Behind the curtain on Democrats’ unprecedented digital advertising campaign | CNN Politics

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.

Next week’s election will be a test for the powerhouse FF PAC and its digital investment, measuring the efficacy of some of the most cutting-edge tools and tactics available to modern campaigns.

The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission transformed US elections, opening the floodgates to groups like FF PAC, which were allowed to accept unlimited contributions from wealthy megadonors and faced no limits on the amount they could spend influencing campaigns.

In the years since, those groups have proliferated and dominated political advertising, driving the cost of US elections to new heights. The 2024 election is poised to break the record set by the 2020 election and see $10.2 billion worth of campaign advertising, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact.

Out of the large universe of outside groups, the Biden-Harris ticket selected FF PAC in July 2023 as its officially endorsed super PAC for the 2024 campaign. The group has taken on an unprecedented role in this year’s White House race, centralizing Democratic outside efforts in marked contrast to the balkanized network of pro-Trump outside groups.

From the start of 2023 through October 16, the end of the most recent FEC reporting period, FF PAC reported raising $394 million and spending $373 million – including $38 million before President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race in late July. An aide with the group said its budget for the condensed general election between Harris and Trump totaled $450 million, primarily targeting seven key battleground states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia.

The group has received a substantial portion of its funding from a Democratic dark money hub, Future Forward USA Action, which, as a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization, faces no requirements to disclose its donors and is able to contribute huge sums to super PACs like FF PAC. Among those donors is billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gave $50 million to the dark money network this year.

FF PAC had reported receiving $128 million from its dark money parent organization through October 16. Top-named donors to FF PAC include Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who has given $38 million; LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who has given more than $10 million; and Bloomberg, who has also given $19 million directly to FF PAC in publicly disclosed contributions.

With its massive war chest, FF PAC has faced the challenge of effectively and efficiently distributing its resources. Part of its response has been operating a massive advertising laboratory, at an unprecedented scale. The group has produced and tested more than 1,000 unique ads and measured their effectiveness at moving voters. And after surveying voters watching the ads, the group has honed in on messaging about the economy and abortion.

It’s a focus that the super PAC is urging Democrats to mirror as Harris delivers her closing message. An October 25 email from the FF PAC to Democrats with advice on messaging contained this cautionary note: “How effective is attacking Trump for being a fascist? This topic is not as persuasive as contrast messages featuring Harris’s economic plans, and her promise to protect reproductive rights.”

Those lines of attack – focused on Trump’s character and citing criticism from former administration officials – have featured prominently in late advertising coming from the Harris campaign, such as a spot that began airing over the weekend and included audio of Trump’s onetime chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, telling The New York Times that the former president “certainly falls into the general definition of a fascist.”

Appearing Monday on CNN, Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams responded to FF PAC’s argument, saying that “the American people are capable of processing numerous things at once, and there are a lot of people who have a lot of different concerns about the country and the future.”

As part of its strategy, FF PAC has launched waves of ads that feature the candidate discussing tax policy. The group had received positive feedback about ads that include Harris speaking, as opposed to the dramatic narrators who often accompany political spots.

Voter testimonials are another key tactic, and FF PAC has produced dozens of spots that feature voters reacting disapprovingly to clips of Trump praising his “rich as hell” donors, a sustained line of attack.

Additionally, reflecting its effort to reach key groups such as young women, FF PAC has run ads on TikTok targeting the “MomTok” audience, touting Harris’ proposals to “cut taxes for families, up to $6,000 for your family.”

The super PAC’s ads have also emphasized abortion rights, a top issue for Democratic voters that is contributing to a yawning political gender divide. Many of those ads feature women and medical professionals warning against abortion restrictions and criticizing Trump, who appointed three of the five Supreme Court justices who voted with the majority to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Amid a transformed media landscape in 2024, TV advertising still draws the most dollars. Out of nearly $2.9 billion spent on advertising for the presidential race since the start of 2023, more than $2.2 billion has gone toward TV ads, according to data from AdImpact. FF PAC is spending hundreds of millions on TV, too, but it’s on digital platforms that the group hopes to make its mark.

“Our program has been about reaching voters where they are and on the screens they use,” Margit Westerman, FF PAC’s digital director, said in a statement. “That means a surround-sound approach where people see it while watching their favorite streaming show, looking at the latest YouTube clip and visiting their go-to website. We spent months understanding where people were and we’ve found the content that is persuasive as long as we make sure people see it.”

That includes a $44 million YouTube buy, targeting an audience that skews young and diverse. And the campaign has targeted high-profile live events, beginning with the Olympics late this summer and including the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” through Election Day.

FF PAC has also bought ad time on popular gaming platforms such as Unity and Frameplay, targeting younger male voters, a key area of concern for the Harris campaign. And straining to reach screens, FF PAC also bought ad time on premium streaming TV platforms, including Hulu, Disney, Peacock, WB/Discovery/Max, and Univision. (Warner Bros./Discovery is the parent company of CNN.)

The group estimates it has delivered 3.71 billion high-quality video impressions so far. And it has done so by paying a premium: Many of FF PAC’s 30-second TV ads have 15- and 6-second versions designed for digital platforms’ unskippable slots.

On traditional TV too, FF PAC has been creative with its resources, spending millions on national ad buys that – while airing everywhere – still represent a cheaper way to reach swing states than buying ad time from local stations getting slammed in the race’s final sprint.

FF PAC’s commitment to digital advertising has enabled the group to blitz its Republican counterparts on leading platforms during the final weeks of the race.

In the first week of October, FF PAC spent $6.7 million advertising on Google and its affiliated platforms, including YouTube, while the leading pro-Trump advertiser spent about $1.5 million. The following week, FF PAC ramped its spending up to nearly $9 million, while the leading pro-Trump advertiser spent about $1.2 million. During the third week of October, FF PAC spent $10.5 million, while the largest pro-Trump advertiser spent about $2 million; and during the fourth week, FF PAC led with $12.3 million on Google platforms, while the top GOP advertiser spent $3.5 million.

While FF PAC has a singular role as the leading pro-Harris super PAC, Republicans have taken a divergent approach, deploying a network of large super PACs that each take on a share of the pro-Trump messaging.

Five of the largest groups – MAGA Inc., Preserve America, America PAC, Restoration PAC and Right For America PAC – have combined to raise $718 million and spend $709 million from the beginning of 2023 through mid-October. The largest, MAGA Inc., reported spending about $113 million before Trump had secured the GOP presidential nomination.

Each group has devoted a share of its spending to digital advertising, but FF PAC had exceeded their combined spending on Google platforms through October 27, $37.7 million to $11.4 million. On Facebook over the past 30 days, those pro-Trump groups collectively led FF PAC, about $4.8 million to $2.3 million (including about $700,000 in ad spending from a MAGA Inc. merchandise site).

One of the pro-Trump groups, America PAC, has received nearly $120 million from Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, and it has also taken an iconoclastic approach to its spending – though its efforts have differed from FF PAC’s.

Musk’s group has probed the limits of weakening campaign finance enforcement – including daily giveaways of $1 million that have drawn scrutiny from the Department of Justice and are the target of a civil lawsuit from the Philadelphia district attorney. America PAC is also engaged in an unprecedented on-the-ground effort, devoting more than $70 million to canvassing and field operations in battleground states, a huge lift for the Trump campaign.

Part of that is out of necessity – the former president’s campaign has been dramatically outraised by Harris’ team, leaving the Democratic nominee with significantly more campaign cash to spend on staff, door-knocking, phone banking and other turnout efforts.

FF PAC has not engaged in a comparable turnout effort, leaving that traditional campaign activity to the cash-flush Harris operation. But the super PAC is betting that its innovative and unprecedented digital advertising program will help Harris close what’s shaping up to be one of the closest elections in the country’s history.