Harris campaign and allies spent more than $1.4B on political ads in losing race against Trump

A new report shows the Harris-Walz campaign and its Democratic allies spent nearly $1.4 billion on aired political ads in their failed bid to defeat President-elect Trump, outspending the 45th president and Republicans by nearly $460 million.

Vice President Harris suffered a crushing defeat to Trump, who capped a remarkable comeback from losing to President Joe Biden in 2020, surviving two assassination attempts and several lawsuits to reclaim the White House in dramatic fashion. Trump’s comeback win was called by Fox News after it projected that he had won Wisconsin, a state he narrowly lost in 2020.  

Harris entered this race in July after President Biden was convinced to stand down having already secured his party’s nomination, sparking an avalanche of spending from both sides. 

Between July 22 and Election Day, the presidential election saw $2.29 billion in political spending. Over that time, Democrats held a near $460 million spending advantage, pouring $1.37 billion worth of ads compared to the Republicans who dumped $913.9 million, according to the report by AdImpact, an advertising analytics firm.

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During those dates, the seven battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin and Michigan saw $1.8 billion piled into aired spending. 

The seven battleground states made up 79% of all presidential ad spending since July 22, with Pennsylvania alone seeing 22%, or $494.3 million worth of ad spending. Democrats edged Republicans in the Keystone State by $261.9 million compared to $232.4 million.

In fact, the Harris-Walz campaign outspent the Trump-Vance ticket in each battleground state, per the report. 

Nevada saw the lowest share of ad spend among the swing states, netting $69 million from Harris-Walz and $35.6 million from Trump-Vance.

Taxation was the most referenced issue during the general election among all advertisers with nearly 498,000 airings, of which 75% were by the Harris campaign.

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Immigration was the most referenced issue by the Trump campaign with 237,400 airings versus 29,225 by Team Harris. 

Abortion was the sixth most referenced issue with 170,000 airings, even though Republican advertisers did not have any airings associated with the topic. 

Democratic advertisers were responsible for 75% of all taxation airings. 

The report states that the pace of spending in the election was largely defined by Biden’s historic decision to dramatically drop out of the race. 

Between Super Tuesday and July 21, the race saw $336 million in total spending, making up 13% of all general election expenditure. 

However, in the 30 days following Biden’s announcement, the race saw $410 million spent on political advertising.

By Labor Day, spending ballooned to $630 million, making up 24% of total spending.

Between Super Tuesday, March 5, and Election Day, Nov. 5, the presidential race saw $2.6 billion spent on political advertising, with Democrats outspending Republicans $1.6 billion to $993 million. 

Meanwhile, Florida saw the most spending in the final 60 days of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, receiving $79 million and $240 million in linear spending, respectively. 

However, this year Florida’s linear spending in the last 60 days dropped to less than $1 million, underscoring the Trump campaign’s confidence in sweeping the Sunshine State and the Harris campaign essentially raising the white flag.