Welcome to FWIW, ACRONYM’s weekly newsletter breaking down digital ad investment across the political spectrum. Each week, we look at whose digital spending is up, whose is down, and whose is non-existent.
For what it’s worth, some of it might surprise you.
We made it! Election Day 2018 is over, and only 726 days until the 2020 election.
As many of you saw, this election cycle was a mixed bag for both parties. Democrats won back the House, literally changed the face of power by electing 100 women to Congress and made gains in state legislatures across the country, while Republicans kept their hold on the Senate (if not strengthened it - depending on how the recounts go).
The biggest question on our mind now is the role - and impact - digital played in this election cycle. While we’ll be diving into these numbers over the coming weeks and months, we offer up a few snapshots of spending in two key races.
No commentary. No hot takes. Just the numbers.
But first…
Here’s a look at top Google spenders this cycle, and how their investments panned out.
Deep Dive - Missouri Senate and California’s 25th District
We compared Election Night results in the Missouri Senate race and the California 25th District House race to overall investment from each candidate in the race’s campaign and outside spending in the race. To get these numbers, we used data from the New York Times, Google Transparency Report, Facebook Ad Archive and the ProPublica Election DataBot
Missouri Senate - Claire McCaskill (D) vs. Josh Hawley (R)
California’s 25th House District - Katie Hill (D) vs. Steve Knight (R)
Let us know what you think of these numbers. Buy us a drink and we’ll give you our thoughts. And let us know what questions you’re asking around this year’s election results by emailing us or messaging us on Twitter.
Thanks for reading FWIW. We’ll be back next week!
- The team at ACRONYM
P.S. Here’s a sign-up link you can share with friends and colleagues so they can join FWIW. And please reach out to us at [email protected] to let us know what data you want us to dive into next.
