OpenSecrets, March 2026
National party committees spent tens of millions of dollars on printing and mailing – much of which went to direct mail – during the 2024 election cycle, even as campaigns increasingly relied on digital tools to expand fundraising and voter outreach. The Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee both spent more than $43 million on printing and mailing expenses last cycle, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of federal campaign filings. The parties’ House and Senate campaign arms also invested heavily, each spending more than $18 million. Committees typically use direct mail to persuade or mobilize voters ahead of an election or to solicit donations from supporters.
Because party committees do not always use specific descriptions for expenditures in their campaign filings, it is not always possible to determine which printing and mailing costs were explicitly for direct mail. While most of that spending was certainly tied to direct mail, the totals also include other printed materials, such as campaign literature distributed by volunteers.
The DNC has steadily increased its spending on printing and mailing over the past three presidential cycles, rising from about $31.3 million in 2016 to more than $44.5 million in 2024. Over the same period, its total spending grew from $346.6 million to $686.2 million. That increase, Democratic strategist Al Freedman said, likely reflects a broader rise in political spending since 2016, as well as higher costs for materials like paper and postage.
