Guest Post by Joe Hoft
According to campaign finance reporting through May 2016 by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump has now spent more than $55 million on his campaign. Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have spent $174 million and $202 million, respectively, or more than $376 million combined. Trump’s expenditures are 27% of Sanders’ expenditures and 32% of Clinton’s.
Republican contenders Senator Ted Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson, Senator Marco Rubio and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush spent $80 million, $61 million, $45 million and $34 million, respectively, on their failed campaigns.
Trump has 1,168 delegates to date. Cruz has 574, Carson 7, Rubio 168 and Bush 4. Trump spent $47k per delegate. Cruz spent $139k per delegate. Carson spent $8.7 million per delegate. Rubio spent $268k per delegate. And, Bush spent $8.5 million per delegate.
Based on this data, Trump spent less than 1% that of Bush per delegate.
The Democrats have more delegates than Republicans, including what are referred to as “super delegates”. Clinton gathered 2,276 delegates to Sanders’ 1,541. Based on this, Clinton spent 76k per delegate and Sanders spent $131k per candidate.
There are a total of 4,765 Democrat delegates and 2,472 Republican delegates, for almost a 2 to 1 ratio in delegates (1.93). Based on this, using the Republican delegate count, Clinton has spent $147k per delegate and Sanders $253k per delegate won.
Of the top seven spending candidates, Trump is the only candidate to spend less than $139k per delegate ($47k).
Trump loaned himself more than $43 million of his own money for his campaign. No other candidate has come close to providing this kind of money for their own campaign. The Trump movement is a great example of capitalism. Because Trump spent his own money he is more cautious in how he spends it and has achieved much better results.
Sanders and Clinton raised $208 million and $204 million, respectively to date, totaling more than $416 million. Most of this was spent as noted above.
The Democrat’s contributions have not come without controversy. Sanders complained in April that Clinton benefited illegally from a joint fundraising committee known as the Hillary Victory Fund. This fund received several individual contributions in amounts as high as $353,400 or more, which is over 130 times the $2,700 limit that applies for contributions to Secretary Clinton’s campaign. (We’ll see if anything is ever done about this.)
No such controversy exists on the Republican side since Trump’s receipts to date were from himself. Trump did not receive fair recognition from the press for funding his own campaign to date.
Trump beat 16 solid Republican candidates while spending less and supporting his own campaign. He did this with millions in negative advertisements spent against him. Trump is leading the race because his positions on fair trade, immigration and standing up to radical Islam, to name a few, are resonating with Americans.
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