In the first month since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, the Harris campaign has outspent former President Donald Trump’s campaign by at least $47 million in digital ads and more than $20 million in ads on digital streaming services.
An analysis from The Daily Wire found that, between July 25 and August 23, the Harris Victory Fund and Harris for President campaign spent $27,388,780 on Meta ads, while the Trump National Committee Campaign spent just $2,631,466, according to the platform’s ad library.
The Harris campaign also targeted battleground states, with the top five being Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Georgia. The Trump campaign targeted Pennsylvania broadly, Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg specifically, as well as Atlanta, Georgia, and Bozeman, Montana.
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It’s a similar situation with YouTube. The Harris campaign spent $11,257,700 and targeted California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Washington. The Trump campaign spent just $5,393,600 and targeted Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Though Trump spent less, his top targeted states are considered battlegrounds this year, while the Harris campaign spending millions in California, New York, and Washington – all reliably blue states, won’t do anything to help her win but could add to her popular vote total and fundraising efforts.
Democrats and their media supporters have attacked the electoral college as backward and in need of fixing – because it gives states with populations smaller than California and Texas a say in who governs them nationally. By seeking additional votes in California, New York, and Washington, Harris is setting herself up to win the popular vote, something she can point to if she ends up losing the presidency because she wasted money on spare votes in blue states.
The Harris campaign has also outspent Trump in Google ads. The Harris campaign has spent $18,933,100 and primarily targeted California, New York, Washington, Texas, and Massachusetts – again focusing on several states that will already vote for her. The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has only spent $2,197,800 and targeted California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Georgia.
Harris has also benefitted from alleged “bugs” by Google. For a period in July and August, Google’s auto-generated search suggestions wouldn’t auto-complete for information about the attempted assassination of Trump. And searching for Trump, in general, would provide articles about Harris. In congressional testimony, Google said this was a “bug.”
Harris’ campaign was also caught altering news headlines in Google searches to make the headlines appear more favorable for her.
It’s not just digital ads where the Trump campaign is falling short. For a brief time after Biden dropped out, Republicans aired more ads than Democrats nationwide except for a few counties, mostly in Michigan and Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
But that’s all changed now. The Harris campaign is outspending Trump on ads running on digital streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, and Peacock, as well as connected TVs like Roku, according to the Financial Times. The Harris campaign has spent $56 million on these ads, while the Trump campaign has spent $30 million.
Future ad buys also favor the Harris campaign. The campaign has reserved $370 million to spend on ads after Labor Day, including $170 million for television ads and more than $200 million on digital streaming platforms, ABC News reported.
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By contrast, the Trump campaign has only reserved advertising in Pennsylvania and Georgia for ads after Labor Day.
Trump also has a smaller war chest than Harris, thanks to legal fees eating into his campaign funds following Democrat lawfare against him. Even before Biden dropped out, the incumbent’s campaign was spending more than Trump, according to POLITICO. Trump has instead relied on earned media through live appearances at rallies across the country.
This doesn’t mean that the Trump campaign isn’t going to increase spending, nor does it include money spent from outside groups, but it should be concerning to Republicans hoping to retake the White House in November.
Neither Trump’s nor Harris’ campaign responded to requests for comment on the ad strategy.
