The Cheapest Congressional Victory Cost Less Than $150K

The 2022 elections became the most expensive midterms of all time, with both parties pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars to boost their candidates in key Senate and House races to win control of Congress. But not all victories required candidates to raise record-breaking funds.

Candidates in competitive unsurprisingly raised the most money, with those in safer seats and cheaper media markets not needing the same financial support to defeat their opponents Tuesday night.

Across Senate races, Republican John Hoeven, who represents North Dakota, ran the cheapest campaign, raising only $4.16 million dollars and spending $4.82 million, according to data from Open Secrets. For comparison, Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock—who was locked into a tight race early Wednesday morning—raised nearly $100 million in his reelection campaign.

North Dakota is among the most Republican-friendly states, and Democrats did not make a major play for the seat. Furthermore, the state lacks a major city, making it less expensive to run television advertisements than in more populous areas such as New York, California or Florida.

Hoeven won reelection with 56 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press (AP), defeating his Democratic opponent Katrina Christiansen by double digits. Christiansen raised only $92,623 and spent $68,178, according to the OpenSecrets data.

Across House races, Tennessee Representative Scott DesJarlais appeared to have the cheapest race. His district, which spreads across the rural, southern part of the state, is also seen as deeply conservative and he easily won reelection Tuesday night. He spent only $143,134 in the race, according to the OpenSecrets data.

DesJarlais secured 70 percent of the vote when the AP called the race, compared to the 26 percent won by his Democratic challenger Wayne Steele. Steele raised only $6,579 and spent $5,968, according to OpenSecrets data.

For comparison, several high-profile California Democratic representatives raised more than $20 million for their reelection bids. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy raised $25.5 million, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised $22.8 million, Representative Katie Porter won $22.7 million and Representative Adam Schiff won $22 million.

Chisun Lee, the director of elections and government democracy for the Brennan Center for Justice, told Newsweek the midterms saw an increased influence of a handful of "ultra-wealthy, unaccountable" donors who fund political campaigns.

"The story of money in politics in these midterms, underscores if it wasn't already glaringly obvious the urgent need for lawmakers to step up with some common sense solutions to try to rein back the financial side of our political process and bring it more in line with the representative democracy that we are supposed to be," Lee said.

She noted that the influence of big money also has a disproportionate effect on women and people of color, who for historic reasons don't have the same access to billionaire money and are "more reliant on small dollar donations for white and male counterparts."

Lee called for "greater transparency" in election laws "so these mega donors' spending can be accountable," as well as public financing of elections to allow more people better representative of their communities to have access to public office.