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2022 ElectionsReleases

Abortion Mentions Climb After SCOTUS Draft Opinion

25 Percent of Pro-Republican House Ads in Past Week Mention Abortion (MIDDLETOWN, CT) May 12, 2022 – Mentions of abortion in televised political advertising have risen in the wake of the leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a new analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project.  The increase was especially pronounced in races for the U.S. House, where prior to May 3, 6.2 percent of pro-Democratic ads and 13.5 percent of pro-Republican ads mentioned the issue (Table 1).  Since that day, 22 percent of pro-Democratic ads and 24.5 percent of pro-Republican ads…
Donald Trump speaking at rally
2020 ElectionsReleases

Presidential General Election Ad Spending Tops $1.5 Billion

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr Pro-Dem Ad Advantages Up and Down the Ballot; Republican Airings More Negative   Report Highlights President Biden and Trump spending by medium (Table 1) Top TV spenders in the presidential race (Table 2) Digital spending by Trump and Biden (Table 3) TV Spending by media market (Table 4, Figure 1, and compared to 2016 in Figure 2) Facebook spending by geography (Figure 4) U.S. Senate Top TV spenders in U.S. Senate races (Table 6) Digital and TV spending in U.S. Senate races (Table 7) Tone of U.S. Senate races (Table 8, Figure 8, and Figure 9) Top…
Wesleyan Media Project
October 29, 2020
2020 ElectionsReleases

Record Shattering 2020 Ad Volumes

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr Phoenix Top Media Market Cycle-to-Date   (MIDDLETOWN, CT) October 21, 2020 – A new brief report from the Wesleyan Media Project finds record levels of television advertising in the 2020 campaigns. Over 4.9 million ads have aired in federal races (House, Senate and president) on broadcast and national cable television since January of 2019 (Figure 1). That volume is more than twice the volume of ad airings in the 2012 and 2016 presidential election cycles—and well above the previously record-setting mid-term election ad volumes in 2018.   Figure 1: Volume of Federal Advertising by Cycle (2012-2020) Numbers…
Wesleyan Media Project
October 21, 2020
2020 ElectionsReleases

Biden Continues to Dominate Advertising

TV Shatters Records, Dems Lead Ad War in All Top Senate Races   Report Highlights President Top TV spenders in the presidential race (Table 1) Digital spending by Trump and Biden (Table 2) Compare geographic spend on TV (Figure 1) and Facebook (Figure 3) Tone of presidential TV ads (Figures 6 and 7) US Senate Top TV spenders in US Senate races (Table 5) Digital spending in US Senate races (Table 6) Top issues in US Senate TV ads (Table 8) US House Top TV spenders in US House races (Table 10) Digital spending in US House races (Table 11)…
Wesleyan Media Project
October 15, 2020