The 6 most expensive, ad-soaked U.S. Senate midterm races
And more from Ad Age Campaign Ad Scorecard.
ShanonG
With Election Day nearly upon us, U.S. campaign ad spending levels continue to skyrocket. Here’s what you need to know right now:
• Total measured campaign ad spending for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, gubernatorial and other key races in the U.S. midterm elections has surged past $4.6 billion, according to the latest Ad Age Campaign Ad Scorecard analysis. Campaign Ad Scorecard is part of Ad Age’s Campaign Trail coverage, a project of Ad Age Datacenter, led by Director of Data Management Kevin Brown in partnership with Kantar/CMAG. (For more details, scroll down to see our in-depth charts.)
• That $4.6 billion total includes TV, radio and tracked digital advertising (from Dec. 28, 2021, through Election Day, as of Oct. 31, 2022).
• Republicans and Democrats have near-parity—$1.99 billion vs. $1.97 billion, respectively—in their ad-spending contributions to the $4.6 billion total. (Independents and issue-oriented advertising, such as ballot initiatives, account for another $650 million.) Republicans have been outspending Democrats on U.S. Senate races ($776 million vs. $718 million) and gubernatorial races ($571 million vs. $522 million). Democrats, meanwhile, have been outspending Republicans on U.S. House races ($586 million vs. $581 million).
• Total U.S. Senate race ad spending now sits at $1.5 billion.
• Of that $1.5 billion, candidates spent 38%, while PACs and the two major political parties spent 62%—though spending by Republican PACs skews the ratios. While Democrat campaigns and PACs/party are split 50/50 in spending, Republican campaigns accounted for just 27% of spending, vs. 73% spent by PACs and the GOP combined.
• The six U.S. Senate races that have racked up more than $100 million in ad spending have been happening in the most predictable of places: battleground states. Georgia is at $222 million; Pennsylvania, $210 million; Arizona, $163 million; Wisconsin, $154 million; Ohio, $137 million; and Nevada, $127 million.
• Just the U.S. Senate races in just those six states have racked up $1 billion in campaign ad spending.
• Kantar/CMAG recently raised its total ad spending forecast for the midterms to $9 billion—which includes ad outlays for additional campaigns and media beyond the nationally significant races that Ad Age Datacenter tracks. As Kantar/CMAG’s Steve Passwaiter noted in an Oct. 9 Ad Age guest post, good old-fashioned TV is still getting the lion’s share of the windfall, though digital platforms continue to rise. Per Kantar’s forecast, the $9 billion will break down to: $4.6 billion for local broadcast TV, $1.4 billion for OTT, $1.5 billion for local cable TV/satellite, $1.2 billion for Facebook and Google and $300 million for local radio.
