• by Wayne Friedman , October 30, 2020

Heading into the final days of the election season, total political advertising spending -- TV, radio, and digital -- is now at a massive $8.15 billion -- with the Democratic candidates and party commanding the bulk of that message spending, according to Advertising Analytics.

The total would easily be a record, according to a number of analysts, many of whom projected the huge result.

Through October 30, overall Democratic spending -- including candidate campaign, party, and political action committees -- for all races is at $4.6 billion, while Republican spend is at $2.6 billion and independent spend is at $907 million.

Presidential campaign spending remains the biggest category -- with a collective $2.94 billion for all advertising.

Total Democratic Presidential spending dominates at $2.16 billion, with Republican Presidential spending well behind at $780 million.

Collectively, Senate race political advertising spending is now at $2 billion -- $1.1 billion for Democratic candidate spending, and $870 million for Republican spending.

Spending for House representatives is at $1.15 billion -- $649 million for Democratic candidates and $500 million for Republicans.

Governor races are at total $250 million. All other political spending comes in at $1.8 million, with the largest piece around independent party campaign spending.

For the 2018 mid-term campaign, Kantar/CMAG says $5.25 billion was spent for TV and digital advertising, compared to $4.35 billion for the 2016 Presidential election.

Kantar had estimated political spending to total $7 billion this year, which breaks down this way: Broadcast TV, $3.5 billion; digital media, $1.8 billion; cable TV, $1.2 billion, and radio at $500 million.