Report shows how America's election campaigns gulped over N3 trillion

Monday, November 02, 2020 at 10:52 AM by Nurudeen Lawal

As Americans head to the polls on Tuesday, November 3, to elect principal political office holders, Legit.ng takes a look at the financial cost of the electioneering process so far.

PAY ATTENTION: Win a prize of N115,000, N75000 or N38000: participate in Big Naija Independence contest by Legit.ng

According to a report by MediaPost, the political campaigns by the Democrats and the Republicans across TV, radio, and digital have gulped a massive $8.15 billion.

Using the Naira-Dollar official rate by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), N379/$1, $8.15 billion is about N3.1 trillion.

To do a little comparison, Nigeria's 2021 Budget Proposal recently presented to the National Assembly is N13 trillion.

Report shows how America's election campaigns gulp over N3 trillion — Final US Presidential Debate Between President Trump And Democratic Candidate Joe Biden. Photo credit: Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Source: Getty Images

The report indicates that the Democrats spend more than the Republicans as they strive to unseat President Donald Trump and take over other major seats in the elections.

The Democrats

As at October 30, the Democrats have spent $4.6 billion in candidate campaign, party, and political action committees for all the seats they are vying for.

The Republicans

According to the report, the Republicans have spent $907 million which is about N343.7 billion.

Presidential Campaign

Presidential campaign gulps a higher percentage of the spending with a collective $2.94 billion (N1.1 trillion) for all advertising.

In this category, total Democratic presidential spending dominates at $2.16 billion (N818.6 billion) while Republican presidential spending trails at $780 million (N295.6 billion).

Senate Campaign

Collectively, Senate race political advertising spending has gulped $2 billion (N758 billion).

Democrats also lead with $1.1 billion (N416.9 billion) while Republicans have spent $870 million (N329.7 billion).

House of Representatives

Spending for House of Representatives is at $1.15 billion (N435.8 billion): $649 million (N245.9 billion) for Democratic candidates and $500 million (N189.5 billion) for Republicans.

According to MediaPost, the spending for the governorship race cost a total of $250 million (N94.7 billion).

All other political spending comes in at $1.8 million (N682 million), according to the report.