President Biden’s announcement last week that he plans to seek another term has set the 2024 political race into motion, with a buzzed-about potential rematch between the incumbent and his predecessor. While the big political ad dollars will not be flowing until year-end and next year, new data from AdImpact shows campaign spending is pacing ahead of four years ago.
AdImpact calculates $307.61 million has been spent in the 2024 election cycle so far. That is 152% more than the $121.77 million that was spent up until this point during the 2020 election cycle.
When it comes to the race for the White House, AdImpact data shows the dollars are flowing on both sides. President Biden and his Democratic allies spent nearly $489,000 in various markets last week. The most was spent in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Phoenix with the battleground states targeted overall. AdImpact says $98,000 was spent in Pennsylvania, $94,000 was spent in Michigan, while Wisconsin got $75,000 worth of ad buys, followed by Arizona with $71,000, Georgia with $68,000, and Nevada with $59,000.
The Republican primary race is where the action will be on the GOP side in the near-term and so far AdImpact says a few candidates have started to spend, including frontrunner Donald Trump. The former President has already invested $569,000 on ads to date. But two other candidates have spent more. Biopharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy has spent $1.1 million on ads. And businessman and author Perry Johnson has spent $1.0 million. But AdImpact reports two issue groups – MAGA Inc. and Never Back Down – are the two frontrunners in terms of Presidential ad spending, making up 76% of all presidential ad spending at the moment.
The ad-tracking firm says the pro-Ron DeSantis group Never Back Down PAC has spent $6.8 million across radio, broadcast television, and cable TV. “This PAC is the highest spender we have seen so far in the Presidential election,” AdImpact says in its update. Never Back Down PAC ads have targeted Trump, and put DeSantis in a positive light, saying he is the “President America needs."
AdImpact says Trump-favoring MAGA Inc. was the first issue group to spend significant money when they began airing ads on March 31. Since then, it has spent $6.5 million on cable ads – mainly on Fox News – all of which have attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.