GOP Groups Outspent Dem Groups Almost 4-1 on Targeting Young Men Last Week
But Dem Efforts Are Starting To Grow (Better Late Than Never)
The campaigns and PACs are continuing their pursuit of young male voters. In the last week, Dems were outspent 3.7 to 1 with their young male targeting, although that is an improvement. Overall in the campaign, Dems have been outspent 14 to 1 in ads targeting young men. These numbers reflect spending on Google and Youtube ads only (where we have full data). You can find the full list here.
The GOP-aligned groups (America PAC, Donald J. Trump For President 2024, Inc., Duty To America, Make America Great Again Inc., Right For America And Securing American Greatness Inc) spent about $700-$850k targeting young men last week (notably the Trump campaign itself spent 0), for a total of $2.8-$3.6 million in the campaign so far.
The Dem aligned groups (Harris for President, The Wisco Project PAC) spent between $185-226k targeting young men last week, for a total of $202-254k. The top ad the Harris campaign is spending on is a 15 second version of “Wake Up,” which they began the week before. (“Donald Trump wakes up thinking about himself. How to enrich himself and his billionaire friends, stay out of jail, and give himself more power. Kamala Harris will work across the aisle and fight for a future that's not just about getting by but getting ahead.”)
The Wisco Project is a new group targeting young adults, 18-24, in, you guessed it, Wisconsin. They seem to have a specific young men ad strategy. And unlike Harris, the messages of their ads seem to be tailored to this audience specifically, both with the subject, the voiceover and overall vibe. The ad they have put the most money on highlights the issue of guns.
Another Dem-aligned ad created by “Creatives For Harris” called “Man Enough” highlights men talking about how they are supporting Harris, and attempts to reframe the debate about masculinity and supporting women. This creative doesn’t have money behind it, but it is already generating some backlash from conservatives.
VO: Tim Walz was the best shot in Congress for years. And Kamala? Well…
Harris: I’m a gun owner. If someone breaks into my house, they’re gettin shot. Sorry
VO: But Donald Trump can’t even own guns, thanks to his 34 felony convictions. As Trump’s VP, Vance has yet to mention if he owns guns, but does this look like a regular at the range to you? Real gun owners know how to carry safely. Out of touch Ivy league elites only know how to parrot what they heard from lobbyists
Trump: MK 47s, I know that gun very well.
Trump: I have nothing to do with Project 2025
VO: If I knew nothing about Project 2025, I wouldn’t fly on a VJ with its founder. I wouldn’t pick a VP that quite literally wrote the foreword to it. I wouldn’t have had the majority of people behind it be alums of my administration. And I certainly wouldn’t be the keynote speaker at a dinner hosted by the organization that created it.
Trump: This is a great group and they’re gonna lay the groundwork and detailed plans for exactly what our movement will do. Heritage does such an incredible job at that.
Thanks for putting together this list of ads, I hadn't seen some of those.
I guess all's fair in love, war, and politics, but I found it interesting that they raised the tone of Trump's voice by an octave or so in the gun and the Project 2025 ad. Is that legal to do? With so much going on, people probably have bigger fish to fry anyway.
I thought those two ads were pretty good, though I didn't like how they attacked JD Vance's appearance. I think they could have kept him out of the spot completely. But appealing to gun enthusiasts and people scared of Project 2025, which Trump has attempted to distance himself from, are good messaging.