House Campaign Digital Spending, 9/4 - 9/10

How much are battleground House campaigns spending on Facebook + Google ads?

FWIW, here’s how much money battleground House campaigns spent last week on Meta ads (Facebook + Instagram) and Google ads (Google + YouTube) in races all over the country.

Ad of the week: Jay Chen spends big on persuasion

Last week, Democrat Jay Chen in Orange County-based CA-45 spent a whopping $139k on digital ads attacking freshman GOP Rep. Michelle Steel and boosting his own image. This is a really unusual move for a House candidate at this point in the race, especially since almost all of these ads are dedicated to persuading voters instead of fundraising. More impressive than the spend itself is the sheer breadth of this new campaign; over dozens of ads, Chen is attacking her over her financial ties to the pharmaceutical, fossil fuel, and gun industries, while also highlighting his military service. What’s more, many of the ads are entirely in Chinese and Vietnamese.

Quick facts:

• The top spending gubernatorial candidate on digital ads last week was Democrat Jay Chen in CA-45 who spent $139,016.

• The state with the most expensive competitive House races online last week was California, where candidates in the state’s competitive races spent a combined $193,234 on Meta + Google ads.

• Democratic candidates in competitive races spent $548,841 on Meta + Google ads last week, while Republican candidates spent $124,526.