Spending Fast and Furious: Political Advertising in 2020

This article is a "first look" at political advertising in 2020 Spending on political advertising in the United States in 2020 obliterated records, and Democrats held huge advantages in the presidential race and in most congressional and senatorial races In addition, all indicators suggest that spending on digital advertising continued to rise Political advertising was largely similar in tone to past years and, in the presidential race, was substantially more positive than 2016 In addition, interest groups remained heavily involved in federal races in 2020, airing more ads than ever before, though their spending as a percentage of total ad spending was slightly less than in 2016 Political ad spending in 2020 may have been historically high because of the impact of COVID-19 on how campaigns could reach voters, suggesting that paid advertising may decline in 2022 and 2024, at least as a percentage of total election spending [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Forum (2194-6183) is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )