Steve Forbes' $66M For Two Losses Two Presidential Runs ... His Own Money
The publishing heir paid for the 1996 and 2000 campaigns largely himself, then quit after New Hampshire and Delaware.
By the Rich vs Reality desk February 2000 10 sources

Could have saved
12,000
lives.
Publishing heir Steve Forbes ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and again in 2000, paying for both campaigns largely himself.
When he dropped out in February 2000 after third-place finishes in New Hampshire and Delaware, reports put his personal spending across both runs at more than $66 million.
$66 million could have saved an estimated 12,000 lives through malaria prevention.
$66 million could have changed these lives
Instead, it went on this.
12,000
lives saved from malaria, most of them children under five
GiveWell estimates its top charities save a life for $3,000 to $5,500. We use the higher figure: $5,500, the cost through Against Malaria Foundation bed nets. Source
602,740
hungry kids fed three meals a day for a whole year
No Kid Hungry: $1 can help provide 10 meals for kids. Three meals a day for 365 days is 1,095 meals, about $110 per child per year. Source
3,699
years of rent for a homeless veteran
At the U.S. median rent of $1,487 a month (Census, 2024), about $17,844 a year. Source
Or: 1.6 million people given clean drinking water; 1,849 families escaping domestic violence given a safe home for two years. Every rate and source.
Steve Forbes
$66 million
For everyone else, that's
Could have saved 12,000 lives.
Drag the seam between the two worlds.
Measured against a typical American household: $87,460 a year, $192,900 net worth.
The receipts
- News On 6 (AP), Feb 2000
- RealClearPolitics: candidates who spent their own fortunes
- Net worth: No published estimate used
- U.S. Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2025 (Sept 2026)
- Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances 2022
- No Kid Hungry, What your dollars can do
- GiveWell, How much does it cost to save a life?
- charity: water, How much clean water will my donation provide
- U.S. DOJ Office on Violence Against Women, Transitional housing
- U.S. Census Bureau median gross rent, via USAFacts
See something wrong? Send a source to hello@richvsreality.com and we will correct it.
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