July 23, 2024

You know when you're doing your taxes and the form asks if you want to donate $3 to something called a presidential election fund?

Way back when, before people spent a million-bajillion dollars running for president, the federal government actually provided public financing to major-party candidates. In exchange, the campaign would agree to fundraising limits. 

The provision was created with the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act of 1966 under Democratic U.S. Sen. Russell Long — the son of the legendary Louisiana politician Huey P. Long — who was chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee at the time.

The act noted that up until then, campaigns were funded by voluntary individual donations that donors sometimes tried to illegally write off business expenses on their taxes.

Under the new law, the IRS would include a box that asked taxpayers if they wanted $1 to go to a special fund administered by the government to subsidize presidential campaigns and, later, party conventions.

Those days are long gone. Since this past weekend, $100 million has poured into Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign — a record haul that doubled the cash the Biden campaign had on hand.

Keep reading for more on campaign fundraising and the presidential election campaign fund. We'll also share how you can watch our recent conversation with the hosts of Reckon True Stories and let you know who's on this week's show.

Let's talk about it.

Million Dollar Baby

Passion Jackson has been involved in the Democratic Party since Al Gore's 2000 campaign. 

But despite living through Florida's hanging chad debacle, the swiftboating of John Kerry and Hillary's emails, she hasn't seen anything like the events of this weekend. 

"This is just new — and I'm excited about it," Jackson told Reckon. 

In about a month, Jackson, a East Texas native and current Dallas resident, will serve as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. But now with President Joe Biden's tectonic announcement over the weekend that he would end his bid for a second term to the presidency, delegates like Jackson are free to support any candidate they wish. 

For her and tens of thousands of other Black women — from elected officials to Black community leaders to anonymous social-media users — that candidate is Vice President Kamala Harris. 

"This is actually their worst-case scenario," Jackson says of the Republican Party and their slate of former President Donald Trump and his running mate U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio. "Because what can they say? She was a prosecutor, and she was tough on crime. She's also been an attorney general. It's really going to be tough for them to come back against her." 

Before Sunday, Jackson was a staunch supporter of Biden's. She cites his shepherding the passage of the $461 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill, a push to manufacture more computer chips in the U.S., expanding loans to Black-owned small businesses and clearing millions of dollars worth of student-loan debt as keystone accomplishments for the president. 

Rather than a free-for-all at the Democratic convention in August, for which some party members have expressed support, Jackson wants the party unified around a nominee in the coming weeks as well as a Harris running mate who can also bring unity to the party.

'Broken system'

In 2008, then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat, became the first presidential candidate to eschew public funding.

“The public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system,” Obama said in a video at the time, adding that the campaign of his Republican opponent, then-fellow Sen. John McCain, was fueled by "contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs ... who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations.”

A year later, the Citizens United ruling blew the lid off of campaign funding limits.

McCain, who co-authored a landmark campaign-finance law, however, did accept public financing that year and accused Obama of breaking a promise to do the same. McCain would be the last presidential candidate to accept public financing.

Of course, he went on to lose that race to Obama and passed away in 2018.

Between 1976 and 2012, the program also funded the major parties' nominating conventions. In 2014, legislation was enacted to end public funding of conventions.

Even though candidates no longer accept the public funding, it's still there if anyone decides to take advantage. 

—The law provides for a $20 million grant, adjusted for inflation every presidential election year (Federal Election Commission)

—The amount available from the fund this year is $123.5 million, which Democrats nearly raised in 24 hours (FEC)

—In 2008, the last time a major party candidate chose to accept a general election grant, the grant amount was $84.1 million (FEC)

—The 2020 cycle was the most expensive in history, topping $14 billion between. That sum includes $6.6 billion spent on the presidential race; another $2.4 billion was spent on Congressional races (Open Secrets)

—So far to date, nearly $800 million had been raised by all 2024 presidential candidates through the end of June

—With Biden dropping out, Harris is now in full control of the ticket's campaign war chest, which sat at $96 million on June 30, which of course was before all heck broke loose 72 hours ago (FEC)

—Former President Donald Trump raised $221 million by the end of the last reporting period, according to the FEC; at the time, he had $128 million in cash on hand (Open Secrets). Naturally, that was before an attempted assassination attempt in Pennsylvania and a Republican National Convention that electrified his base

—Looking at the national parties, the Democratic National Committee has out-raised Republicans $256.4 million to the RNC's $192.8 million (Open Secrets)

—The top PAC in terms of spending this cycle is Minnesota-based American Crystal Sugar Company, which has given $1.9 million — a little over $1million to Democrats and another $875,000 to Republicans (Open Secrets)

—Not surprisingly, only an itty fraction of Americans donate to political campaigns, with men giving the most. In fact, only a hair over 1% of Americans give more than $200, the threshold for itemizing donations (Open Secrets)

—Some Congressional candidates do quite well attracting contributions from small donors who give less than $200. Thirteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives raised 50% or more of all their funds from small donors (Open Secrets)

—The No. 1 recipient of small-dollar donations is Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. Of Greene's $5.6 million raised this cycle, more than 73% came from small donors (Open Secrets)

Hanif Abdurraqib joins 'True Stories'

In Episode 3 of Reckon True Stories, Deesha and Kiese welcome acclaimed writer, poet, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension.

They talk about music—the significance of music to their youth and their lives now, their listening practices, and Abdurraqib’s process of creating playlists. They also discuss basketball and what is so special, so singular, about Columbus in terms of high school basketball.

Deesha admits how she’s had to challenge her own notions of Ohio in regards to sports and to politics, and Abdurraqib talks about the joys and the frustrations of place, of community, and of notions of home.

Please rate, review and share the episode on Apple podcasts, Spotify and more.

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