The current election cycle, with its seemingly endless flow of campaign cash, is no doubt headed for record territory — but nowhere is the spending as relentless, or the advertisements as common, as in Pennsylvania.
The Wall Street Journal reports that of the more than $110 million spent across seven swing states over the past three weeks — the time that’s passed since President Biden abandoned his re-election plans and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris — about $42 million has gone into the Keystone State. The newspaper, which analyzed AdImpact data through Aug. 12, notes that Pennsylvania’s total is more than double the $17.8 million that’s been spent in Georgia.
The focus on Pennsylvania is easy to understand: It has 19 electoral votes, and both of America’s major political parties have an increasingly complicated path to 270 without a win there.
The national spending over the past three weeks, which total about $192 million nationwide, includes ads on broadcast TV, cable, radio and satellite. The Journal notes that campaigns also spend big on less-expensive digital ads, but those ads are often just fundraising pleas.
More spending is coming. MAGA Inc., the top Trump super PAC, has announced plans to spend $100 million on ads in swing states through Labor Day. Harris’s campaign, meanwhile, has launched a $90 million ad buy for the rest of August.
According to MediaRadar data reported by Digiday, as of Aug. 8, the competing presidential campaigns and their allies had spent $385 million — and they’re planning an additional $322 million in ad purchases.
In Q2, political ad spend was nearly 35% higher vs. the same period in the 2020 election cycle, according to Operative STAQ, an ad management firm. The company’s data revealed that spending by the conservative PAC Americans for Prosperity increased 77% in Q2 vs. 2020.
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