President Donald Trump lit $351 million on fire after spending big to back Republican candidates who ultimately lost last week, according to a staggering report by MS NOW’s economic analyst.
The network’s numbers guru Steve Rattner says this year’s midterms prove “money isn’t everything in politics,” as Republicans’ big fundraising advantage netted them barely any wins in swing states and districts.
“People talk a lot about money, and I’ve always said, money isn’t everything in politics, and I think this election proves it as much as any I’ve seen,” he said on Morning Joe on Thursday.
Rattner then broke down a chart showing Republicans’ big spending, including by Trump’s top PAC, MAGA Inc., which includes the hundreds of millions pumped into the race by Elon Musk. Rattner says the world’s richest man gave more himself than Democratic PACs raised in total.
“So you can see here that in general the Republicans did much better than the Democrats in terms of money raised, roughly twice as much,” he said, pointing to a chart.
Rattner said the president’s own political operation burned through $351 million. However, his chart said the total amount Trump allies spent on races Republicans ultimately lost was a staggering $1.5 billion all-in.
Steve Rattner says Republicans spent a staggering $1.5 billion on races that they ultimately lost. The sliver of red represents the races that Republicans spent money on and won. The light pink represents races where Republicans spent money but ultimately lost.
The analyst’s chart displayed a colored overlay showing a vast swath of light pink, representing unsuccessful Republican efforts, and only a small strip of red representing Republican victories in races where they spent money.
“This is the only place where they won a couple of races,” Rattner said, referring to the sliver of red on the chart. “So all this money, as you say, was burned because they didn’t win any races for all that money.”
Rattner’s chart showed Democrats won the overwhelming majority of the races its party-aligned PACs spent money on. That aligns with election results, as Democrats won every battleground Senate race, even in historically ruby-red states. Among the races where both sides spent big money were Georgia, Maine, Iowa, North Carolina, Michigan, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas.
Democrats also pulled off two shock upsets in the South, flipping Republican seats in South Carolina and Mississippi, neither of which had elected a Democratic senator in the 21st century before these midterms.
Things are still too close to call in Alaska, but the Democrat Mary Peltola is leading there, too.
If Peltola ultimately prevails, Democrats will enjoy a Senate majority of 56-44—a comfortable advantage that would have seemed impossible just a year ago, when Republicans were favored to hold on to an outright Senate majority.
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