For anyone even remotely interested in US politics, the midterm elections are the only game in town at the moment. In fact, there has already been plenty of ink spilled about what a “blue wave” landslide for the Democrats might mean for Trump and Trumpism – and how likely that outcome even is.

If polling is anything to go by, prospects are looking increasingly grim for the Republicans. But I want to take a minute to point to a secondary data source which supports this – money.

The Republicans, to quote Politico, are getting completely “smoked” when it comes to fundraising for the midterms. Their candidates – in red states and blue – are raising significantly less cash than the Democrats.

This simply means the Democrats have been able to spend far more money on their campaigns than Republicans. According to the Federal Election Commission, which publishes data on fundraising and spending, candidates have spent about US$2.85 billion (£2.12 billion) in this election cycle. And the big spenders have pretty much all been Democrats.

This matters. There’s a whole lot that we don’t know about money in politics, but there’s also a decent amount we do. One thing we know, is that money matters for electoral outcomes. That doesn’t mean those that spend more money will necessarily win an election – just ask Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, both of whom raised significantly more money than Donald Trump, but still lost. But........

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