Future Forward, a super PAC supporting President Biden’s reelection campaign, said it will reserve $250 million in ads aimed at voters in battleground states on television, cable and streaming services. The super PAC said this effort dwarfs the $140 million it spent on its media campaign in 2020, when it was the largest outside advertiser helping Biden’s candidacy.
“The stakes of this election could not be higher, and by election day, every battleground voter will know it,” Chauncey McLean, president of Future Forward PAC, said in a statement. “We’ll run a cost effective and data-driven program of unprecedented scale to reelect Joe Biden.”
The 10-week advertising blitz will begin Aug. 23, the day after the Democratic National Convention ends, and the ads will continue to run through Election Day on Nov. 5. By making the reservations far in advance, the super PAC says it negotiated lower rates than would be available later in the campaign season.
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The ads will target voters in battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, plus Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which abuts Iowa. The super PAC said it hopes to reach younger voters who may not be following politics closely, as well as Spanish speakers and Black voters.
The announcement by Future Forward, first reported by the New York Times, comes as public polling shows Biden trailing his likely Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump, in some battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and roughly tied with Trump in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It also comes days after another organization, American Bridge 21st Century, said it will launch a $140 million ad campaign starting in the spring, aimed at reminding women and working-class voters why they voted against Trump in 2020.
Biden has strained to hold onto support among younger voters, Black men, and Arab Americans. For his part, Biden has sought to improve his outreach to some of these groups, including by wooing and collaborating with popular social media influencers.
The $250 million Future Forward said it plans to spend $110 million on ads this cycle on digital platforms, which it says is the largest digital reservation by an outside organization for a political campaign. Of that $110 million, around $35 million will be for ads that appear on YouTube; additional ads will appear on Hulu, Roku, Vevo and other streaming services, according to the organization. Ads also will appear on Telemundo and Univision (whose critics say its political coverage shifted under new ownership to favor Trump).
In 2022 Hulu, the Disney-backed streaming service, blocked ads about abortion and guns, themes Democrats sought to highlight in the midterm elections. After a public outcry, the policy was dropped.
Michael Scherer contributed to this report.