As we all know by now, the 2016 presidential elections will be taking place next year. That means the primary elections for the general election party nominees must be chosen soon, to begin running for the general elections just around the corner. Generally, parties start out with a wide range of candidates who wish to run on behalf of their party. Last election their were 9 candidates who ran in the Republican primaries, and were listed on at least 2 ballots. This year, there were a whopping 16 men, all prominent in their own states, who participated in the first debate of the season. Yet, an interesting candidate stood out this year. His name is Donald Trump. Seem familiar? Well, he should. Trump is a multi billionaire business mogul who owns several TV networks, such as Ms.Universe, Ms.America, and has also appeared on several other hit sitcoms like Fresh Prince of Bell-air. He is also known for his strong and controversial opinions of myriad subjects from women to immigration causing massive storms of arguments occurring on social media such as Twitter. Much like everyone of the other candidates, Trump is willing to put nearly anything on the line for this election, but he has a little bit more to offer when it comes to sheer numbers. In a recent interview at the Iowa State Fair, he told reporters that he was willing to invest a billion dollars into the election! This is nearly equivalent to the amount of money both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama spent in 2012, which included the donations from all around the country. That tells us that Trump will expend much more than just 1 billion dollars by the end of his campaigning, if he wins the primary. Notice a pattern? The amount of money being spent by candidates seems quite extravagant. This lead me to a question that may end up being evident and important for future articles on this blog. Is the amount of money that is being spent on elections gradually increasing in comparison to past elections?
To find out the answer to our first question, we have to start from the basics. To make this easier, we'll control which type of elections to be researched on. Instead of finding data from every single election occurring in each county in the US, lets just focus on general presidential elections. I've compiled a chart on the total amount of money spent each year during the elections, but only Republican and Democratic expenditures will be included because of the parties' continuity.
The chart above shows the amount of money that was spent by both the parties during the primary presidential elections from 1976 to 2012. The money in fact has increased over time, however it exponentially increased since 2000. Well, how much will be spent on this next election? The approximate that the spending has gone up by 200% in the 8 years between 2000 and 2008. Multiplying the cost in 2008 by 3, or going by the same 200% increase, the cost in 2016 should be about 3180 million dollars or 3.18 billion dollars. Yet, who knows? Math isn't always correct, so all we can do is wait and see how much it will actually be, since all of this is just alleged.
To find out the answer to our first question, we have to start from the basics. To make this easier, we'll control which type of elections to be researched on. Instead of finding data from every single election occurring in each county in the US, lets just focus on general presidential elections. I've compiled a chart on the total amount of money spent each year during the elections, but only Republican and Democratic expenditures will be included because of the parties' continuity.
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| The money is measured in millions of dollars. The trend shows us that the spending had been gradually going up with an average increase of 28 million dollars worth of expenditures per election until 2000, when the costs began dramatically increasing by nearly 100% each election. |
The chart above shows the amount of money that was spent by both the parties during the primary presidential elections from 1976 to 2012. The money in fact has increased over time, however it exponentially increased since 2000. Well, how much will be spent on this next election? The approximate that the spending has gone up by 200% in the 8 years between 2000 and 2008. Multiplying the cost in 2008 by 3, or going by the same 200% increase, the cost in 2016 should be about 3180 million dollars or 3.18 billion dollars. Yet, who knows? Math isn't always correct, so all we can do is wait and see how much it will actually be, since all of this is just alleged.
Let's be honest though. How many people actually enjoy being drowned in countless ads about why they shouldn't vote for a certain candidate and should vote for another one? Also, do candidates invest more money advertising their own strong points or their adversaries short comings more often? Well, we'll have to come back to the drawing board on that.
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