The main Democratic super PAC supporting President Biden’s re-election bid, Future Forward, is beginning this week to reserve $250 million in advertising across the most important battleground states, a blitz that it says is the largest single purchase of political advertising by a super PAC in the nation’s history.
The ads, which are to be split between $140 million on television and $110 million on digital and streaming platforms, will start the day after the Democratic National Convention concludes in August and will run through Election Day, the super PAC said.
The ad reservation covers seven states that are seen as the main presidential battlegrounds: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The super PAC said it was reserving more than $16 million in broadcast and cable advertising in Atlanta and $12 million in the Phoenix TV markets — the biggest in the two states that Mr. Biden brought into the Democratic column in 2020 for the first time in years. It is also spending heavily in smaller markets in battleground states: $3 million each in Madison, Wis., and Reno, Nev., and $2 million in Flint, Mich.
The digital reservation includes roughly $35 million on YouTube, with more on other streaming platforms, including Hulu, Roku and Vevo, plus the streaming services of the Spanish-language giants Telemundo and Univision.
Future Forward is also aiming to target some of the same demographic groups of more disaffected and disengaged Democrats that the Biden campaign itself is focusing on: younger voters, Hispanic voters and Black voters.
The reservation is entirely by Future Forward’s super PAC, which is known as FF PAC. The group also has a nonprofit arm that ran advertising last year. The super PAC and nonprofit have previously announced raising $208 million in 2023, meaning that the group has presumably even more money in commitments already lined up.
“The stakes of this election could not be higher, and by Election Day, every battleground voter will know it,” said Chauncey McLean, the president of Future Forward’s super PAC. “We’ll run a cost-effective and data-driven program of unprecedented scale to re-elect Joe Biden.”
The $250 million ad purchase is more than any independent expenditure group spent for the whole of the 2020 election. Future Forward spent $151 million to back Mr. Biden four years ago and is set to play an even more significant role in 2024, after the White House designated the super PAC as the leading outside group this year. The leading super PAC backing President Donald J. Trump in 2020, America First Action, spent $150 million.
By reserving ads early, the super PAC is expected to be able to negotiate better rates than those that buy later, and to secure some of the most coveted time slots.
With the Republican Party appearing increasingly likely to nominate Mr. Trump again, Democrats are hoping that their constellation of supportive super PACs will deliver the party a significant financial edge.
The main pro-Trump super PAC announced that it had raised $46 million in the second half of 2023 and roughly $60 million for the year — far less than Future Forward.
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