Outside Spending
Independent expenditures in presidential cycles — outside money, before and after Citizens United.
| Year | Outside Spending |
|---|---|
| 2008 | $0.42B |
| 2012 | $1.24B |
| 2016 | $1.64B |
| 2020 | $3.26B |
| 2024 | $4.43B |
Hover the line to read any month. Drag across the chart to zoom; double-click to reset.
Source: fec · schedule_e · series · Nov 2008 to Nov 2024 · latest-revised
Refreshed Jun 24, 2026 from fec. May be delayed: our daily refresh has not run in the last few days.
Independent expenditures in presidential cycles — outside money, before and after Citizens United.
Total independent expenditures (outside spending) in U.S. presidential election cycles, summed from FEC Schedule E.
Source: fec · Nov 2024 · Full lesson → Learn
About the bands. Shaded spans are NBER-dated US recessions, drawn as factual overlays. They mark when the economy contracted, not why. Lining an event up with a move is not evidence it caused the move.
Read across
No single number is the economy. These measure nearby parts of it — add one to compare, or open it on its own.
- Top Marginal Tax Rate The top statutory tax rate, the policy side of the same domain.
- Wealth Share, Top 0.1% Where wealth concentrates at the very top.
- Corporate Profits (% of GDP) The share of output taken as corporate profit.