Virginia Campaign Spending Suggests 2024 Will Be the Most Expensive Election Cycle of All Time

Follow the money (if you can) in the Nov. 7 General Assembly elections, where campaigns and PACs are spending two, maybe three, times what they did in 2019.

Ad-tracking firm AdImpact Politics predicts 2024’s elections will be “the most expensive political cycle of all time,” with campaigns projected to spend 13 percent more than than they did in 2020, but that estimate may be conservative if spending in Virginia’s General Assembly election is an indication of what’s to come—as it often is. Dzhafarov Eduard/Shutterstock

Politicos nationwide are watching Virginia’s General Assembly elections on Nov. 7 as a bellwether for the 2024 presidential primaries, which begin three months later.

Analysts would have to sift through data after Election Day to tell what the Virginia races portend for the 2024 elections elsewhere. But one thing is certain right now: The state’s 2023 General Assembly campaign spending will double or triple the record-setting pace in 2019.