US elections. Kamala Harris outclasses Donald Trump in one respect

• Weekly Friday series “Interia Closer to the World” are the most interesting articles from the most important foreign newspapers
• Staff expenses Wrong Harris are much larger than Donald Trump
• The Washington Post notes that the difference is not visible in the polls
• Democrats have always had an advantage in this respect, say Donald Trump's allies

A month before the presidential elections in USA Donald Trump i Kamala Harris in the polls they are almost neck and neck. However, this is where the similarities end. Especially when it comes to campaign expenses.

The Democratic candidate runs a campaign three times more expensive than the Republican candidate. Harris ran $263 million in ads from the end of the Democratic convention in August through Oct. 4, according to AdImpact, a marketing spending tracking firm. That's almost 2.5 times more than the $109 million spent by Trump's campaign.

The current vice president can boast of having more people involved in the campaign: employees, volunteers, more advertising on the Internet, a more extensive organizational program and a lot of money allocated for gadgets: bells, whistles, mugs, etc.

Recently in Philadelphia The Democrat's staff organized a light drone show. Participants of her meetings often receive illuminated bracelets, just like at the concerts of the biggest pop stars. There are plans to broadcast advertising spots at the end of October on TV stations in the so-called swing states – crucial for the final election result.

Harris's lead is larger than in Trump's two previous runs White House. Taking into account campaign spending, the vice president is currently significantly ahead of the multi-billionaire compared to his previous matchups: with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Bidenem four years later.

When all campaign spending is added up, Democrats spent $225 million more on presidential ads between the end of the convention and Oct. 4 – almost 1.8 times the $294 million spent by Republicans, according to AdImpact estimates.

How are these expenses distributed? USD 97 million was spent on advertising on news portals. That's 34 million more than Republicans. In turn, Harris's team spent a total of $278 million on campaign ads on Facebook and Google – almost three times more than its competitors. And while Democrats also spent more in 2020, their advantage was smaller.

It turns out that eight of the 10 largest political advertisers in the last 90 days on Meta's platforms (Facebook, Instagram) are accounts related to Kamala Harris' campaign. Democrats spent a total of $89 million here by October 3 – 10 times more than Republicans ($8 million).

But so far, the spending gap has done little to tip the scales decisively in the Democrat's favor. Trump is currently polling much better than he did during the same period in 2020. That's why Harris strategists say the difference in the November vote will be small. Everything will be decided in several key states.

– We always knew the competition would be fierce. We built the campaign with this awareness in mind. We intend to win the elections, he emphasizes Lauren Hitt, spokeswoman for the Harris campaign. – Our strategy seems to be much more effective than Trump's plan to send someone to a potential voter's house a month before voting day. Voters can distinguish someone who tries to earn their vote from someone who takes it for granted, he argues.

An average of Washington Post polls in recent weeks shows Harris leading by two or three percentage points in Wisconsin, Michigan i Pennsylvaniawhile Trump has a two-point lead in Arizona i George. Differences in North Carolina i Have them are less than one percentage point. The result in each state is within the error limit of 3.5 points. The final result may be favorable for both contenders.

Kamala Harris is spending hundreds of millions of dollars and still has a worse record against President Trump than any Democrat, Trump spokeswoman points out Caroline Leavitt. “That's because President Trump has assembled the best campaign team,” she added.

Some Republicans with close ties to Trump fear that if differences in polls remain minimal, the final vote could be influenced by differences in spending in states where voter mobilization will be crucial.

Republican campaign advisers have called for more spending on efforts to encourage voters to vote. Trump allegedly told his strategists to focus not only on attracting new voters, but also on a program to monitor “election integrity”, i.e. protection against possible fraud. 175,000 are to be involved. people. However, this initiative does not directly translate into increased attendance. As we hear unofficially, Trump also wants to have funds, among others: for lawsuits, his colleagues say.

Lara Trumpthe president's daughter-in-law and co-chair Republican National Committeecalls for spending more money on online advertising during the campaign. Trump himself, in turn, organizes a series of fundraisers in the last month before the vote.

Two other Washington Post interviewees from Trump's camp admitted that they were surprised by the large number of Kamala Harris' campaign ads in some of the states they visited. In their opinion, there was much more of her material than Trump's.

– In seven key states, the difference in votes will be from 350,000. up to 400 thousand voters, he said Kevin Maddenthe Republican's top campaign adviser Mitta Romney w 2012 r.

Trump campaign leaders maintain the Republican has the necessary resources to win. They argue that they have already exceeded their internal assumptions in the context of raising funds. They claim that, as planned, Democrats managed to raise more cash. But they believe that Trump's ability to attract attention via television and social media may be key. This is to compensate for the lack of paid advertising.

– If money were the deciding factor, Hillary Clinton would be finishing her second term as president – he emphasizes James Blairpolitical director of the Trump campaign. – Our task is to find a way to win no matter what, and I am convinced that we have the idea and resources to do it – he adds.

Kamala Harris, who launched her campaign in late July, has so far taken a much more cautious approach to traditional news media, although her team says she will do more interviews in the coming weeks, including a traditional pre-election interview on a special edition of “60 Minutes” on TV CBS (this also happened after the article was published – note by Interia). It is also expected to appear on local stations in key states.

Since Joe Biden resigned from running for re-election, Harris and Trump have been touring the country and in this respect there are no major differences between them. The Democrat's team points out that both parties are dealing with an already hardened electorate what will be decisive will be convincing a small part of the undecided in key states.

The vice president's advisers argue that Donald Trump faces a more difficult task in this respect. In their opinion, political changes in the last decade have allowed Democrats to gain support among voters more accustomed to voting. This is supposed to be one of the reasons for the better-than-expected voting result in the so-called mid-term elections in 2018 and 2022.

– Trump has an electorate that, in some respects, requires a major campaign. That's partly because many of the people they need to convince are occasional voters, one Harris campaign strategist analyzes. – By definition, they are harder to reach – he adds. The billionaire's advisers say it's Harris who has a turnout problem. “They have hundreds of thousands of voters in every state who did not vote in any 2020 election and will not receive a mail-in ballot this time,” Blair responds.

At the end of September, the Harris staff reported that it had a total of 330 offices and over 2.4 thousand. employees. On the last weekend of last month, they were able to contact over a million voters in three days. They reached 100,000. events during the campaign. Blair responds that the Trump campaign has over 300 offices of the “Trump Force 47” initiative (47, because Americans will elect the 47th president in November – ed.), aimed at attracting new voters. The Republican's staff boasts of 30,000. committed volunteers, not counting other people working on the campaign.

Both groups also have a network of external companies or organizations that work on behalf of their candidates in the field. One such initiative, America PAC, was organized for Trump by the Tesla CEO Elon Musk. According to the expenses disclosed in September, it allocated PLN 17 million for activities related to the campaign.

Cody Halltop adviser to Georgia's Republican governor Brian Kemp, he said there was a “frenzy of activity” in the state. – Elon is knocking on voters' doors with his initiative. We, in turn, have our own tasks, he emphasizes. Hall notes that the spending discrepancy and uncertainty about voter mobilization make him concerned about the vote outcome.

Three prominent Republicans said there were concerns in Michigan about the lack of volunteers and the organization of the Trump campaign itself. In Arizona, the head of local structures Gina Swoboda she privately expressed similar concerns, but in a statement she assured that things were moving in the right direction.

“In Arizona, I am not only pleased with the field program, but also confident that our team is engaging and communicating with the voters we need to return President Donald J. Trump to the White House,” she said. – We have strategically located headquarters offices. We can positively impact turnout and have the power to increase voter registration, increase voting efforts and effectively convey the president's message, she added.

Trump's associates claim that the discrepancies in political advertising spending are not as bad as in 2020, when, after significant spending in the initial phase of the campaign, the financial fuel ran out at the end. It was supposed to come to this they didn't even have TV ads in Georgia in recent weeks and were begging donors for money.

“We were outclassed at the end,” one Trump aide said anonymously. The person said the spending gap was one reason the Republican lost. Another of the billionaire's associates admitted that expenses will be an even bigger problem than in 2020. – This is not new for us – he emphasized. The Washington Post's interlocutor admitted that the “disproportion in spending” harmed 2020. But – in his opinion – Trump lost mainly because of his management of the crisis related to the coronavirus pandemic

– They outspend us, and yet the polls remain unchanged. It's really amazing, he concluded.

Article translated from “The Washington Post”. Autorzy: Josh Dawsey, Michael Scherer, Clara Ence Morse, Theodoric Meyer

Translation: Mateusz Kucharczyk

The title, subheadings and abbreviations come from the editors.