Billionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg already are pouring millions of dollars into television and digital advertising, but their money still doesn't appear to be making a difference yet in the polls, where the latecomers remain in the single digits.
"We've never seen spending like this in a presidential race," Jim McLaughlin, a Republican political strategist who worked as a consultant for Bloomberg’s mayoral bids in New York, told Politico of Bloomberg's spending. “He has a limitless budget.”
To date, the two have spent nearly a combined $200 million on TV and digital ads, including $120 million from Bloomberg in the three weeks since he entered the race. Their numbers are more than twice the combined ad spending of the non-billionaire candidates.
Steyer is in second place in ad buys, with $83 million, and the next highest spender is South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, at $19 million.
Steyer's efforts are mainly focused on the four early voting states, with $37 million spent in Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, and New Hampshire, mostly for digital ads. His totals are more than double the combined ad spending from Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the early states.
In South Carolina, where his team is the largest in the four-state operations, Steyer is placed at fifth with 5% and at 4% with black voters, who make up more than half the state's Democrat voters.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg is spending high in all 50 states, but targeting the Super Tuesday states, putting more than $13 million each in California and Texas and another $13 million in Florida, which will vote one week after Super Tuesday.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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