Mehmet Oz and 15 other candidates together spent over $223 million of their own money — and lost their 2022 midterm races anyway

Mehmet Oz spent nearly $27 million on his failed attempt to win the US Senate race in Pennsylvania.

The TV doctor-turned-political-aspirant is not the only wealthy American who has less in his or her bank account at the end of the year because of big-time electoral ambitions that didn't pan out.

According to an Insider review of federal and state campaign spending, 16 out of the 22 top-spending candidates lost their seats.

The 16 also-rans spent over $223 million of their own money, just over half the amount spent by the top self-funded candidates.

A long-term trend in US politics is that only a small percentage of candidates who have their own money win office.

The 16 people who lost in their primaries never made it to the general election. Oz, who was defeated by John Fetterman last week, was one of three major self-funders who emerged from the primary and lost the election.

Two of the other people are co-owners of Wisconsin's largest construction company and an heir to the beer fortune.

Tony Evers won the governor's race in Wisconsin. Busch-Valentine contributed more than $16.3 million to her own campaign, even cutting a $2 million check to herself on October 31 days before the Republican state Attorney General delivered a double-digit drubbing in the US Senate race.

The loser in the election spent the most money. The Republican nomination for Arizona's governorship went to a Trump supporter. It's too close to call.

Some exceptions to the rule can be found.

The governor of Illinois, a democrat, easily won re-election and remains the largest spender in the upcoming elections. One of the most successful self-funders in US history has already spent more than $300 million on his two successful gubernatorial runs.

The next largest self-funder is a Democrat. In a battle of self-funders, the governor of Connecticut spent $22 million to fend off the businessman who spent $12 million of his own money on the race.

Democrats were the only ones who were successful in the election. They are the governor of Colorado, the congressman of Maryland, the congressman of Michigan, and the congressman of New York.

Insider has a list of the 22 biggest self-funders.

As election reports are filed for state and federal races, the final list of self-funders may change.