Written by Sydney Beckham and Maddie Ebner
The 2024 Presidential election will likely be one of the most expensive elections American politics has ever seen. While President Biden has yet to announce if he will run for re-election, several Republican candidates have already tossed their hat in the race, gearing up for the Republican primaries starting in February 2024. The most notable GOP candidates running so far include former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley. Other candidates include Vivek Ramaswamy, an “anti-woke” entrepreneur, and businessman Perry Johnson. Presidential digital spending has been tracked by all four candidates, with a focus on Google and Facebook ads. Johnson and Ramaswamy have both spent on cable and broadcast advertisements. Johnson has spent $738K, while Ramaswamy has spent $458K. So far the total spent on Presidential digital spending has been $380K. Trump, Haley, and their affiliated PACs have spent primarily on Facebook and Google.
Nikki Haley, former Governor, and member of the Trump administration from 2017 to 2018, announced her candidacy for the 2024 Presidential election in early February. In 2022, Haley created her “Stand for America” Leadership PAC to support Republican candidates in the 2022 Midterm Elections. On February 1st, Team Stand for America, a joint fundraising effort between Nikki Haley for President and Stand for America, released three “Nikki Haley for President” text ads on Google’s advertising platforms. The three ads targeted all 50 states and totaled $39K in Presidential digital spending. Overall, the Stand for America PAC has spent $90K on Google and Facebook ads while Haley’s campaign has spent $26K so far. Haley has yet to spend on traditional media types including broadcast, cable, and radio.
Following the 2022 midterm elections, Trump announced his campaign for the 2024 Presidential race to make a political comeback. The Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, a fundraising group directly affiliated with Trump, began spending on Facebook ads in February 2023. So far they have spent $73K on Facebook ads. Interestingly, some of the first ads launched in 2023 from the “Team Trump” Facebook page mentioned Nikki Haley and her previous support of Trump. The ad below ran on Facebook starting February 15th, targeting South Carolina, one day after Haley announced her bid for President.
Two years ago, the official “Donald J. Trump” Facebook page was banned by Meta following the January 6th insurrection. This page was recently reinstated on March 17th. Within the same week, the “Donald J. Trump” page began to run ads (also paid for by the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee) with links to his website in an attempt to fundraise campaign money. The ad below was shown across the country, with a majority of impressions in Florida, Texas, and California.
With only four Republican candidates announcing their bid for the Presidency thus far, there will undoubtedly be more candidates to announce in the coming year. There has been speculation that rising Republican star, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, will run for President in 2024. DeSantis has gained national popularity within the GOP and would likely be a frontrunner in the 2024 election if he does run. During the 2022 election, his re-election campaign in Florida proved to be extremely successful, winning nearly 60% of the Florida vote and even flipping traditional Democratic counties. Throughout the 2022 cycle, Friends of Ron DeSantis, a PAC directly affiliated with the Governor, began placing digital ads, specifically on Google and Facebook ads outside of Florida. Compared to other Republican governors and governor affiliated PACs in 2022, Friends of Ron DeSantis was the only PAC to significantly spend outside of their candidate’s respective state. This may point towards a potential Presidential bid. The PAC has continued to spend in 2023, covering most states in the US as displayed below. They have spent a total of $187K on Facebook and Google ads. DeSantis’ home state is where the PAC has spent the most, along with California and Texas.
Messaging in Friends of Ron DeSantis’s Google and Facebook ads focuses on national issues, highlighting immigration. While Google is not always able to provide the exact geographic target for all ads, the following ad was shown to over 4M people across the United States, specifically targeting states other than Florida. The PAC spent $30K on this national ad. Another video version of the same ad targeted parts of southern California and Arizona.
Two PACs who are not affiliated with DeSantis have spent on advertisements pushing the Governor to run for President. Ready for Ron is a pro-DeSantis PAC that has spent $37K on cable ads in 2023. The ad’s slogan is “America needs a fighter; America needs Ron DeSantis”, and insinuates DeSantis is the best option to beat President Biden. Another unaffiliated PAC, Courageous Conservatives, spent $8K on pro-DeSantis radio advertisements in Iowa and New Hampshire markets. The radio ads are set to start in April.
Trump-backed PAC, MAGA Inc., recently spent $1.3M on national cable advertisements, which started airing on March 31st. Interestingly, the ad directly attacks DeSantis even though he has not announced his bid for President yet. Earlier in March, the Trump Save America Joint Committee ran three Facebook ads mentioning DeSantis.
The 2024 Presidential race is predicted to be one of the, if not the most, expensive races in American politics. So far, four GOP candidates have officially announced their run and have begun spending on advertisements. There are many uncertainties about this race, especially surrounding the Republican who will end up on the ballot next November.
If you interested in learning about the political spending implications behind the Democrats’ proposed Presidential Primary schedule changes, check out our blog on that subject here.
