Outside Spending Reaches $4.2 Billion in 2024 Election -- Top 1 Percent of Super PAC Donors Provide 97 Percent of Funds (2024-11-05)

Outside spending in the 2024 federal election cycle reached a record $4.2 billion, continuing the exponential growth trajectory triggered by Citizens United v. FEC fourteen years earlier. Dark money groups increasingly routed funds through super PACs rather than reporting directly to the FEC, with nonprofits that dont disclose donors reporting less than $25 million in FEC-reported spending while spending vastly more on issue ads not triggering disclosure requirements. The top 1 percent of super PAC donors provided 97 percent of all funds, up from 77 percent in 2012, demonstrating how Citizens United had transformed American elections into a system dominated by a few hundred mega-donors.