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06-11-2024
WASHINGTON: The presidential race has seen a whopping $2.6 billion spent on political advertising since early March, according to a report released on Monday by the ad tracking firm AdImpact.
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign and groups backing her outspent Republican Donald Trump’s campaign and his allies, $1.6 billion to $993 million. The vast majority more than $1.8 billion was spent across the seven battleground states likely to decide the election: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Pennsylvania, widely seen as the most critical swing state, has seen $264 million in political advertising spending just since the start of September, far more than any other state, the firm said.
The money has produced more than 380 unique broadcast ads totaling nearly 1.5 million airings.
Despite the flood of ads, the race remains neck and neck on the eve of Election Day.
Trump fundraiser Jim Worthington kicked off the program ahead of JD Vance’s closing campaign speech in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with a simple message to supporters: “tomorrow is a work day.”
“You have tomorrow to stand up and be accounted for. Let me put the pressure on: the eyes of not just Pennsylvania, the eyes of the country are focused on Bucks County and Pennsylvania tomorrow. It’s a big responsibility,” he said.
Worthington, a wealthy fitness club owner, promised the hundreds of supporters that if Trump wins Bucks County, he wins Pennsylvania and the White House.
Bucks County is the most competitive of Philadelphia’s collar suburbs, but it’s not always a predictor of statewide elections in the Keystone State.
In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton won Bucks County but lost the state. Biden narrowly won Bucks in 2020 and also won the state.
The two Pennsylvania counties that have predicted modern statewide elections in Pennsylvania are Northampton County and Erie County.
Trump, who has not had major celebrities at his rallies like Harris has enjoyed, dismissed the practice before a large crowd in Pittsburgh as he offered what his campaign called his final closing message to voters.
“We don’t need a star. Because we have policy,” he said.
“We’ve been waiting four years for this.”
Trump pushed economic themes, saying Harris would bring economic misery if elected.
“A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper, your paychecks will be higher, your streets will be safer, your communities will be richer, and your future will be brighter than ever before,” he said.
“It’s ours to win. The only thing I ask is that you go out and vote,” said Trump. “You have to go out and we have to swamp them.”
Harris finished meeting voters at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania and then went door knocking.
“It’s the day before the election and I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote,” Harris told a middle-aged female voter and her husband.
The woman enthusiastically told the VP she had already voted for her, and said her husband would cast his ballot for Harris tomorrow.
Harris then got back on the plane. Next stop: Pittsburgh.
False or misleading claims by billionaire Elon Musk about the US election have amassed 2 billion views on social media platform X this year, according to a report by non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate. (Int’l News Desk)
