--- title: How the Harris and Trump Campaigns Are Spending Their Money description: The campaign's records show both Team Trump and Team Harris putting an enormous amount of resources into one strategy. canonical: https://time.com/7022499/how-harris-trump-campaign-ads/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-09-19T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:18.230Z article:section: Politics og:title: How the Harris and Trump Campaigns Are Spending Their Money og:description: The campaign's records show both Team Trump and Team Harris putting an enormous amount of resources into one strategy. og:url: https://time.com/7022499/how-harris-trump-campaign-ads/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt012d9339270152e1/698a5affb3fce3f05e0cd9e3/harris-trump-campaign-spending.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: harris-trump-campaign-spending og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the Harris and Trump Campaigns Are Spending Their Money twitter:description: The campaign's records show both Team Trump and Team Harris putting an enormous amount of resources into one strategy. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt012d9339270152e1/698a5affb3fce3f05e0cd9e3/harris-trump-campaign-spending.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How the Harris and Trump Campaigns Are Spending Their Money > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d2b2ca15-63bf-414e-bdc5-04a75831eb4d&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Biggest Moments From the First Debate Between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): The Biggest Moments From the First Debate Between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tOI0PQNs.m3u8) (2:46)  _Published 2024-09-11. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off in their first—and possibly only—debate on Tuesday night, tackling issues like abortion, immigration, the economy, and foreign policy. The debate, hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, was also the first time the two candidates have ever met in person, after Trump broke tradition in 2021 by skipping the inauguration of his successor._  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Sep 19, 2024 11:00 AM UTC  Harris: Win McNamee—Getty Images; Trump: KC McGinnis—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Sep 19, 2024 11:00 AM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ If you want to understand the true battleground of the current political landscape, it’s useful to glance at where the presidential campaigns are putting their dollars. You could look at the federal election spending reports, or—if you’re in a swing state—just pick up your TV remote or smartphone. On the Democratic side, 28 of the first 30 [biggest](https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?committee%5Fid=C00703975&committee%5Fid=C00694455&two%5Fyear%5Ftransaction%5Fperiod=2024&two%5Fyear%5Ftransaction%5Fperiod=2022&line%5Fnumber=F3P-23&data%5Ftype=processed) expenses listed on the Federal Election Commision summary for Kamala Harris’ campaign are related to media buys and production—A.K.A. ads. On the Republican side, 20 of the 30 [biggest](https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?committee%5Fid=C00828541&committee%5Fid=C00867275&two%5Fyear%5Ftransaction%5Fperiod=2024&two%5Fyear%5Ftransaction%5Fperiod=2022&line%5Fnumber=F3P-23&data%5Ftype=processed) GOP checks backing Donald Trump’s return to the White House are for paid media and mailers. Put plainly as told through invoices: campaigns are investing far more in what voters come across when they’re looking for entertainment or a distraction than sending someone to knock on their door for a chat. That priority is about to become far more apparent in the [handful of swing states](https://time.com/7009161/battleground-swing-states-2024-election/), where the final push toward Election Day is slated to see a half-billion dollars in advertising go live. The Harris campaign and allies have booked more than $330 million on TV and radio over roughly the next seven weeks. Trump’s team has booked a little less than $200 million. The disparity stems only partly from Harris’ superior fundraising. It’s also due to an early investment by the now-shuttered Biden campaign to book ad time on the stations in key markets months ahead of time, while Trump was still using much of his campaign’s coffers to pay lawyers. This focus on paid media by Trump and Harris is in line with what’s happening in down-ballot races across the country. A full 30% of the entire campaign spending ecosystem is going to paid media, the biggest slice of this quiche, [according](https://www.opensecrets.org/campaign-expenditures) to the Center For Responsive Politics. Another 16% is going to the folks who raise the money for those ads. That leaves roughly half of a presidential campaign’s coffers for salaries, research, rent, logistics, and everything else that amounts to a full-fledged campaign. That dynamic is consistent across White House, House, and Senate races alike. This is all a clear reminder that as much as campaigns try to pitch the notion that rallies and field offices matter, that get-out-the-vote drives and phone-bank-until-you’re-hoarse drives are make-or-break investments, the race for the White House is largely adjudicated as a media war. And in the view of many campaigns, landing ads during _Dancing With The Stars_ and on the prerolls of the right YouTube videos ultimately matter more than whatever door-knocking strategy they hash out for the poli-sci graduates working out of the Richmond field office. While super PACs have altered and cluttered this political landscape, they still play at a disadvantage to campaigns when it comes to that all-important ad strategy. Official campaign accounts still have a tremendous leg-up, mainly because they can book ad time at a mandatory lowest-available rate, whereas super PACs and similar outside groups have to pay fair-market prices. Put plainly: campaigns relying too much on super PACs to get their message out will find their donors getting far less bang for their buck. This puts the hired-gun strategists working from conference room seats at campaign headquarters in the true positions of power, with the ultimate sway over what voters are seeing and when and where they are seeing it. Presidential campaigns in particular prefer things this way, as there is reduced risk for an off-script moment—a very real threat for both major-party nominees, to be clear—and that keeps the surprises to a minimum. But it also makes each subsequent campaign season feel more like a Bravo soundstage than anything approximating a genuine exchange of ideas between flesh-and-blood candidates. If you can re-cut the entire posture, what’s the point in pretending it has any aura of authenticity? That’s not to say ads are the whole ballgame. The campaign spending reports indicate vast investments into armies of hired hands, endless strip malls of real estate, and heaps of data collection and analysis. That last point category is worth dwelling on, as a campaign is really only as good as the data backings its strategy. Throwing gobs of cash on ads is as useful as burning it if a campaign team isn’t sure what messages move the needle, who is listening, and where the targets land best. But in the end, both major presidential campaigns are devoting an enormous amount of their resources to crafting, producing, and airing the commercials that will blanket the airwaves over the next few weeks. That is what passes for democracy in 2024. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ## Transcript Coma Harris. So good debate. You have fun. Thank you. She's going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a mega hat. She's gone to my philosophy. But if she ever got elected, she'd change it, and it will be the end of our country. She's a marxist. What you're going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again. Have nothing to do with Project 2025. That's out there. I haven't read it. I don't want to read it purposely. I'm not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas. I guess some good, some bad. They have abortion in the ninth month. They even have, and you can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia, not the current governors doing an excellent job. But the governor before, he said, the baby will be born, and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we'll execute the baby. Is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born. One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree. The government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating They're eating the pets of the people that live there. ABCDs did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community. I've seen people on television. Let me just say here. Well, I think this is so rich, coming from someone who has been prosecuted. For national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference has been found liable for sexual assault, and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing. I'm going to actually do something really unusual, and I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies, 'cause it's a really interesting thing to watch. You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lector. He will talk about windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you, the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me. They talk about democracy. I'm a threat to democracy. They're the threat to democracy. I was a fake Russia, Russia, Russia investigation. We do a lot. 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