CV NEWS FEED // According to a new report from the Associated Press (AP), the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is drastically outspending that of his likely Democratic opponent Kamala Harris days after she became her party’s presumptive nominee.
On Wednesday night, AP reported that “Trump and his allies are outspending Harris’ team 25-to-1 on television and radio advertising.”
“The fight to define Harris is on,” stated AP’s headline. “And for now, Republicans are dominating Democrats on the airwaves.”
AP noted that per its own analysis, political ad revenue totaled “more than $68 million for Republicans compared to just $2.6 million for Democrats — in the period that began on Monday, the day after Biden stepped aside, through the end of August.”
“The stunning disparity reflects actual spending for this week and reservations for subsequent weeks, which will almost certainly change in the coming day,” AP clarified:
But for now, the numbers highlight a dangerous imbalance for Democrats at the very moment that millions of voters are re-shaping their opinions of the vice president, who has spent much of the last four years in Biden’s shadow.
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AP’s report singled out one Republican-produced ad in particular that “Biden allies privately raised concerns about.”
The Pennsylvania ad by businessman David McCormick, the Republican nominee in the state’s hotly-contested November U.S. Senate race, calls Harris “the most liberal nominee ever.”
This characterization is consistent with a 2019 analysis by the popular legislative tracking website GovTrack, which ranked then-Senator Harris as the “most liberal” member of the Senate based on her voting record. GovTrack has since controversially removed this distinction from their entry on Harris.
McCormick’s ad “highlights her progressive positions on immigration, policing, energy and health care,” AP outlined. “It ends with audio of Harris’ loud laugh, which has been a frequent Republican focus.”
Observers widely consider Pennsylvania – where an assassin attempted to end Trump’s life earlier this month – to be a crucial battleground state that has the potential to decide the outcome of the presidential election. In 2020, Biden carried it by just over a percentage point.
Harris is considering selecting Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate.
McCormick is challenging three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, Jr., D-PA, a self-professed Catholic who supports abortion and the LGBTQ movement. Polls show the race has tightened in recent weeks.
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Another ad highlighted by AP “blames [Harris] for ‘a border invasion, runaway inflation,’ and the death of the American dream.”
The ad from a pro-Trump super PAC states: “Kamala knew Joe couldn’t do the job, so she did it. They created this mess. They — no, Kamala — owns this failed record.” The ad is currently running in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
However, AP’s report made it clear that the landscape of ad spending could dramatically change in the next few days.
“It is only a matter of time, days perhaps, before Harris and her allies ramp up their advertising plans,” AP noted:
While AdImpact found only about $2.6 million in Democratic-backed ad reservations through the end of August, the pro-Biden super PAC Future Forward is set to begin rolling out a $129 million advertising campaign in September.
But for now, voters are only seeing presidential ads that knock Harris.
