Releases

Photo Gage Skidmore/flickr GOP candidates get significant backing from super PACs(MIDDLETOWN, CT) January 11, 2024 – Donald Trump may not be at the Republican presidential debates, but he is not conceding the airwaves in Iowa or New Hampshire, a new analysis from the Wesleyan Media Project shows. Trump’s campaign, along with the Make America Great Again super PAC, have spent about $10 million on the airwaves in Iowa (Table 1) for roughly 22,000 ad airings, just shy of the number of pro-Haley airings. Another 4,800 airings (or about $4.7 million) in pro-Trump ads have aired in New Hampshire, but the…

(MIDDLETOWN, CT) February 21, 2023 – The Wesleyan Media Project is releasing the final post in a series of regularly updated overviews of issue mentions in federal races by state. Below we show the percentage of ads mentioning seven key issues tracked by the WMP (abortion, energy/environment, guns, health care, immigration, inflation, public safety). Individual graphs by state can be seen by clicking on any state. The post covers ads from all sponsors (candidates, parties, and outside groups) aired on broadcast TV in U.S. House and U.S. Senate races from September 5, 2022 to November 8, 2022. Note that percentages…

Photo Gage Skidmore/flickr Pro-Republican Outside Groups Airing More Ads than Republican Candidates(MIDDLETOWN, CT) November 3, 2022 – An estimated $2.71 billion has been spent in federal and gubernatorial races on broadcast television advertising this election cycle, according to a new analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project.  That represents 4.3 million ad airings so far cycle-to-date (between January 6, 2021, and October 30, 2022), an increase of 10 percent over the same period in the 2018 midterms. Nearly a third (29.9 percent) of all pro-Democratic and pro-Republican ads were sponsored by groups.  These totals include any ads aired in congressional and…