Political ad spending runs rampant in the final sprint to the election

Over the next seven days, Georgians can expect a final rush of $24 million in advertisements from the presidential candidates, with $14 million of that supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and $10 million in favor of former President Donald Trump, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of data from ad tracking firm AdImpact.

Of that, $3.4 million in ads are booked for Election Day on Tuesday. Democrats maintain a slight spending advantage that day with about $2 million compared to $1.5 million on the Republican side.

Since the beginning of the year, Democrats have aired $35 million more in ads targeting Georgians than Republicans, out of $282 million ads in total.

“The money has no value after Nov. 5,” said Chris Grant, a professor of political science at Mercer University. “It’s not like you can pocket all the money that’s been raised. You’ve got to spend it.”

Grant said that with the breakthrough of small dollar donations during Barack Obama’s 2008 candidacy, campaigns now have an “almost unlimited resource for funding.”

Since the beginning of October, both campaigns and the political action committees supporting them have ramped up spending. Aside from a dip in Democratic TV ad spending last week, the cost of TV ads each week has increased for both sides throughout the past month.