It's the Capital Gains Tax, Stupid

In the battle for billionaire political donations, the presidential election finally turned Silicon Valley into Wall Street without the monocle.

- BOB IVRY

The hunt for campaign cash is so relentless that in order to lead the free world, the American president needs to take a break from dialing for dollars. Barack Obama thought he could get away with a respite from the fundraising back in April 2013. He'd just won reelection, and Congress was settling in for a new term. "Now, this year, we have a window," Obama said then. "We would like to see some governing done in Washington before the next election starts." Where did he say this? In San Francisco, at a $3.25 million fundraiser for House Democrats.

"He was raising campaign funds for a midterm election that would take place 19 months in the future," said Brendan J. Doherty, author of Fundraiser in Chief: Presidents and the Politics of Campaign Cash.

Eleven years after that event, the biggest changes in campaign finance have been related to volume. The total money raised as of August 21 by presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump was $1.34 billion, fast approaching the $1.4 billion that Obama and his opponent, Mitt Romney, were able to separate from supporters during the 2012 contest. It's possible that this election will yet match the record for the most money contributed to presidential campaigns ever, $4.07 billion in 2020, but if donors fall short it won't be because they ran out of money.