After several weeks of quiet, the level of political advertising has begun to pick up. And that has put 2024 back ahead of 2020 spending levels, according to AdImpact. Its ad tracking shows $2.28 billion has been spent in the current political cycle, exceeding the $2.15 billion spent at this point four years ago when the primary season drove much of the early spending.
President Joe Biden was the biggest spender during the past two weeks as his campaign takes advantage of its cash advantage over the presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump. AdImpact says the Biden campaign spent $6.3 million on advertising, including $1.4 million on digital ads. The Biden Victory Fund, a political group backing the President’s re-election, spent an additional $526,000 on digital ads. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign was not directly spending anything on ads, although the MAGA Inc. political group backing Trump spent $2.9 million on ads. The Trump National Committee JFC also spent $535,000 on digital ads.
Arizona had already been circled as one of the top battleground states in the presidential race, and the latest AdImpact data shows just how that translates into spending. It says $30.3 million has already been spent in the state compared to $170.6 million that was spent during the entire 2020 election cycle. AdImpact says to date, 98% of the spending has come from pro-Biden advertisers as supporters see an opening following the Arizona’s Supreme Court decision banning abortion. In April, it says the Biden campaign spent $2.6 million across Arizona, the most in any state this month.
While $2.7 million was spent on presidential political ads overall during the past two weeks, AdImpact says it tracked $92.9 million in political ads. The top market for political ad spending was Indianapolis, where $5.7 million was spent ahead of the May 7 Indiana primary. The hot race is for governor, with six Republicans vying for the Republican nomination. The Democratic primary has one candidate. The winner will replace current Gov. Eric Holcomb, who is term limited.
Elsewhere, AdImpact says markets with a lot of political dollars being spent include Washington ($5.3 million) and Baltimore ($5.2 million). Most of the Baltimore money came from Rep. David Trone (D-MD), whose campaign spent $4.9 million as he looks to fill the state’s U.S. Senate seat. Trone is the founder of the Total Wine & More retail chain.
Overall, AdImpact says it has tracked $42.8 million in ad spending and reservations for the Maryland primary, which will be held on May 14.