In his address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in November 1863, President Abraham Lincoln famously declared our nation’s government to be “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” We’ve had our fair share of struggles living up to that ideal over the last century and a half, especially in recent years with the growing influence of the ultra-rich in our politics. But at the end of the day, nothing will alter the central American truth that President Lincoln’s statement so beautifully captured: true power ultimately lies with the people.
Back in May, we highlighted the critical role that money plays in elections, along with the corresponding need to reform our campaign finance system. As we explained, mounting a viable campaign for office today is incredibly expensive, and candidates who spend more tend to win more often than not. In the 2020 federal election cycle, 89.1% of top-spending House candidates and 69.7% of top-spending Senate candidates ended up victorious.
However, there is still reason for optimism here. When it comes to elections, money is necessary…but it’s not sufficient. While lax campaign finance rules and legal loopholes permit wealthy donors to promote their preferred candidates and causes, it isn’t the full picture. Because while we can turn up the volume as loud as we want to on our megaphones to have our voices heard come Election Day, it’s up to the people to decide who they want to vote for.
For this week’s Closer Look, we’d like to highlight seven instances in recent years where money did not win and where the lower-spending candidate beat the odds and came out on top. These examples cover city, state, and federal-level races, and include Democrat, Republican, and Independent winners. We’ll also offer some broader reflections on the power that people have in determining the trajectory of our country.
Florida Senate Democratic Primary (August 2026)
Last month, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon pulled off an upset victory against former National Security Council officer Alex Vindman in the Florida Senate Democratic primary. Most post-race analyses have focused on what the result means for the future of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Nixon is a member. However, we are more focused on the massive spending gap between the two candidates.
By the end of July, Vindman spent $16.3 million, which was 16 times more than the $975,000 that Nixon had spent. The gap is notable because in 2024, the median senator up for re-election raised $11.1 million. It appears that the 70,000 miles Nixon traveled in her unassuming hot pink family van certainly paid off come Election Day.
New York City mayoral election (November 2025)
It’s hard to believe New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was elected not even a year ago. As you may remember, when former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo lost to then-Assemblymember Mamdani in the Democratic primary in June 2025, he entered the general election as an Independent and the race essentially came down to the two of them.
Both now-Mayor Mamdani and Cuomo participated in NYC’s public matching funds program, which restricted their campaigns’ spending to $12 million. But when you factor in the spending that outside groups made in the election, Cuomo’s spending trounced Mamdani’s. Pro-Cuomo groups spent over $55 million, including million-dollar contributions from billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, Joe Gebbia, Ronald Lauder, and Bill Ackman. Meanwhile, pro-Mamdani groups spent around $16 million.
Yet as we all now know it was Mayor Mamdani that came out on top, with historic levels of voter turnout. In the end, he spent $15.81 per vote, while Cuomo spent $65.
Wisconsin State Supreme Court election (April 2025)
In April 2025, despite being the lower spender, Democrat-backed Judge Susan Crawford beat Republican-backed Judge Brad Schimel for a seat on Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court, which secured a 4-3 liberal majority on the court. Judge Crawford’s campaign raised $28 million, while Judge Schimel’s raised $15 million, but spending by outside groups gave Schimel’s camp an edge.
State-level judicial races don’t typically get the kind of national attention this one did. But they also don’t attract the kind of spending it did, which drove the attention in the first place. $100 million was spent on this race, which set a national record for a state judicial race. None other than Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, was responsible for $25 million of that spending. When he wasn’t donning a cheesehead on a Green Bay stage, Musk was frivolously spending on things like targeted messages to voters, television advertising, and $100 offers to Wisconsinites who signed a petition opposing “activist judges”—along with $1 million checks to a few lucky “winners” of that petition.
Both parties were heavily invested in the race because the Wisconsin Supreme Court could order new congressional maps to be drawn for the state, which could then impact which party assumes control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Musk claimed he cared so much about this because it would, in his words, “affect the entire destiny of humanity.” We’re sure it’s a coincidence that Musk’s involvement came a few months after Tesla sued Wisconsin in order to allow it to open dealerships there—a case which may reach the high court.
Scandia, Minnesota mayoral race (November 2024)
Scandia, Minnesota, is a small town 25 miles north of St. Paul, with roughly 4,000 people. Its current mayor, Steve Kronmiller, won his race for mayor as an Independent back in November 2024 by spending a grand total of…$675. This was four times less than what his opponent spent.
His team consisted of himself, his wife, and his son. Their spending covered small prints with Kronmiller’s name that they handed out at community events and 40 refurbished yard signs he had used back in 1996. They did targeted text messages to voters and traditional door-to-door canvassing, and Kronmiller ultimately came out on top with a 73-vote margin.
Local elections understandably cost a lot less than state or federal-level ones, but they can still rack up sums of tens of thousands of dollars. This makes Kronmiller’s victory all the more stunning, and a testament to the name recognition he had built over the years as a longtime, active community resident and City Council member.
Oregon’s 6th congressional district Democratic primary (May 2022)
In May 2022, Democratic primary for Oregon’s sixth congressional district, then-state Rep. Andrea Salinas won by a landslide despite being massively outspent by her outsider opponent, Carrick Flynn. Outside spending groups supported Flynn to the tune of $12 million, while Salinas received just $1.5 million in outside support.
The biggest donor in the race was disgraced cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, who spent an astounding $11 million on TV ads, radio ads, and mailing and made the race the third most expensive Democratic primary of the cycle. Bankman-Fried insisted that he donated to Flynn not because of crypto, but because of Flynn’s passion for pandemic preparedness. While not as noteworthy as Bankman-Fried’s spending, in a rare move, Democrats’ House Majority PAC contributed $1 million to Flynn’s camp.
2020 Democratic presidential primary
The 2020 Democratic presidential primary feels like another lifetime ago. It was the era of Zoom rallies and socially distanced, elbow-bumping debates. Then-former Vice President Joe Biden ultimately came out on top of dozens of candidates, despite not being the highest spender.
The highest-spender award in that cycle goes to former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He spent over $1 billion of his own money on his four-month presidential campaign. No expense was spared on everything from TV ads (including a special $10 million Super Bowl ad), polling, social media, 2,400 staffers, polling, and more. He spent roughly $18 million for each of the 55 delegates he won. Tom Steyer was another self-financing billionaire in the field, but Bloomberg’s $1 billion dwarfed Steyer’s $340 million.
Just one more thing to drive home the extent of Bloomberg’s spending in 2020: his sums surpassed the combined spending of every other candidate in the Democratic presidential primary race.
Virginia’s 7th congressional district Republican primary (June 2014)
This race was twelve years ago, but it’s such a classic we couldn’t help but include it.
In the June 2014 Republican primary for Virginia’s 7th congressional district, David Brat, then a professor at Randolph-Macon College, pulled off a major upset against Rep. Eric Cantor, the then-House Majority Leader. This was the first time in history that a challenger had ousted a House Majority Leader in a primary.
Their extreme spending gap made the race such a stunning and historic upset as well. Cantor spent over $5 million in the election, which was 40 times more than the $122,700 that Brat spent. Cantor actually spent more on steakhouses for fundraisers than Brat spent on his entire campaign!
Conclusion
After Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her historic primary in 2018, she gave an interview to The New Yorker where she shared a story about her dad. When she was a child, her dad took her to Washington, DC. Gesturing towards several landmarks on Capitol Hill, he said to her, “You know, this is our government. All of this belongs to us. It belongs to you.”
That lesson is true for all of us. We talk all the time about the influence of money in elections, and until and unless our campaign finance system changes, we won’t stop. But while there are obstacles in our political system, these seven examples show how money doesn’t guarantee a win. If money was the only thing that mattered in our elections, few people outside of those wealthy enough to self-finance would bother throwing their hat in the electoral ring at all.
We have some work to do to truly be a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” But in the meantime, the Patriotic Millionaires believe we have what it takes to get there.