The 2024 Iowa caucus breaks ad spending record as the money spent for political advertisements reaches over $120 million. This is almost $40 million higher compared to the advertising spending in the 2020 Iowa caucuses.
Before the 2020 Iowa caucuses, campaigns and groups of GOP presidential candidates spent around $84 million, which is dwarfed by the latest ad spending record of the 2024 Iowa caucus.
But, what does this new ad spending record in the Republican Iowa caucuses mean for American voters? Here are the latest details U.S. citizens need to know.
According to CNBC's latest report, political campaigns and their affiliated political action committees spent over $120 million on advertisements, which is considered to be the most expensive on the Iowa caucuses record.
The money spent on ads clearly shows how competitive 2024's presidential candidates, as well as their allies, are in the upcoming U.S. election, although polls and surveys show that Donald Trump is leading the GOP nomination race.
In the $120 million ad spending, around $84 million of it came from campaigns and allies of the top three GOP presidential candidates; Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Nikki Haley.
Nikki Haley and her allies spent the most on political advertisements, which is around $37 million in Iowa alone. Meanwhile, former U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies aired almost 21,000 TV ads, which is lower compared to the 22,000 TV spots that Haley and her team have paid for.
However, despite Trump spending less on advertisements, he still has a massive polling lead compared to Haley and DeSantis.
"Judging by the number of ads placed in Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump's campaign is not taking those states for granted," said Wesleyan Media Project Co-Director Michael Franz.
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Why is Iowa Caucuses So Important?
Sky News reported that Iowa has been the U.S. state to first conduct caucuses for the past few years.
Iowa's caucuses are very important for U.S. elections because they send signals to the rest of the United States on the tenor of each of the presidential candidates.
"Whether they really will have the chance of proceeding on," explained Prof. Jim McCormick of Iowa State University.
Just like primaries, caucuses are also conducted as part of the presidential nomination process in U.S. states. However, a caucus is considered a political meeting while a primary is an election.
These are just some of the details you need to know about caucuses in the U.S. this 2024. To learn more about these political meetings, you can click here.
