Federal spending on climate change before 2024 election boosted incumbents of both parties
Incumbents can still reap electoral rewards when federal money reaches their districts, even if they opposed the bill that provided it.
In 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Inflation Reduction Act without a single Republican vote in either the House or the Senate. This massive spending effort to combat climate change authorized US$370 billion in funding, primarily through subsidies such as tax credits for electric vehicles and incentives for energy-efficient commercial buildings.
Despite opposition from Republicans, 79% of the law's investment went to Republican congressional districts. Even Republican politicians in those districts began to defend parts of the act as they found themselves benefiting from the investments. In the 2024 election, Inflation Reduction Act funding helped incumbent House members of both parties, with the more money a representative's district received, the better their electoral performance in 2024 compared to 2022, with a 0.9 percentage-point increase in vote share for every doubling of federal investment.
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