When it comes to presidential politics, it’s a billionaire’s world. President Donald Trump’s campaign was buoyed by a few megadonors. It might seem that America’s slide into oligarchy is inevitable, with Elon Musk capitalizing on the $288 million he spent by assuming a prominent role in the administration. But the 2024 elections in New York showed another way is possible.
The state implemented an innovative new public campaign financing program that empowered everyday people and rewarded candidates for seeking support in their communities instead of from wealthy special interests.
This reform is needed across the country, and New York’s success demonstrates why. Since 2010’s Citizens United Supreme Court decision, the influence of wealth in our elections has become ever more troubling, with the biggest donors increasingly dominating giving. In the 2024 race for the White House, donors who gave at least $5 million spent more than twice as much as they did in the prior election. In New York’s 2022 elections, the 200 biggest individual donors to candidates contributed $15.9 million, outspending some 206,000 small donors. Voters, frustrated with the role wealth plays in our politics, fear that politicians prioritize wealthy donors over the communities they are supposed to represent.
New York’s public financing program, the first such policy enacted at the state level since Citizens United, counters this status quo and ensures many more voters can have a say in influencing state elections, regardless of their means.
The program multiplies donations of $250 or less from constituents. In elections for the legislature, that means only residents of the candidate’s district. Its tiered match rewards the smallest donations the most, with a 12-to-1 ratio on contributions of less than $50. These features are designed to benefit candidates for focusing on their constituents as they fundraise and to encourage everyday New Yorkers to participate by donating. By all indications, that’s what happened in its historic first run.
The program dramatically transformed how candidates fundraised for the 2024 legislative elections, making them far more reliant on funding from small in-district donors. Those donations shot up from less than 5 percent of overall funding in recent cycles to 45 percent in 2024 when factoring in matching funds. Meanwhile, the share of candidates’ funding from wealthy individuals and entities like corporations and political action committees decreased from 70 percent or more in recent elections to 38 percent in 2024.
Small in-district donors didn’t just grow their overall influence, they also flourished in number. An estimated 50,800 New Yorkers made small-dollar in-district donations, which is roughly twice as many as in 2020 or 2022. Candidates advertised the public match in their fundraising pitches to recruit new donors in their communities. These shifts show that the program is already meeting the goal of increasing engagement between candidates and the constituents they seek to represent, rather than a wealthy few.
The program also defied skeptics who questioned the efficacy of public financing to withstand unlimited spending from super PACs seeking to influence the outcomes of races. Data from this cycle showed that public financing was a powerful tool to counter big money. Even in the contests that saw the highest levels of outside spending, publicly financed candidates were able to make their case to the voters — and often win.
It’s little wonder so many campaigns embraced the program. Most campaigns participated, including large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans as well as challengers and incumbents. These campaigns reflected the full diversity of the state: Candidates in most of the state’s legislative districts — rural, urban, and suburban alike — participated in public financing. And even those in low-income communities, where constituents may not be able to afford to give significant amounts, were able to fund competitive campaigns by engaging with in-district donors.
As the state heads into the next election cycle, candidates are already enrolling in the program. They include veterans of last year’s run, as well as candidates running in the first statewide elections to be held under the system in 2026. We expect the program’s benefits to continue to grow as more candidates and donors respond to its incentives.
With the debut of this program, New York has established itself as a national leader in addressing the distorting role of private wealth in politics. To ensure it can continue providing a viable alternative to big money in state elections, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and the legislature must continue investing in the program. That includes committing to fully funding it in the upcoming state budget.
At a time when the public’s attention is so focused on a billionaire whose path to power in the federal government was paved by sky-high spending, it’s particularly significant that constituent-focused campaign financing in New York has succeeded. Citizens United and other cases weakened a system that had banned spending like that of Musk and other megadonors. But despite the courts’ mistakes, we aren’t helpless against big money in politics. New York’s program offers a powerful alternative that can help regular Americans reclaim our democracy and ensure that our elected officials are truly accountable to the people they seek to represent.
