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2024 Elections

Dark Money on TV in the 2024 Elections 2024 ElectionsReleases

Dark Money on TV in the 2024 Elections

(MIDDLETOWN, CT) March 14, 2025 - The Wesleyan Media Project (WMP) has examined the sponsorship of advertising on television in federal races during the 2023-24 election cycle.  In this report, the WMP is focusing on advertising by outside groups, looking specifically at different group types.  In partnership with OpenSecrets, the Wesleyan Media Project classifies groups in two ways.  First, we identify groups by their tax and regulatory classifications, such as Super PACs, traditional PACs, or non-profit 501c4s.  Second, we label groups based on their donor disclosure.  Classifications on this measure fall into three types: full-disclosure groups (meaning they disclose contributor…
Wesleyan Media Project
March 14, 2025
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More Than $4.5 Billion in Ad Spending This Cycle 2024 ElectionsReleases

More Than $4.5 Billion in Ad Spending This Cycle

Trump and Harris Even in TV Ad Spots This Past Week(MIDDLETOWN, CT) October 31, 2024 – In its final pre-election analysis, the Wesleyan Media Project has examined ad spending for the entire election cycle back to January 2023. We identify nearly $4.5 billion in television and radio advertising in federal and gubernatorial campaigns, which does not include digital spending covered below (Figure 1). Over $3.4 billion of that total was committed to local broadcast or national network advertising. An additional $770 million was committed to television ads on local and national cable networks. “Television ads continue to dominate federal and…
Wesleyan Media Project
October 31, 2024
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Harris TV Ads Plummet Before Rebounding 2024 ElectionsReleases

Harris TV Ads Plummet Before Rebounding

Nearly $300 Million in Presidential Ad Spending Across Platforms Over Past Two Weeks(MIDDLETOWN, CT) October 24, 2024 – During the past two weeks, pro-Trump ads outnumbered pro-Harris ads on broadcast television by about 10,000 airings, according to a new report from the Wesleyan Media Project.  Table 1 shows that pro-Trump ads numbered about 71,000 during the October 7 to October 20 time period, while pro-Harris ads numbered about 61,000.  This is a change from recent weeks, when pro-Harris ads heavily out-weighed pro-Trump spots. However, Harris and her allies are airing advertising on national network and national cable television, which count…
Wesleyan Media Project
October 24, 2024
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Presidential Advertising Issue Spotlight (7/22/24 – 10/15/24) 2024 ElectionsReleases

Presidential Advertising Issue Spotlight (7/22/24 – 10/15/24)

(MIDDLETOWN, CT) October 17, 2024 – The Wesleyan Media Project is releasing the fourth post in a series of regularly updated overviews of issue mentions, this time focusing on the presidential race by media market. Below, we show the percentage of ads mentioning eight key issues tracked by the WMP (abortion, energy/environment, guns, health care, housing, immigration, inflation, public safety). The post covers ads from all sponsors (candidates, parties, and outside groups) aired on broadcast TV in the Presidential race from July 22, 2024 to October 15, 2024. Note that percentages across the columns may total more than 100 percent…
Wesleyan Media Project
October 17, 2024
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