If you reside outside of a swing state, you may almost forget that there is a tumultuous US election taking place if you really try. However, if you live inside one, it’s hard to escape the reality.
Lawn signs. Billboards. Text messages. So many text messages. In the seven battleground states that will determine the US election, political ads are ubiquitous, constantly bombarding the public. The White House race is omnipresent.
As one of the closest presidential elections in recent memory nears its conclusion, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are crisscrossing the country to make their final appeals to voters in the swing states.
Their campaigns are active 24/7. While some individuals in other parts of the US can tune out the frenzy, voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are being inundated with some of the most sophisticated and targeted messaging and advertising in political history.
And some of that messaging is quite blunt.
Classic campaign placards are displayed on lawns, in windows, and along roads, along with television ads saturating the airwaves.
Additionally, digital ads, particularly on social media, and a constant flow of personalized text messages urging donations and reminding people to vote on November 5th, or earlier, have been added to the campaigns’ arsenal.
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The 2024 election is on track to be the most expensive ever, with the majority of funds allocated to advertising.
The Harris campaign and its affiliated committees have invested over $1.1 billion in advertising, nearly double the $602 million spent by the Trump campaign and its aligned committees, according to the FT’s ad tracker.
The swing states that will determine the outcome have received $1.36 billion of the combined spending by the two campaigns. The largest portion, $373.5 million, has been allocated to Pennsylvania, considered the most crucial battleground state.
“I think everyone is just ready for it to be over,” said Tracee Malik, a real estate agent from the Pittsburgh area. “Pretty much the only commercials that we have now are the political commercials.”
Harris’s most-aired TV spots have focused on her background as a prosecutor and from the middle class, her defense of reproductive rights, and the claim that Trump only cares about the wealthy. Other ads portray her rival as “too unstable to lead.”
Trump’s most-aired ads have centered around the economy, blaming Harris and President Joe Biden’s economic agenda for the high cost of living. However, his most frequently broadcasted ad attacks the vice president for supporting gender-affirming care for prison inmates, telling voters: “Kamala’s agenda is they/them, not you.”
In Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada, Trump’s ads also criticize Harris on immigration, while in Georgia and North Carolina, pro-Harris ads focus on abortion rights.
Is the barrage of ads effective? It remains uncertain.