Presidential Ad Spending in Arizona

Summary: $140.4 million in total spending on presidential advertising over the six-month period put Arizona fifth behind FL, PA, NC and MI.  Biden and allies outspent Trump and allies in Arizona by $24.9 million (43.1% more).  The Trump campaign got off to an early advertising start in May, June and July but the Biden campaign ultimately spent more than twice as much, $54.6 million compared to $23.4 million.  The top spending outside group by far was the pro-Trump Preserve America PAC ($15.3 million).  All told interest groups aligned with Trump narrowly spent more that groups aligned with Biden.  To put total spending in context, dividing the $140.4 million total ad spending by 11 electoral votes gives a figure of $12.77 million per electoral vote; Biden and allies spent $7.51 million and Trump and allies $5.25 million per electoral vote.  Dividing by 3,387,324 votes tallied in the presidential race in Arizona gives a figure of $41.45 per vote; Biden and allies spent $49.39 per Biden vote and Trump and allies spent $34.74 per Trump vote.  Note that the presidential race was not the only one on the airwaves and devices; according to the Center for Responsive Politics the McSally-Kelly U.S. Senate race was the sixth most expensive Senate race of the 2020 cycle.

These data cover spending on advertising on electronic media (broadcast, cable, radio, digital and satellite) but do not include other types of paid media such as billboards, print advertising and persuasion mail.
Data on this page do not show "independent" ads which account for a tiny amount of spending (less than 0.1%).  "Independent" ads includes ads from third party presidential candidates and other small mostly digital buys from various groups.
Also note that groups such as The Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump, although organized by Republicans and thus nominally Republican, are included under Democrat (Biden/Allies) spending since their purpose was to attack Trump.


 

Top Presidential Ad Spending Groups, May 1-Nov. 3, 2020

Of $140.4 million presidential ad spending in Arizona, $100.8 million (71.8%) was on broadcast, $18.0 million (12.8%) on cable, $14.5 million (10.3%) on digital, $3.8 million (2.7%) on radio and $2.3 million (1.6%) on satellite. 

Comparing ad spending by just the two campaigns...
Biden: Broadcast (74.5%), cable (14.8%), radio (4.6%), digital (3.8%), satellite (2.4%).
Trump: Broadcast (81.8%), cable (4.4%), radio (0.51%), digital (12.6%), satellite (0.71%).

As noted above, these data do not include other types of paid media such as billboards, print advertising and persuasion mail.