FWIW, this week’s newsletter is sponsored by Civic Shout

OK, so we’re not quite sure if we used “demure” correctly in the subheader, but you get the point. We have found that in every major battleground U.S. Senate race, Republican campaigns continue to be outspent by their Democratic rivals online in a dramatic fashion. 

If that sounds familiar to you, it's basically the same thing that happened in 2022, when Republicans had a very good chance of winning the majority, but their candidates completely dropped the ball.  

Here’s a look at each campaign’s total digital ad spending across six key digital channels (Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, X, Snapchat), in the past 90 days: 

And here’s that same chart broken down by which platforms each candidate is spending on:

Nowhere is the spending discrepancy more stark than in battleground Michigan, where Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin is running against former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers. While Slotkin has spent nearly $2 million in the past three months on digital advertising, Rogers has spent less than $10,000.

In battleground Nevada, military veteran Sam Brown is attempting to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen without the help of Facebook or Instagram, where he has spent zero dollars in the past three months. 

…and in deep Red Ohio, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is flooding YouTube and Facebook with ads, while his political newcomer opponent Bernie Moreno has spent very little on either platform. 

We’ve spoken with several prominent Republican digital consultants about their party’s lack of investment online over the past few years, and their response has typically been one of frustration or resignation. A lot (but not all) of this online spending is just for fundraising anyway, they argue, and apparently, the GOP campaigns are not seeing a strong return on their ad spend. 

Just yesterday, Cook Political Report released a pretty wild set of new battleground Senate polls, showing Democrats leading by wide margins in most key races. If Republicans are going to make up the difference, they may want to start using every tool at their disposal to do so.

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Digital ad spending, by the numbers:

FWIW, political advertisers spent just over $21 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:

Pro-Harris super PAC Future Forward has begun spending heavily on these Facebook and Instagram ads boosting Harris in key battleground states. The short video ads, which deploy generally fluffy, pro-worker language, are targeting voters in all the key swing states + Nebraska (which has an extra electoral vote Democrats can pick up). 

Meanwhile, the Koch Brothers’ AFP Action has its eyes on down ballot races, boosting Republican candidates in battleground U.S. House campaigns with big spending on ads like these:

Meanwhile, political campaigns spent $18.7 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:

On Google and YouTube, Harris is receiving some air cover from Women Vote, the Super PAC affiliated with Emily’s List. The group spent more than $117,000 last week on video ads touting Harris’s support for abortion access, as well as some of her iconic quotes.

On X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers in the U.S. have spent $8 million on ads year to date. Here are the top spenders:

…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent $4.5 million on ads year to date. Here are the top spenders:

An unauthorized DNC after party

If you’re at the DNC next week, our friends at The Bench are hosting an afterparty on Thursday night at Manny’s Deli. The vibe: “Oscars' after-party at In & Out meets the Correspondents' Dinner meets Katz's Deli.” Click here for details and to request to get on the RSVP list >>. 

Your 2024 digital dispatch

FWIW, here’s how weekly digital ad spending (Facebook/Instagram, Google/YouTube) compares between the Trump and Harris (formerly Biden) campaigns year-to-date:

The Harris digital ad spending blitz continues with the campaign spending $13,395,870 last week. In comparison, and as has been the trend, the Trump campaign spent only a fraction of that, clocking in at a $2,502,598 total digital spend over the same period. 

And as we all anticipated, the total digital spending numbers for 2024 are trending upwards quickly. With ~80 days to go until Election Day,, the Harris/Biden campaign has already spent $116.9 million in total in 2024 on digital ads, and the Trump campaign has spent $19.5 million.

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What’s happening on TikTok?

Is RFK Jr. actually a thing on TikTok? Can Kamala Harris continue to ride a wave of supportive memes on the platform? What is the Trump campaign’s strategy there? See unique data and analysis on the online battle for TikTok at our new newsletter, #FYP. 

Read the latest issue >>

New social dashboards from CAP Action

On Wednesday, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram transparency tool, Crowdtangle, was finally shut down. We’ve already written quite a bit about what that means for politics and transparency on social media. (You can read our previous take mourning the death of the tool here.) 

However, our friends at CAP Action have committed to making more political social media data public for digital practitioners and have recently published new public dashboards tracking top political pages across the major social media platforms — with more readouts planned to be added in the coming weeks. This type of tracking takes a lot of work and is an invaluable resource for those of you interested in seeing what's moving online. 

Check them out here >>

More from around the internet:

• JD Vance is apparently really “pissed off” by… a picture of Kamala Harris. 

• Elon Musk hosted Donald Trump for a live Twitter Spaces event on Monday night. It didn’t go so well. 

• A foreign government hacked the Trump campaign and gave the material to POLITICO. In an obvious reversal from 2016, they are choosing not to print it. 

• Per Sara Fischer, DNC programming next week will be streamed vertically on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube in an effort to get younger people to tune in.

• Is there a major political gender gap between Gen Z men and women? Maybe not as much as you think. 

That’s it for FWIW this week. This email was sent to 23,021 readers. If you enjoy reading this newsletter each week, would you mind sharing it on Twitter or Threads? Have a tip, idea, or feedback? Reply directly to this email.