I almost called BS on your statistic, but a simple Google search shows that this year's midterm elections saw spending of up to $16.7 billion [1], so it appears to be true. As a non-US citizen, the amount of money in US politics shreds my mind...what are they even spending it on? Ads? Campaign outreaches? How much do these things cost?
If it's how it is in my weird African country (Nigeria), I'll wager that most of the money is spent on advertisements and clueless campaign managers and staff enjoying the grift. But then, I understand; the U.S. is a really rich country with a high percentage of politically-active citizens, so they put their money where their mouth is.
It’s important to keep in mind how much more expensive it is to buy ads in major US media markets. It’s not difficult to spend tens of millions of dollars just buying television ads for a few weeks during campaign season.
Single ads are actually pretty cheap. Full campaigns that are designed to reduce or eliminate opportunities for your competitors to also advertise on the same station are expensive.
If it's how it is in my weird African country (Nigeria), I'll wager that most of the money is spent on advertisements and clueless campaign managers and staff enjoying the grift. But then, I understand; the U.S. is a really rich country with a high percentage of politically-active citizens, so they put their money where their mouth is.
1- https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/03/2022-midterm-election-spendi...