Megan Wingfield stood at a gas station counter in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She peeled small bills apart one by one and said sorry to the clerk. The stack came to $23. That bought half a tank for her 2013 Jeep, enough to reach her own campaign event that night. She's 32 and a first-time candidate for Congress. She recently pawned her power tools to make ends meet.
Her headquarters is a corner of a one-bedroom apartment. Two dogs and a cat share it. There's a ring light for social-media videos. The laptop sits on a raccoon trap. She works from a camping chair. The Journal's Joshua Chaffin and Anthony DeBarros told her story on the front page of Monday, Nov. 2, along with two other long shots. Their point is simple. No midterm cycle has ever cost more. Candidates and their backers have spent nearly $12 billion, by the ad tracker AdImpact's count. Almost none of it reaches people like Wingfield.
What a shoestring budget looks like
In southern New Jersey, Damon Galdo, 45, a contractor, is running against a long-time incumbent. He could afford one billboard. It cost $2,100. His headquarters is the man cave in his house. He has raised just over $16,000, by federal filings. The incumbent's campaign had $2.4 million in the bank in mid-October. When Galdo couldn't line up a real debate, he livestreamed one against a life-size cardboard cutout. His aide is 15. In Texas, Dione Sims runs with help from a consultant who came out of retirement to work for free.
Back in Kentucky, Wingfield's biggest cost is distance. Most of her money goes to gas. Phone banks and radio ads are out. The incumbent's campaign raised nearly $6 million this cycle. She says the big advocacy groups won't even look at a candidate who hasn't raised $100,000. Money, she has learned, comes easiest to people who already have it. She did win a crowded primary in May with 41% of the vote. That brought a $5,000 check from the United Auto Workers. She spent it on lawn signs and a banner. Her campaign manager drives for Lyft part time in New Orleans. He found her on TikTok. Her own bar for success is finishing within a dozen points. She calls it “the most satisfying work I've ever done.”
Our read
This is a Cash Flow story (M5), and the lesson is the oldest one we know. Money goes to whoever already has some. The $100,000 line Wingfield describes is the same wall a new business hits at the bank. It's the same wall a family hits when the car dies before the emergency fund exists. Notice how she spends, though. Her biggest fixed cost, gas, gets paid first. Everything else gets cut. That's a real budget, and it's more honest than most. Doing work you love for little pay is a choice. It helps to price it honestly, as she does.
Here's the connection to your own money. Wingfield can tell you, to the dollar, what half a tank costs and what it buys her. Most of us can't say that about our own biggest bill. This week, pull up last month's bank statement and find your largest expense after housing. Write down what it bought you. Then check whether your emergency fund covers three months of it. Most people check the tires after the flat. The time to look is before the drive. Bring the number to your next review.