Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
We’ve apparently already broken the record for amount of money spent on campaign ads. I know, you could have probably figured that out on your own…and we are still just more than six weeks away from election day, 45 days away to be exact.
A group called AdImpact has tracked $6.15 billion of political ad spending so far and it says 2022 has now officially surpassed the 2020 cycle in non-presidential political ad spending–only $5.95 billion two years ago. That includes more than $216 million that was spent nationwide on political advertising last week alone.
The last time there was a midterm election, 2018, a mere $3.96 billion was spent.
U.S. Senate races are drawing a lot of the money; for example, last week alone, Georgia spending topped $11 million and Wisconsin, $9 million. But the most expensive U.S. Senate race so far is in Nevada where, after candidates spent $28 million during the primary season, AdImpact has so far tracked $129 million of advertising during the general election.
Also driving up ad spending and helping to fill the void in a non-presidential year are races for governor–38 races this time, versus just 14 in 2020.
We previously told you that AdImpact forecasts $9.67 billion for 2022’s total midterm election ad spend. That would make it the second consecutive election cycle to pass $9 billion and the most expensive midterm, not to mention political ad cycle, on record.
And it also means that a third of the money is still to be spent, $3.5 billion, in the last month and a half. As the saying goes, you ain’t seen nothing yet. But again, I know–tell me something I don’t know.
