What Are the Biggest Campaigning Costs?

A look at spending in past House of Delegates elections shows which campaigning costs take up the most of candidates' budgets. Spending on TV advertising has grown dramatically since 2017 to become the largest category, followed by more modest increases in staff/consulting. The past twenty years have also highlighted changes in the media landscape, with the rise in digital spending and the decline in newspaper advertising.

This chart focuses on expenses related to "Campaigning," which account for ~70% of candidate spending. See the notes at the bottom of the page for more details.

Notes: Includes Schedule D expenditures reported by the candidate committees of Virginia House of Delegates candidates who ran in regular primary or general elections from 2001 to 2023. Expenditures are aggregated into two-year election cycles ending in the year of the election. Does not include spending by other PACs or candidate committees.

VPAP reviews the description of expenditures reported by campaigns and classifies them according to our own coding system. This visual only includes expenditures that fall under the "Campaigning" category, which includes expenses directly to voter outreach, advertising, fundraising, and other campaigning activities. These "Campaigning" expenses average ~70% of total spending per election.

Other expenditures are not included, such as "Political Contributions", with an average of ~22% of spending per election. That includes donations to other candidates, political party committees, and political advocacy groups. Also excluded are office expenses, miscellaneous items, and undetermined expenses, which together make up the remaining ~9% of spending by House candidates.

Sources: Spending from campaign finance reports filed with the Virginia Dept. of Elections. Spending categories from VPAP research.