Mike Pence’s 2024 digital operation kicks into gear
The former Vice President dramatically increased digital ad spending last week… let’s hope “Mother” approves.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, former Vice President Mike Pence’s digital operation has kicked into gear. FWIW has found that in anticipation of a 2024 White House bid, Pence has begun spending heavily on supporter acquisition ads on Facebook and Google - particularly in the last week. We’ll break down those ads and what it all means below, but first…
By the numbers
FWIW, here were the top-spending political advertisers on Facebook + Instagram last week:
Liberal outside group House Majority Forward continues to spend heavily on Facebook ads through its boosted news brand, “Citizens Bulletin.” The page regularly promotes favorable mainstream news articles about frontline Democratic House candidates - and has spent $1.3 million since they started doing so since last October.
Meanwhile, here were the top political advertisers on Google platforms last week, including YouTube:
The Republican dark money group One Nation continues spending heavily on Google platforms, making up 11% of all political ad spending nationwide over the past month. The majority of the organization’s spending is on YouTube ads attacking Raphael Warnock and targeting Georgia voters. Meanwhile, true to Trumpian form, Warnock’s GOP opponent has chosen absolute chaos.
Relatedly, we noticed Democratic outside group VoteVets is playing in #GASen too - the organization spent $60,000 on Search and YouTube ads attacking Herschel Walker for making money off of veterans services:
… and here are the top political ad spenders on Snapchat so far this year:
Looking for more detailed midterm candidate spending numbers? We provide weekly + historical data in battleground races for premium subscribers every week. Here are links to that content for Senate campaigns and Gubernatorial races.
Trending on Facebook
Content that is shared organically on social media platforms like Facebook can have a much larger impact + reach than paid advertising. Which midterm candidates are receiving the most reactions, comments, and shares on their campaign’s Facebook posts?
FWIW, here were the most engaged U.S. Senate candidates on Facebook last week:
Americans were clearly not vibing with U.S. Senate candidates on Facebook last week - engagement was down across the board. The leader last week was once again Dr. Oz, who also had the single top-performing post: an innocuous photo celebrating his wedding anniversary.
Gubernatorial candidates received markedly more engagement on the social media site. Here’s who came out on top last week:
While Texas Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke led all other gubernatorial hopefuls last week in terms of Facebook interactions, the single top-performing post among this group came from Ron DeSantis, wishing his wife a happy birthday. Noticing a trend? Family photos and throwback picture posts seem to receive more engagement on Facebook these days than overtly political posts. We’ll see if that changes in the near future.
NEW: Q&A with the DNC’s Chief Mobilization Officer
The Democratic National Committee’s mobilization team is responsible for everything from TikTok engagement to direct mail fundraising. In this week’s #Campaigner newsletter, we spoke with DNC Chief Mobilization Officer Patrick Stevenson about how his team raises money online and engages Democrats on social media. Read + subscribe here >>
Mike Pence assembles his 2024 digital army
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s fledgling 2024 presidential campaign has dramatically increased its acquisition ad spending on Facebook last week, following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Advancing American Freedom, an outside spending entity controlled by Pence and widely considered to be his 2024 presidential campaign in waiting, has spent nearly $100,000 on Facebook and Google ads in 2022. More than half of that has been spent in the past month, according to the platforms’ political ad archives.
Here’s the group’s total combined Google + Meta weekly ad spend since January:
The latest wave of digital ads do not support particular midterm candidates, like those reported by Axios in March - instead, they prominently feature Pence and are intended to build a campaign email list for supporter activation and grassroots fundraising. They target (presumably) conservatives nationwide.
One ad, a video promoted on Facebook, is Pence’s version of a victory lap celebrating the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. It splices together imagery of clouds, happy babies, and Pence’s legislative record curtailing abortion rights. Pence also takes credit for President Trump’s three Supreme Court nominees:
Having tracked digital ad spending in the 2020 presidential primaries, we know these types of early acquisition campaigns are critical to candidates looking to start a competitive primary cycle with a grassroots advantage. With over a dozen Republican candidates considering presidential bids - ones that could launch as soon as this month - having a grassroots supporter base will allow them to fundraise, staff up, and hit the ground running early on.
Other outlets have reported Advancing American Freedom’s more overt moves - recently donating to conservative organizations and providing television cover to GOP midterm candidates.
Pence isn’t alone in building out this type of digital operation. FWIW was the first to report in January that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was running supporter acquisition ad campaigns specifically targeting the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is using shady new tactics to allow an outside group to build his digital army on their own. And other 2024 hopefuls like Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton already maintain large email and text lists of supporters from their previous campaigns.
One thing is for certain: it’s going to be a long year.
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