 million.
Self-financing made up 8% of the record $3.6 billion of total campaign funds raised by federal candidates during the 2022 election cycle.
Self-funding candidates were some of the biggest losers this election cycle, with only two out of the top 10 self-funding candidates pulling through a win. Both winners were House candidates, while the eight who lost ran for Senate seats.
Physician and TV personality Mehmet Oz, who ran for Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican, poured more money into self-funding than any other federal candidate in the last election cycle. Oz poured in about $26.8 million of his money in his unsuccessful Senate bid, accounting for over half what he raised overall. His Democratic opponent in the closely watched Pennsylvania race, now-Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), raised more than Oz at around $75 million, all of which came from PACs and individual donors.
