• by Wayne Friedman , August 27, 2024

With two months to go before the election, the Democratic National Committee is slightly ahead of the Republican National Committee in terms of presidential campaign ad spending -- $305 million versus $280 million -- according to MediaRadar estimates.

MediaRadar says the Democratic Party has had a “surge” in advertising since its Democratic National Convention.

In a little more than a month since she began a campaign for U.S. President, Democrat contender Kamala Harris has raised a massive $540 million, according to her campaign.

Overall political advertising spending among the big parties is now in high gear.

Looking specifically at local broadcast TV -- the bulk of overall TV ad spend -- Republicans’ Presidential advertising spend is slightly ahead of Democrats -- $203.6 million to $187.1 million. This is year-to-date advertising spend through August 27.

The Democrats have spent more than Republicans on other TV and digital platforms. 

For example, the party has spent more on digital media and in targeting Hispanic broadcast TV audiences -- at $22.9 million and $10.5 million, respectively. Republicans are at $9.0 million (digital) and in targeting Hispanic (broadcast) audiences they have spent $424,816.

Spending on digital media is generally assumed by analysts to suggest that those buys are largely intended to target younger consumers. 

The Democrats are also outspending Republicans on local cable ($54.1 million) TV and national broadcast ($15.9 million) TV, with Republicans at $43.4 million (local cable) and $1.8 million (national broadcast).

This story has been updated.