Harris is running a much bigger campaign than Trump. Will it matter?

[RandySF]

Harris is running a campaign about three times the size of Trump’s operation, according to recent spending reports. She has placed $263 million in ads between the end of the Democratic convention and Oct. 4, nearly 2½ times as much as the $109 million spent by Trump, according to AdImpact.

She boasts more staff, more volunteers, a larger surrogate operation, more digital advertising, a more sophisticated smartphone-based organizing program and extra money for extraneous bells and whistles typically reserved for corporate product launches and professional sports championships. A Harris drone light show recently flew over Philadelphia. Her rally attendees often get light-up pop-concert bracelets. There are even plans in the works for a late October infomercial to air on swing-state broadcast networks.

The scale of her financial advantage is larger than anything Trump faced in his two previous races for the White House. When combining campaign and national party spending, Harris is further ahead of Trump than Hillary Clinton at this point in 2016, Joe Biden at this point in 2020, or Barack Obama was ahead of his Republican opponents in his two races for the White House, according to a Washington Post analysis.

When advertising by outside groups is added to the candidate’s coordinated campaigns, Democrats spent $225 million more on presidential advertising between the end of the Democratic convention and Oct. 4 — or nearly 1.8 times the $294 million spent by Republicans, according to AdImpact.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/05/harris-trump-campaign-spending/

[WarGamer]

1. I remember when people were afraid campaign finance laws would give the GOP an advantage.

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. It's important to note that PAC and dark money is not included in the figures reported in the article

I think the GOP still outspends the Dems in dark money.

[Gaytano70]

2. Will it matter?

Yes, but you, WaPo, do NOT matter anymore 🙄

[ificandream]

6. They matter.

Real journalism does. It's Fox and the RW idiot news that doesn't.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. It's good to be flush with cash...

From the WaPo (archived) article:
The scale of her financial advantage is larger than anything Trump faced in his two previous races for the White House. When combining campaign and national party spending, Harris is further ahead of Trump than Hillary Clinton at this point in 2016, Joe Biden at this point in 2020, or Barack Obama was ahead of his Republican opponents in his two races for the White House, according to a Washington Post analysis.

When advertising by outside groups is added to the candidate’s coordinated campaigns, Democrats spent $225 million more on presidential advertising between the end of the Democratic convention and Oct. 4 — or nearly 1.8 times the $294 million spent by Republicans, according to AdImpact.

I'm seeing more Dem ads in Central NYS (which is a Red-ish area of NYS) than GOP ads so they're confident squishy purple areas like mine are worth investing in. Good sign!

[Doodley]

5. The Trump team know how to dominate the messaging without spending. Say outrageous things that

grab headlines. Lie, distort, exaggerate, and use hyperbolic language to counter any attacks and blame the other side for everything bad, while taking credit for everything good. Repeat, repeat, and repeat and use many surrogates to repeat those lies. Use bots and Elon Musk, and rile up the base with anger to spread those messages.

[lees1975]

7. It will matter.

When the Washington Post goes out of its way to put something like this in print, and uses the cliches and narratives the media has been using to support its tired old, traditional assertions about its own ability to analyze and predict election results, that tells you that not only is this mattering, but it is having the desired effect.

And here's the real rub. That money is helping a lot of media outlets stay in business. Lots of ad revenue, though I think the clincher in this election is going to be the ground game that she has, and he has abandoned because he doesn't think he needs it any more. Given that Tim Walz's rally in Erie, PA a month ago doubled Trump's there this week, I'd say Harris and Walz have plenty of people working to get the word out. That's just one example.

Maybe this race is a virtual tie, like the media keeps insisting, but what I see is much more of an effort than necessary to convince people and themselves that it is, as long as they can keep it up.