US election candidates broke fundraising records, totaling $15.9 billion, according to OpenSecrets, which compiled the data.

This total concerns both the candidates in the presidential elections, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, as well as those who are running for seats in both houses of Congress. The amount breaks the previous record, which was set in 2020 and was $15.1 billion.

It is also more than double what was talked about in 2016 ($6.5 billion).

In the race for the White House, Vice President Harris raised the most, over $1 billion, with small donors contributing over 40 percent. Added to this is $586 million from committee policies that support it.

Her Republican opponent’s campaign raised $382 million, with 28% coming from small donations. His support committees raised $694 million.

Timothy Mellon largest Republican donor

The top campaign donor was banker Timothy Mellon, 81, who gave $197m to Republican candidates, including Mr Trump.

On the flip side, Michael Bloomberg was the top donor, reaching $93 million, while George Soros provided $56 million through his own support committee.

Most of the amount, $10.5 billion, was spent on political advertising campaigns. In total, the campaigns of Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris spent $2.6 billion on ads from March to Nov. 1: $1.6 billion for the Democrat, $993 million for the Republican.

The messages presented by Mrs. Harris mainly concerned taxes, the right to abortion, more broadly health and the economy. Mr. Trump has focused his messages on immigration, inflation, crime, taxes and the economy.

Among the key states, it was Pennsylvania where the two rivals concentrated their spending, followed by Michigan and Georgia.

Although Americans are spending more and more time online, social networking sites only accounted for 17% of the two presidential candidates’ spending on advertising.

Democrats spent $132.4 million on Meta sites (Facebook and Instagram), compared to $24.7 million for Republicans. The opposite is true on X (formerly Twitter), with Republicans spending $1.1 million, compared to just $150,000 for Democrats, according to ad industry body AdImpact.