Super PAC Spending in Congressional Elections

• In Event: Elections and Campaign Spending in Legislative Politics

Abstract

Independent expenditures in Congressional campaigns expanded to more than $500 million in the 2018 election cycle. In some cases, more money was spent by independent expenditure groups, led by Super PACs, than was spent by the candidates and their respective campaigns. However, the distribution of Super PAC spending varies widely as some congressional races see little to no outside money. What explains the variation in campaign spending by outside organizations? Very little work has investigated how this relatively new feature of congressional campaigns fits into the framework of campaign contributions. Are Super PACs motivated by influence and access-as ample evidence suggests traditional PACs are? Or are they motivated by partisan teamsmanship and ideological concerns as previous research suggests individual donors are? In this paper I investigate the predictors of independent expenditure spending in congressional races using a comprehensive dataset of independent expenditures by Super PACs, 527 and 501 (c) organizations from 2010 to 2018. In doing so, I show that Super PAC donations look very different from traditional PACs. Rather, their motives and donation behavior more closely resemble the donations of the most ideologically motivated individual donors. These donation patterns suggest that Super PAC donations, like individual contributions, are a contributing factor to the rise in ideological polarization we have observed in Congressional candidates.

Author

• Michael Barber, Brigham Young University