Trump vastly outspending Biden in presidential campaign ad wars

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President Trump’s campaign has outspent Democratic challenger Joe Biden's by nearly a three-to-one margin since the general election campaign got underway a month and a half ago.

The former vice president’s campaign has spent roughly $8 million to run ads since early April, when Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as his last remaining rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ended his White House bid. Those figures come from Advertising Analytics, a leading ad tracking firm.

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The president’s reelection campaign and the allied Make America Great Again Committee have spent approximately $21 million to run ads during the same time period.

Biden’s ad buys have been solely on digital. The former vice president hasn’t run ads on broadcast or cable TV since mid-March, when the coronavirus pandemic brought to a halt nearly all in-person voting in presidential primaries.

One such digital ad charges that Trump was “unprepared” and “indecisive” as the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe.

“When coronavirus came, Trump froze like a deer in the headlights,” the narrator in the ad says.

While Biden’s been absent from the airwaves the past two months, the Trump campaign’s spent nearly $10 million the past couple of weeks to run TV commercials.

And to the contrary of the Biden campaign's message, their first big ad blitz touts the job the president is doing to combat the pandemic.

The campaign's commercial, released early this month, includes a clip of Trump declaring during his State of the Union Address in early February that “my administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.” And the ad uses clips from two top Democratic governors – Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California – complimenting the president.

The disparity between the two campaigns on TV ad spending comes as the Trump campaign – as of May 1 – had a massive cash-on-hand advantage over the Biden campaign.

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While the Biden campaign’s yet to run commercials on TV during the general election, two major pro-Biden super PACs have been airing spots in support of the former vice president. The president has also enjoyed support on TV from the leading pro-Trump super PAC

Looking ahead, Advertising Analytics has upped from $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion its estimate of how much will be spent on ads in the presidential general election.

With five and a half months to go until the November election, the most recent polls indicate Biden ahead of Trump.

A Fox News national survey conducted May 17-20 showed Biden with a 48-40 percent lead over Trump among registered voters. And an average of all of the most recent polls compiled by Real Clear Politics indicates Biden with a 5.5 point advantage.