Behind the curtain on Democrats’ unprecedented digital advertising campaign

Democrats are mounting an unprecedented digital advertising campaign in the closing weeks of the presidential race, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a targeted effort that the party hopes will tip the balance in one of the closest elections in US history.

Democrats are mounting an unprecedented digital advertising campaign in the closing weeks of the presidential race, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a targeted effort that the party hopes will tip the balance in one of the closest elections in US history. The effort is being steered by Future Forward PAC, or FF PAC, the largest single-candidate super PAC in the 2024 election. And the group is breaking from traditional political advertising by focusing half of its $450 million budget on digital platforms – including what it says is the largest political ad buy in YouTube history – crafting highly targeted content to capture and hold the attention of voters. FF PAC’s approach, particularly in the campaign’s final weeks, has emphasized digital advertising aimed at non-political audiences, including younger voters, especially younger women, Black voters, Latino voters and other key demographics that Vice President Kamala Harris will need to form a winning coalition. Super PACs are prohibited from directly coordinating with the campaigns they support. But leveraging its scale, FF PAC has produced and tested more than 1,000 unique ads, locking in on the economy and abortion as top messaging priorities. And in the closing stretch, the group is advising Democrats not to overemphasize attacks on Donald Trump’s character and fitness for office – such as recent messaging by the Harris campaign calling the former president a fascist – and remain focused on voters’ pocketbooks and reproductive rights. The group’s staggering war chest is funded by some of the Democratic Party’s wealthiest supporters, taking advantage of loose campaign finance regulations that allow outside groups like FF PAC to raise and spend unlimited sums as they work to influence the outcome of elections. It’s an effort that reflects some of the key dynamics at play in the 2024 race, characterized by big money, transforming media and analytics-driven campaigning. And countering Democrats is a network of Republican groups that are also breaking new ground in the American political arena.