In the final days of the 2024 election, campaign spending is ramping up.
Already this year, more than $1.5 billion has been spent on U.S. House elections alone. Over $26.5 million has gone into Iowa, with 44% going to Democratic candidates and 52% to Republicans, according to the nonprofit OpenSecrets.
OpenSecrets is a nonpartisan organization that tracks campaign finances and lobbying, with the goal of increasing transparency around money in American politics. The following analysis is based on data collected by OpenSecrets and the Federal Election Commission as of Oct. 16.
Spending in the competitive districts is up
Iowa’s representatives in the U.S. House are back on the campaign trail, meaning money is flowing into the state from river to river. All four Republican incumbents each face a Democratic challenger, but only two races are considered competitive. The amount of money raised in the competitive districts is nearly double the amount raised in the non-competitive races.
Three out of the four Republican congressional candidates outraised their Democratic opponents so far this election cycle. Historically, incumbents tend to raise more than challengers and newcomers, so the current trend is not unexpected. But in Iowa’s 1st District, which has been labeled a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report, Democratic challenger Christina Bohannan has outraised the Republican incumbent, Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
The match-up between Miller-Meeks and Bohannan is not the pair’s first rodeo. The two went head-to-head in the 2022 midterms, where Miller-Meeks won by a six-point margin.
Over in the 3rd District, which is also considered a “toss-up” race, Republican Rep. Zach Nunn is outraising his Democratic challenger Lanon Baccam, but the numbers are close. According to OpenSecrets, Baccam is just about $400,000 behind Nunn. But unlike the first-term Republican incumbent, who recently reported having just over $1 million of cash on hand, Baccam’s campaign has roughly $277,004 remaining in its coffers.
Outside spending outweighs candidate spending
In both of these competitive races, spending by outside groups exceeds spending by the candidates’ own campaign committees.
Outside groups include political action committees (PACs), super PACs, Carey committees, nonprofits and 527 organizations. Each group is subject to different fundraising rules, including caps on contributions — though super PACs have no limit. The rules for disclosing information to the Federal Election Commission about exactly who is contributing money also vary for each group.
These outside groups are not allowed to coordinate with the candidates’ official campaign committees, but, according to OpenSecrets, they are frequently headed by former staffers, friends or family members of the candidate they are raising money for.
The majority of outside spending in Iowa this cycle has been used to attack the candidates. Take Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, where outside spending groups have spent over $4.7 million in opposition to Miller-Meeks. That’s more than twice the amount outside groups have spent in support of the Republican incumbent.
This imbalance is even greater when it comes to spending against Bohannan. She has been the target of $3.5 million in negative campaigning — roughly five-and-a-half times more than the amount spent in support of the Democrat.
Baccam has faced the greatest amount of opposition funding from outside spenders, with $5.1 million expended against the first-time candidate. Money spent in support of Baccam is just shy of $900,000.
Nunn hasn’t escaped negative spending either. Outside groups have spent $4.8 million in ads opposing the Republican.
Despite nearly equal amounts levied against the two candidates, Nunn has attracted more support from outside groups, netting roughly $1.8 million more than Baccam.
Where candidates are getting their money
The sources of funding for the candidates running in these competitive races are broken down by type of contribution by OpenSecrets.
Large Individual Contributions make up the biggest slice of donations for the Democrats running in Iowa's 1st and 3rd districts, followed by Small Individual Contributions. For the Republican candidates, PAC Contributions and Large Individual Contributions account for the top sources of funding.
According to OpenSecrets, U.S. House candidates typically receive the majority of their campaign contributions from donors within their home state. However, in Iowa’s competitive districts, all four candidates have received more from out-of-state donors than in-state donors.
Third District contributions stand out, with Nunn and Baccam both raising roughly 70% of their donations from out-of-state contributors and around 30% from Iowa donors.
Miller-Meeks has also attracted a significantly greater amount of support from outside of Iowa, with 64% of donations to her campaign coming from out of state and 36% from in state. By contrast, Bohannan is about even, with 49% of contributions coming from within Iowa and 51% from elsewhere.
Who is behind PAC money?
Finding out where all this money is coming from can be difficult to pin down. The FEC does not require full disclosure from various groups that tend to contribute the most money to elections. PACs are required to report certain information to the FEC, including other organizations connected to the PAC, and are limited by the amount of money they can take in per individual and spend per election.
OpenSecrets analyzes PAC funding by placing them into three broad categories: business interests, labor unions and ideological/single issue. In terms of overall election spending, business PACs “dominate,” according to OpenSecrets.
That holds true for the Republicans running in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd districts. Both Miller-Meeks and Nunn have received significantly more business contributions than their Democratic challengers.
Miller-Meeks is sitting at $1.65 million, while Bohannan has taken in just $35,000 from business PACs. Roughly the same disparity can be seen for Baccam, who received about $10,000 to Nunn’s $1.15 million.
Funding from ideological interest PACs comes in second for Republicans, who receive a much larger piece of the pie. For Democrats Baccam and Bohannan, ideological PACs contributed more to their campaigns than business and labor groups.
Labor PAC giving is much smaller but leans Democratic. Baccam received about $84,500 from labor PACs, while Nunn got a sliver of that — roughly $7,500. The same trend is seen in the 1st District. Bohannan collected $117,000 from labor, while Miller-Meeks got $10,000.
OpenSecrets adds a notable caveat to the data above, stating, “‘business’ contributions from individuals are based on the donor's occupation/employer. Since nearly everyone works for someone, and since union affiliation is not listed on FEC reports, totals for business are somewhat overstated, while labor is understated.”
Regardless, the data is “predominantly made up of business executives and professionals,” according to OpenSecrets.
