The Online Battle in the Badger State
Also inside: Meta + Bluesky updates, DHS + Doctors Without Borders take their messaging digital, and more
We are just over two weeks out from Election Day (again) in Wisconsin – this time, they’ll be electing a new state Supreme Court Justice. It’s the first major statewide race in a battleground state since Trump won re-election (and Wisconsin) in 2024. Needless to say, the digital battle is fierce, and we’ve got your debrief on all the key players and plays below.
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More on SCOWIS below, but first…
Digital ad spending, by the numbers:
FWIW, U.S. political advertisers spent about $11 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Doctors Without Borders launched a fundraising campaign on Facebook + Instagram asking for support for their continued work treating those in war zones in Ukraine. (This, of course, comes after that explosive meeting in the Oval Office at the end of February.)
Rep. Jamie Raskin joins the ranks of prominent Dems running anti-Trump fundraising ads from their campaign accounts with a ~$53,000 spend on Facebook + Instagram nationwide. The ads are clearly geared towards raising money but also focus heavily on a call to action, specifically “a rally a day keeps the fascists away.” This is a bit tonally different from other Dems’ fundraising ads we’ve seen.
Meanwhile, political advertisers spent just over $2.2 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
As you may have seen, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is using ads as part of their deportation strategy: for this past week, they spent ~$48,000 on YouTube + Google ads of Kristi Noem, dubbed in Spanish, essentially telling people to self-deport or “we will find you.” The ads are running nationwide with a particular focus on Texas and California.
On X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $1.5 million on ads in 2025. According to X’s political ad disclosure, here are the top spenders year to date:
As we the chronically online probably all know, X/Twitter was down this past Monday due to a massive cyberattack – Elon Musk pointed the finger at Ukraine, but it appears that a different group was responsible.
…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $168,700 on ads in 2025. Here are the top spenders year to date:
What’s trending on YouTube:
ICYMI, this has been a fairly cursed week in the digital world (see X/Twitter crash above), and our friends over at Tubefilter flagged that the YouTube Data API was having some issues, so no chart this week 🙁
In the meantime, I wanted to share some interesting pieces I read this past week about YouTube:
YouTube reveals how Shows will help to push creators’ episodic content (Digiday)
The hidden world beneath the shadows of YouTube's algorithm (BBC)
A Political Reporter Takes Her Scoops to YouTube (NYT gift link)
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The Online Battle in the Badger State
One of the first major electoral events of this MAGA 2.0 era is the Wisconsin Supreme Court election happening in the Badger State in just over two weeks. Democrat Judge Susan Crawford and Republican Judge Brad Schimel are battling it out for a seat on SCOWIS.
Three key factors to bear in mind:
Whoever wins this election will play a key role in determining the battle for abortion in the state.
This race has garnered a lot of national buzz because Elon Musk got involved with his PACs to support the Republican candidate.
This is the first statewide battleground electoral race since Trump won re-election (including winning Wisconsin).
Needless to say, the eyes of pretty much all key political actors are focused on Wisconsin – and so are their wallets.
Here’s a look at who has been spending the most on digital ads in Wisconsin over the past month or so as we ramp up to the April 1st election. On Facebook + Instagram, political advertisers have spent about $1.5 million in Wisconsin:
Notably, the two candidates’ campaigns aren’t actually in the top spenders for Facebook + Instagram. Judge Crawford’s campaign spent $21,300 in total on these platforms over this period, and Judge Schimel’s campaign spent just $7,446. Also, note: Progress 2028 *looks* like it’s spending on ads supporting Judge Crawford – but it’s actually another Musk-backed conservative group that aims to peel centrists voters away from Democrats.
Looking at Google + YouTube, political advertisers spend about 1.1 million in total in Wisconsin from February 8th to March 8th:
Taking a quick look at other platforms: The top three spenders for political ads on Snapchat targeted at Wisconsin were all Democrat-linked organizations: The Wisco Project came in at ~$8,600 total, Half Court Political Fund at ~$7,900, and Priorities USA at ~$2,200. (Their ads also give an interesting look at how Dems are trying to reach young people after a rough 2024.)
Over on X/Twitter, seemingly the only top political ad spender in Wisconsin that addresses the SCOWIS race was @HFreedomAction, AKA House Freedom Action, which is backing the Republican Schimel.
Comparing the Snapchat and X/Twitter political spending around this race seems to provide a peek at the playbooks: Dems are once again proactively chasing down young voters (which WI has many of), while Republicans, at least on the digital ad side, don’t seem to be going that route.
One more factor to note: the SCOWIS race is also a bit of a proxy battle between politically inclined billionaires. Hoffman, Soros, and Gov. JB Pritzker are backing Judge Crawford. And, if you peek back at the charts, you’ll see Elon Musk’s Building America’s Future PAC, America PAC, and, of course, Progress 2028 and the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity spending for Judge Schimel.
More from around the internet:
We have some new platform updates: Meta is rolling out testing for community notes on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, and Bluesky is adding 3-minute videos and a filter to help you with DM spam.
Oxford Economics dropped new analysis that found that 4.7 million jobs in the US in 2024 benefited from the use of TikTok business accounts. (For those counting, we are just about 22 days away from when TikTok could, in theory, go dark again.)
Apparently, some violent and otherwise dark and twisted content is somehow accidentally slipping through cracks in Instagram’s content regulation and ending up on peoples’ feeds.
Barstool’s Dave Portnoy said he was asked by the Trump administration to join their Commerce Department.
For fans of WeWork and/or WeCrashed, Adam Neumann is apparently back with a new lifestyle media company called The Flow Trip.
That’s it for FWIW this week. This email was sent to 24,057 readers. If you enjoy reading this newsletter each week, would you mind sharing it on X/Twitter, Threads, or Bluesky? Have a tip, idea, or feedback? Reply directly to this email.