If it feels like you’re seeing way too many campaign commercials for this time of year, it’s not just you.
„Florida and Pennsylvania are two of the biggest prizes for either candidate and probably must-wins for both Trump and Biden,“ said Nathan Gonzales, the editor of the nonpartisan „Inside Elections“ and a CNN contributor. „It’s hard to replace 29 or 20 electoral votes with another state.“ Visit CNN’s Election Center for full coverage of the 2020 race But in an election year where states not traditionally in the spotlight are now up for grabs, such as Arizona, Minnesota and Georgia, both campaigns have a bewildering number of options on where to allocate their advertising budgets. Campaign ad spending is a constant game of one-upmanship — the Trump campaign and affiliated political action committees have already made significant investments in advertising for September — but as of the end of August, Trump and Biden each have an advertising edge in five of the 10 biggest battleground states. Biden and affiliated outside groups have spent more than twice as much in Michigan, for instance, while Trump has outspent his Democratic rival in Georgia many times over. One thing these 10 battleground states have in common: Trump won all but one of them in 2016. „That’s a good example of how the race favors Biden right now,“ Gonzales said. „President Trump is playing defense almost everywhere and it’s difficult for him to recreate his 2016 victory.“ This year’s playing field is hard to recognize compared to 2016, when Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton spent about $52,000 on ads in Georgia combined. This year, Trump has spent about $9.4 million so far while Biden has spent about $926,000. In 2016, neither Trump nor Clinton bothered to pay for ads in Minnesota. So far this year, Trump has spent $2.5 million and Biden has spent $795,000. And in the wake of Clinton’s loss of the „Rust Belt“ states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Biden’s ad wallet for these three states is open a lot wider this time. So far, Biden has spent $44 million in Pennsylvania, $27 million in Michigan and $26.
