Let’s face it; you need money to win political campaign at a local, state, and national level. Almost 99% of the time you will win the election if you have more money than your opponent. BUT that usually only works if you raised that money from individuals, political groups, companies, ect. Candidates that use their own money to support their campaign end up losing the election and all their money.

For instance, Ross Perot spent an estimated 65.4 million dollars campaigning in only 16 states. If he would have campaigned through the whole election, he could have spent nearly 205 million dollars on a losing election! That is almost 1/5 of the amount of money raised by both George W, and Kerry in 2004. *remember that is 205 million in 1992, which would be much more in today’s dollars*

Why is investing in your own election almost a guaranteed loss? Think about it. If you aren’t raising money the traditional way, you aren’t meeting voters. Voters are the ones that will put you in office. Trust me if someone donates money to your campaign you’re guaranteed that vote. So you just killed two birds with one stone. When you become your number one supporter you are bound to lose. In Georgia, the past two gubernatorial elections had candidates that used their own money or family money and lost (That word is so weird to me. You would think its “governatorial” and not “gubernatorial.” Just something to think about) I’m predicting a loss for Mark Taylor which will make it two.

A lot of candidates running in the upcoming elections still aren’t learning from the past. This article highlights just a few people that have decided to use their own money to support their losing election. If you plan to run for political office someday (like I do), raise money the traditional way. Worst possible outcome is you lose the election, and not your retirement money!