Republicans Outspending Dems 10 to 1 Targeting Young Men in Pennsylvania

Spending on election advertising aimed at young men (defined here as men under 44) continues to ramp up. Republican-aligned groups outspent Democratic-aligned groups 4 to 1 in the last week, and 8 to 1 so far this cycle, on this demographic. In the month of October, Dems have been outspent 10.5 to 1 in targeting young men in Pennsylvania. Our data here is comparing only spending on Google (which includes Youtube) because it allows precise targeting by age and gender. So this data does not include, for example, broadcast tv airing sports. You can find last week’s updated report here.

Securing American Greatness is blanketing young men in Pennsylvania with this ad: “We see it in our cities and on our streets on borders. On Kamala Harris's watch violent crime rose 55% and her open border agenda makes the crisis critical. 10 million illegal aliens have already breached our border. Their ranks include murderers, sexual predators, even terrorists and they're committing heinous crimes destroying lives and terrorizing Americans. If the border stays open the crisis will only spread. Tell Kamala Harris to stand up for American citizens, not criminal illegals.” SAG spent half a million dollars, all in Pennsylvania, last week alone on this demo.

Make America Great Again is hammering Harris with this ad, which they’re targeting to young men in swing states in 10, 15 and 30 second versions: “After a little girl was murdered Kamala ignored Jessica's law and allowed convicted sex offenders near children. Kamala puts criminals first. Don't make America her next victim.” MAGA Inc. also spent half a million dollars last week alone on this demo.

Duty to America is spending less, but with this ad that is entirely centered around young men: “We did everything we were supposed to. Graduated high school. Got jobs. Put in the work to get ahead. And at every turn Democrats said we were the problem. So they set quotas at schools to exclude us. Rigged corporate America against us. And turned the other way when their economy left us behind. Even if we do everything right Harris and the Democrats find new ways to make us pay. For what? No matter what we do Democrats are against us so this November we're against them.”

Harris is heavily spending behind this ad: Muir: “100 Republicans who worked in National Security now endorsing Harris.” McChrystal: “She came up as a prosecutor, an attorney general. She has the kind of character that's going to be necessary in the presidency. There's only one candidate fit to lead our nation and that's Kamala Harris.”

Future Forward has spent about $20,000 each in Pennsylvania and Michigan airing this ad: “VO: Kamala Harris wants to put more money in your pocket by cutting middle class taxes and capping prescription drug costs. Donald Trump wants to make his rich friends richer. Kamala Harris is looking out for the rest of us.” Harris: “I will fight to give money back to working and middle class Americans.”

Send the Vote, which claimed earlier in the summer that it planned to spend $20 million to register young men to vote for Trump, has spent a total of $3300 on Google ads so far this cycle. They may be spending significantly more on in-person efforts, but that doesn’t show up in this data.

The Center for Voter Information is targeting young men, but with about $10,000 across multiple states, it’s a relatively small player. We did see that Let it Resound is targeting men, but that includes all the way to 54 years old, so we aren’t including that in our analysis.

Despite all the focus on the gender gap this cycle, and the potential for young men to lean toward Trump, Democratic groups are not seriously competing for this vote in terms of spending and targeting. They need to do more.