US presidential election: Harris-Walz campaign to spend $370 million on digital, TV ads
File photo of Tim Walz (left) and Kamala Harris (right).
The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign said on Saturday (Aug 17) that it planned to spend at least $370 millionon digital and television ads between Labor Day and November5 (the day of the US presidential election).
In a memo, Deputy Campaign ManagersQuentin Fulks and Rob Flaherty said that the campaign this weekend placed $170 million inTV reservations, which came on top of $200 million in digital reservations.
What do the reservations include?
Citing the campaign, a report by Bloomberg said that the reservations includedtime during major sporting events and “high-viewership moments” like the season premieres of Grey’s Anatomy and the Golden Bachelorette and were intended to introduce Harris to voters and not let Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump define her.
The report said that the Harris-Walz campaign placed more than $200 million in digital reservations on platforms like Hulu, Roku, Youtube, Spotify and Pandora.
For August, Trump and his allied super-PACs booked about 60 per cent of the ad time, reversing the advertising advantage Democrats have had for most of the campaign.
Trump-aligned Preserve America PAC launched its first round of advertising during the Olympics in July and plans to spend about $60 million through Labor Day, Bloomberg reported citing a source.
Both campaigns injected millions of dollars
Both campaigns have injected millions of dollars worth of television ads since Harris entered the presidential race.
As of August14, the presidential campaigns and their allies have already bought or reserved $247 million in ad spending to run this month, 19 per cent more than they did in all of August 2020
Harris surges ahead of Trump in new poll
A recent poll suggested that Kamala Harris was starting to grow on North Carolina voters and they were more than willing to vote for her. This analysis came as Harris is touted to beat Trump in the region.
This poll came right after Trump visited North Carolina's Ashville on Wednesday.
Speaking to supporters in Asheville, Trump steered clear of broadsides challenging Harris' racial identity and spoke about policy in more detail than he has at other recent events. But he continued to throw personal insults at her, at one point calling her "stupid" and denigrating her laugh as a cackle.
(With inputs from agencies)