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By the Numbers: 15 Years of Citizens United • OpenSecrets [1]
['David Meyers', 'Andrew Mayersohn']
Date: 2025-01-23 18:00:06+00:00
Fifteen years ago, the role of money in politics changed dramatically. On Jan. 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Since then, election spending has reached unprecedented heights and, meanwhile, the public has less and less insight into the sources of that money.
On this 15th anniversary of Citizens United, we wanted to take a look at the last decade and a half — and the numbers that tell a story.
A brief history
For those who might like a refresher, two court decisions in 2010 drastically shaped money’s role in politics today.
First, the Citizens United decision paved the way for corporations, unions, nonprofits and individuals to spend unlimited sums of money on elections. The ruling overturned a section of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that explicitly prohibited independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. A subsequent Supreme Court decision in 2010, SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission, ruled that under the precedent of Citizens United, limits on contributions to independent expenditure committees were not constitutional.
While donations to campaign committees (e.g. “Jonas Smith for President”) remained limited, and prohibited for corporations and unions, the SpeechNow decision allowed unlimited contributions for independent political expenditures (like advertisements), as long as there was no coordination with campaigns. This opened the door for the formation of the super PAC, a type of committee that could now accept unlimited contributions to spend on political activity. Super PACs very quickly became the primary vehicle for outside spending in federal elections.
The true impact of these two decisions can be chronicled in our data covering the last 15 years.
Diving into the data
Outside spending over the years
During the 2008 election cycle, the last presidential campaign before the floodgates opened, outside spending totaled $574 million. Four years later, in 2012, that amount more than doubled — to nearly $1.3 billion. By 2020, outside spending reached $3.3 billion and came close to $4.5 billion in 2024. Most of that money was spent by super PACs.
In 2010, super PACs spent $62.6 million. Two years later, in the first presidential election cycle following Citizens United, super PACs and hybrid PACs spent $622.7 million. Spending by those organizations surpassed $4.1 billion in 2024.
Wealthy Individuals — An Outsized Influence
As outside spending and super PAC money has skyrocketed over the past 15 years, so has the influence of wealthy individuals. In 2008, before Citizens United, the top 100 individual donors contributed an aggregate $80.9 million, accounting for 1.5 percent of the $5.3 billion spent on federal elections. Their share climbed sharply through 2016 and has since settled in the 14 percent to 16 percent range of overall money spent on federal elections.
Just as the top 100 donors have taken on a larger role in funding elections, the dollar totals at the top of the list have grown exponentially. The biggest donors in 2010 were Robert and Doylene Perry, who gave $7.6 million. That total would just make it into the top 70 in 2024, when everyone in the top 10 gave at least $42.3 million, with Elon Musk leading the way at $280 million. Michael Bloomberg was the only member of the top 10 in 2010 who remained there in 2024.
The impact of dark money
Not all funding sources are disclosed. Politically active nonprofit organizations known as 501(c)(4) groups are not required to disclose their donors — and they can give unlimited sums to super PACs. So, although super PACs must disclose their donors, if one of the disclosed donors is a 501(c)(4) group, knowing the true origin of those funds is unknown. Those 501(c)(4) groups that decline to reveal their donors are known as “dark money” groups, and when they provide funding to super PACs, they hide the identity of super PAC donors.
Through 2018, dark money contributions and direct spending were fairly steady, peaking at $359 million in 2012. But since then it has become a significantly more important element of elections, jumping to $734 million in 2020 and $1.4 billion in 2024 (pending year-end reports).
Barring the unlikely enactment of new laws governing limits on campaign donations and disclosure of those contributions, elections are only going to become more expensive and less transparent.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2025/01/by-the-numbers-15-years-of-citizens-united/
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