Who's spending big, and where, in most expensive election cycle ever
Who's spending big, and where, in most expensive election cycle ever
- October 2, 2026
- Danielle Thomsen, political science, breaks down the details in this interview with PBS News Hour
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Spending for this year's midterms is accelerating as we get closer to Election Day. Political correspondent Lisa Desjardins makes sense of the billions spent to influence who controls Congress next year. … We talked to Danielle Thomsen, who is at UC Irvine. She just wrote a book this year called The Money Signal: How Fundraising Matters in American Politics. “Most scholars have found little evidence that campaign contributions, for example, buy lawmaker votes,” says Thomsen. “Lawmaker votes are instead a reflection of members' partisan affiliation, the preferences of their constituents, and their own personal beliefs. But scholars have found that campaign contributions can facilitate access.
Watch, listen and read, courtesy of PBS News Hour.
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