Former President Donald Trump on Monday reportedly placed nearly $40 million in seven battleground states, including $23.8 million in Georgia, as polling shows him statistically tied with Vice President Kamala Harris in the state that helped propel President Joe Biden to the White House in 2024.
Trump’s campaign placed a $37.2 million television ad buy across Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada, according to AdImpact, which reported it is “the most he’s reserved on TV ads in a single day this cycle.”
Georgia is on target to receive the largest share of the spend at $23.8 million, or about 64 percent of the total, AdImpact reported. North Carolina saw the second largest share of the Trump campaign’s ad spend at $4.4 million, followed by Michigan at $3.1 million.
A total of $4 million was spent in Wisconsin and Arizona, while Nevada saw $1.4 million. Pennsylvania saw the smallest share of the ad buy at just $867,000.
Today, the Trump campaign placed $37.2M in new ad spending, the most he's reserved on TV ads in a single day this cycle.
New Trump reservations placed today by state:#GAPol: $23.8M#NCPol: $4.4M#MIPol: $3.1M#WIPol: $2.0M#AZPol: $2.0M#NVPol: $1.4M#PAPol: $867K
— AdImpact Politics (@AdImpact_Pol) August 9, 2024
Trump’s advertising blitz, and his campaign’s focus in Georgia, comes as polling suggests the presidential race might be narrowing in the Peach State, and another survey claimed Harris now leads the former president by four percent nationwide.
The former president is currently ahead in Georgia by just 0.6 percent in a head-to-head contest against Harris, according to the Real Clear Polling aggregate of data.
When Georgia voters are given third party and independent presidential candidates as options in the surveys, including independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, the Real Clear Polling aggregate shows the former president’s lead expands to 1.8 percent, leaving him statistically tied with Harris.
The Trump campaign’s investment in Georgia comes months after the New York Times reported Georgia activists expressed concerns about the national party’s lack of interest in repeating Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia when investments while the 81-year-old was the party’s presumptive nominee.
“For some inexplicable reason, a lot of people are leaving Georgia out of the top tier of states to focus on next year,” one Democratic donor told the outlet, before adding that “top donors” and “advisors to billionaires” did not include Georgia in a “top tier list of five states” considered must-wins for Biden.
In April, just months before he would bow out of the race in favor of his vice president, Biden opened new field offices in Georgia amid faltering polls.
Amid the more optimistic polling, the Harris campaign launched its own ad campaign in Georgia and other battleground states on Monday.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
