Joe Biden’s presidential campaign broke a monthly record in September, raising $383 million dollars in funds, in comparison to $248 million raised by Donald Trump’s campaign, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The Trump campaign is now lagging behind Biden in spending on TV commercials, including in the main battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to the report. As such, Biden has spent nearly $53 million in these key swing states over the past month, $36 million more than Trump.
Some of Biden’s highly promoted ads included those criticising Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as well addressing senior citizens, with the 77-year-old Biden assuring that their “health and safety” will be his responsibility.
However, the presidential campaign's deputy secretary, Samantha Zager, maintains that “television ads are a small piece of the voter outreach puzzle and the Trump campaign has perfected the art of utilising them in the most strategic, surgical way possible”.
Unlike Biden, Trump’s campaign has been much more interested in online advertising, the same strategy it used back in 2016. The Telegraph reports that since September Donald Trump has spent $33.8 million on online adverts on Facebook and Google, $165.8 million since mid-April overall. The Biden campaign has spent only $130.1 million on online ads during the same period, but since late September has already devoted some $34.7 million to online ads.
It should be noted that Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, also out-fundraised Donald Trump four years ago. Polls confidently predicted her victory in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania by a high margin. However, it was Trump who actually nailed votes in territories that had previously cheered for Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
With a crucial two weeks to go before 3 November, Joe Biden is leading national polls by a two-digit margin ahead of Donald Trump, including in these three swing states, something, which accompanied by the Democrat’s large spending, has apparently prompted Trump’s campaign to raise questions about their strategy, the report notes.
On Thursday, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner called for a meeting at the White House about the allocation of the campaign’s remaining funds, The Washington Post revealed where the officials have also discussed the campaign’s “message”, according to a senior adviser, Jason Miller. It’s not only Donald Trump, but many Republican senators are also now defending their 23 seats in the upcoming Senate elections on 3 November.