Wealthy, self-financing candidates are hardly shoo-ins. Michael Bloomberg (president, 2020) and Meg Whitman (CA governor 2010) are examples of plutocrats who plotzed.
Praveena Somasundaram, Clara Ence Morse and Erin Cox at WP:
Wealthy Americans have spent hundreds of millions from their fortunes in their quests to join Congress. It usually doesn’t pay off.
The most recent example came Tuesday in Maryland, when billionaire and former congressman David Trone’s record-breaking $25 million comeback bid ended in defeat in the Democratic primary. Trone, who amassed his fortune by co-founding a national alcohol retailer, has been one of the most prolific self-funders of congressional campaigns. He spent $134 million across six races over the course of a decade, winning three terms in the House but spending $101 million on contests he lost.
This year, voters gave mixed results to self-funded candidates on the ballot for state offices too. In California, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer spent $218 million on his Democratic campaign for governor but narrowly failed to advance to the general election. In Georgia, billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson won the Republican gubernatorial primary after spending more than $100 million on his campaign. the Republican gubernatorial primary after spending more than $100 million on his campaign.
Of the top 20 self-funded congressional campaigns since 2000 by spending, only four were successful, according to a Washington Post analysis of publicly available campaign finance data from OpenSecrets and the Federal Election Commission. Together, the candidates spent more than $600 million on their campaigns.