Local Campaign Spending in Nationalized Elections

• In Event: Money and Congressional Elections

Abstract

Candidates spend record sums of money in congressional elections today, but we know little about where they spend money. Does the dramatic increase in expenditures help the local economy? Or are campaign dollars instead diverted to the pockets of companies and consultants outside the district? Previous work has explored both the political geography of campaign contributions (Canes-Wrone and Miller 2021; Gimpel et al. 2008) and the allocation of expenditures across campaign activities (Limbocker and You 2020). This paper instead examines changes in the amount of local and non-local spending as campaign expenditures have soared. We analyze campaign spending by zip code among U.S. House candidates from 2004 to 2020 to show which communities benefit when campaigns spend more. We find that local spending is highest in competitive districts, but it has increased dramatically even in uncompetitive districts. The findings shed light on how the recent surge in campaign spending can be a boon to local economies. At the same time, the paper raises new questions about how the decline in competition leads to greater disparities in which communities reap the benefits of heightened spending in congressional elections.

Authors

• Alina Dunlap, Princeton University

• Danielle Thomsen, University of California, Irvine