Leading Democratic super PAC spending $30 million on digital ads for midterms

Top Democratic super PAC Priorities USA said Monday it plans to spend $30 million on digital ads for the midterm elections, kickstarting the 2022 political ad war in seven key states.

Priorities USA said it is going to focus on the states with the most competitive contests for the U.S. Senate and governorships. Those states are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“This investment is only the beginning of Priorities’ efforts to reach voters where they are on the issues they care about,” Danielle Butterfield, Priorities USA executive director, said in a statement. “We are proud that our digital engagement efforts have expanded every cycle and I am encouraged that so many of our allies and partners have continued to increase investments toward reaching voters where they are spending their time and getting their information.”

The $30 million expenditure comes on top of $20 million that Priorities USA is deploying to fight “voter suppression” through litigation and other digital ads.

Priorities USA did not run television ads during the last midterm elections, according to Politico, and it is pushing its allies to similarly prioritize digital advertising to win votes.

Priorities USA believes television advertising has become inefficient, especially for down-ballot candidates. The Democratic group said in an April 2021 memo that it analyzed $5.4 billion spent by Democratic and Republican campaigns and groups during the 2020 cycle and observed millions of dollars wasted on television viewers who lived outside a candidate’s district or who had already voted.

The memo warned that while Democrats had spent more than Republicans in the previous election cycle, they were not necessarily spending smarter when considering how ad spending was routed toward traditional mediums over the digital ones where voters spent more time.

Republicans are not sitting idly while Democrats are fighting to keep control of Congress. The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, touted last week hauling in $94 million in 2021. The Senate Leadership Fund told Fox News that it and its allies had nearly $20 million more cash on hand than at this point during the 2020 election cycle.