Analyzing The ‘Burn Rate’ Of The 2024 GOP Presidential Field

With more than a dozen Republicans vying to become the party’s next presidential nominee, there’s plenty of money being thrown around.

In many cases, candidates are spending money nearly as fast as they can raise it … and taking a closer look at this so-called “burn rate” can provide some interesting insight into the state of these numerous campaigns.

Meeting the debate requirements

In order to make it to the big debate stage, the Republican National Committee has issued a number of prerequisites regarding donors and polling results. At least six candidates appear to have already met these standards.

Much of the early churn and burn of campaign resources by long-shot candidates has been in an effort to make it to the debate stage — including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. He’s taken to offering $20 prepaid gift cards in exchange for $1 individual donations in hopes of meeting the donor requirement.

His burn rate amounts to roughly 69% of the money coming in to his campaign, but he’s not at the top of the list.

Who has the highest burn rate?

The candidates with the most disproportionate rate of spending aren’t necessarily the ones at the bottom of the list. In fact, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott comes out on top despite being fairly competitive within the crowded field.

He’s the only 2024 candidate spending cash at a faster rate than he’s raising it with a burn rate of 109%.

The top four candidates on the list are all Republicans:

• Tim Scott: 109%
• Doug Burgum: 69%
• Vivek Ramaswamy: 53%
• Ron DeSantis: 40%

President Joe Biden is in fifth place with a burn rate of 38%, closely followed by GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s 37%.

Chris Christie is at the other end of the spectrum with a burn rate of just 4%.

Chris Agee August 7th, 2023

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