Political campaigns all have one thing in common: money. It funds ads, marketing and other necessary channels meant to amplify the political candidate’s platform.
A total of $10.5 billion was spent on the 2024 presidential election. Kamala Harris spent the most amount of money with a total of $513 million on her campaign alone.
Most of the money went towards digital ads to be placed on social media and television. According to Forbes, her ads were distributed 138,000 times more than Trump’s across television networks. Despite digital distribution and an increase in ad spending, the Harris campaign still did not win the election.
The main reason she lost being that time was against her. Harris was selected as the Democratic candidate under unprecedented circumstances, leading to a disadvantage. She had to pick up the pieces after Joe Biden had to step down after a catastrophic debate performance against Trump.
Harris not only had to instill hope in the Democratic Party and people, but also show that she was qualified for the job in a matter of a few months. The first step in that plan should have been talking with traditional media sources to immediately inform people of her campaign. However, she waited to do sit down interviews until later.
Once she did some interviews it seemed that she had changed her opinion on different issues. For example, when she was running with Biden in 2019, she supported the Green New Deal and banning fracking to aid in stopping the climate change crisis.
However, she changed her point stating, “What I have seen is that we can grow and increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.” The changing of core values could have confused voters. It could have swayed people to view her as unworthy of the presidential title due to her indecisiveness.
Later in her campaign, she was interviewed on the Call Her Daddy podcast by the host, Alex Cooper. On the podcast, she discussed what abortion rights would look like under her presidency but faced criticism because it was produced around the same time Hurricane Helene and Milton caused damage to Florida.
According to Newsweek, 51% of Independents were reported to say that her appearance on the podcast harmed her image. While addressing an important issue in American politics, it made her seem like she was not prioritizing the American people who needed her help in a moment of crisis.
While Kamala spent more on digital ads to push out her message, Trump relied on earned media. Instead, he did interviews and public appearances. For example, he went to Texas to personally console the mother whose child was killed by migrants. He was the first to console the family in this situation which means he beat Harris to this opportunity to show care and humanity. Traditional media like interviews and acts of service enables the presidential candidate to be more hands on in their approach of gaining voters. This resulted voters seeing a more human side of the Trump that is not always portrayed.
Another strategic move was Trump’s team spending $100,000 more on research and polling. Research and polling can provide helpful demographic data. In swing states, presidential campaigns can use this data to target specific groups that could make the difference between winning and losing the election.
Trump’s approach of research and traditional media obviously worked because it won him the election. If Harris decides to run again, it should be interesting to see if she keeps spending on digital ads or tries to cater more towards the press.
This article was written by Alison McMillan. She can be reached at [email protected].
