Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign flooded Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram with ads during the week of her debate against former President Donald Trump, outspending the Trump campaign 20 to 1 on the social media sites.
The New York Times reported on Friday that the Harris campaign spent $12.2 million on Facebook and Instagram in the week surrounding the debate, while the Trump campaign spent $611,228, according to Meta’s records. The Democratic nominee’s big social media advertising spend focused on battleground states, especially Michigan and Pennsylvania, where the Harris campaign spent $1.5 million and $1.3 million, respectively, on Meta’s social media platforms.
The Trump campaign, meanwhile, only spent $34,790 in Michigan and $22,465 in Pennsylvania on Facebook and Instagram over the same period, the Times reported.
Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s team doesn’t need to spend as much as the Harris campaign on social media advertising because “millions of people want to organically watch and engage with President Trump — you can’t put a dollar value on that.”
“The Harris campaign must spend an enormous amount on digital advertising, and we don’t because our campaign’s greatest asset is President Donald J. Trump,” Leavitt added.
Playing into Harris’ spending on social media is her campaign’s large fundraising advantage over Team Trump. The Harris campaign has reported bringing in nearly $500 million for the 2024 election, while the Trump campaign has brought in $265 million. Democrats immediately saw a boost in fundraising after President Joe Biden stepped out of the race as many Democratic donors expressed concerns about Biden continuing his 2024 campaign. Harris also benefitted from transferring the Biden campaign’s cash on hand into her campaign’s war chest after the president dropped out in July.
The Harris campaign has not spent any money on advertising on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, formerly Twitter, according to the Times. Musk endorsed Trump for president shortly after the July 13 assassination attempt on the Republican nominee. The Trump campaign has spent $100,000 on X since Harris became the Democrats’ de-facto nominee.
Despite the Harris campaign spending big bucks on Facebook and Instagram last week, polls show that neither candidate saw a significant spike after the September 10 debate on ABC. Harris and Trump remain neck-and-neck in battleground states, according to polling averages from RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight.
While Harris’ campaign focuses on spending money on digital advertising, the Republican nominee is sitting down for numerous interviews and continuing his rigorous campaign schedule. Harris has been criticized for her lack of solo interviews with the media as her opponent continues to take questions from reporters regularly.
