Date of Award
4-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Patrick Donnay
Abstract
Although campaign spending has always been prevalent in American political society, the aftermath of decisions like Citizens United has led to higher amounts of election spending than ever before. But does spending have an observable effect on the outcome of elections? This paper evaluates the effect of campaign spending on winning an election using data from the 2020 House election cycle. The data I used consists of every House election from 2020, with seats ranked on a competitiveness scale from “safe Republican/Democrat” to “toss-up” (as categorized by 270ToWin), as well as recording incumbent or challenger victories, and the amount of money the winner and runner-up spent during their respective campaigns (taken from OpenSecrets). I also analyze whether campaign spending has a party bias. The preliminary results illustrate high statistical significance between election competitiveness and an increase in campaign spending.
Recommended Citation
Matise, Jake, "Does Money Matter in House Elections?" (2023). Political Science Theses and Capstones. 10.
https://pines.bemidjistate.edu/capstone-polisci/10
