President-elect Donald Trump secured a landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election despite being heavily outspent by Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic allies — and according to new spending analysis reports, the difference is staggering.
Between July 22 and Election Day, the Harris campaign poured nearly $1.4 billion into political advertising compared to Republicans’ $913.9 million, creating a nearly $460 million spending advantage according to AdImpact, an advertising analytics firm.
When broken down by votes received, Harris and her allies spent $24 for every single Harris vote.
Republicans spent just $15 for every Trump vote, nearly a 40% difference.
The Harris campaign spent $430 million specifically on media buys and production, and $26 million on text messages, federal election filings show.
More than $100 million each was disbursed to three firms: Gambit Strategies, Bully Pulpit Interactive, and Dupont Circle Strategies.
Future Forward USA emerged as Harris’s largest outside donor group, contributing about $400 million. The group received multi-million dollar donations from tech industry leaders including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, and Google’s Eric Schmidt. Illinois’ Jay Pritzker and a union representing government workers, which contributed $1 million, also supported the group.
By comparison, Elon Musk’s America PAC spent $130 million supporting Trump.
And in a classic Democratic Party move, despite having nearly $1.4 billion the Harris campaign spent more than it could afford. Post-election reports indicate the campaign now faces $20 million in debt.
Seven battleground states accounted for 79% of all presidential ad spending since July, with Pennsylvania alone seeing $494.3 million in ad expenditures. Democrats outspent Republicans in each battleground state, including Pennsylvania, where they spent $261.9 million compared to the GOP’s $232.4 million. Nevada saw the lowest share of ad spending among swing states, with $69 million from Harris-Walz and $35.6 million from Trump-Vance.
Harris lost every single battleground state.
The campaigns focused on different issues in their advertising. Taxation dominated Democratic messaging with 498,000 airings, while immigration led Republican advertising with 237,400 airings versus Democrats’ 29,225. Notably, abortion ranked as the sixth-most referenced issue with 170,000 airings, though Republican advertisers had no airings associated with the topic.
This marks the third consecutive presidential election where Trump prevailed despite being outspent. In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s campaign outspent Trump by 78%, while Joe Biden outspent him by 49% in 2020.
It seems the American people want substance — not elite donor cash.