June Ad Data Shows Anti-Immigrant Attacks Dominate GOP Ads

The Immigration Hub commissioned AdImpact to track 2024 political advertising featuring immigration messaging, including data on spending, placement, viewership, and immigration keywords employed by candidates, political action committees, and other groups, across eleven battleground states (AZ, FL, GA, MI, NC, NV, PA, OH, TX, VA, WI) and Montana. In June 2024, Republican and right-wing candidates and groups continued to outspend Democrats on immigration television ads, spending over $17 million in ten battleground states and Montana (the amount does not reflect online or other paid communications, such as mailers and text messages).

• From January 2024 to June 2024, Republican and Democratic candidates, PACS, and other groups have spent $89,264,634 on immigration-focused television ads. Only $8,898,580, or 10%, was spent by Democratic candidates or groups. The remaining 90%, or $80,366,054, was spent on anti-immigrant TV ads by the GOP and right-wing groups.
• In June of 2024, GOP candidates, PACs, and other groups spent $17,033,142 to fund 67 anti-immigrant TV ads across federal, state, and down-ballot races in ten battleground states (AZ, FL, GA, MI, NC, NV, OH, PA, VA, WI) and Montana.
• The right-wing ads aired 31,797 times in critical battleground states and were viewed nearly 625 million times.
• “Border” remained the top buzzword employed in the ads, with 53 mentions, followed by  “crime” (10 mentions), “wall” (5 mentions), “fentanyl” (5 mentions), “invasion” (4 mentions), and “crisis” (4 mentions).
• Across the 12 states in the analysis, Democratic candidates and groups spent $5,885,920 on 10 ads that aired a total of 7,972 times. Collectively, the ads garnered over 175 million views in Arizona, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. 
• Across party lines, the states that saw the highest proportion of immigration-related ads were Virginia (14 ads, 36%), Ohio (7 ads, 35%), Arizona (13 ads, 26%), and Montana (11 ads, 23%). 
• In Arizona and Nevada, where immigration is a top issue for voters, Republican candidates and right-wing groups spent $1,470,342  and $1,118,762 in June, respectively, while Democrats only spent $142,845 in Arizona and $424,802 in Nevada. 

Democrats increased their immigration-focused television ad spend by 176% in June to nearly $6 million, but it was no match for the GOP’s anti-immigrant messaging. The GOP and other conservative groups increased their anti-immigration TV ad spend to $17,033,142 in June, a 9% increase from May. 

Methodology: AdImpact conducted this research through a team of analysts who watch and label each ad with an issue tag based on its content. After filtering down the ads with the “Immigration” issue tag to only those aired by advertisers in the specified states and races, the analysts used a keyword search of each transcript to determine the total number of ads each term appeared in.  (Note: To view any of the ads mentioned in this report, please contact claudia@theimmigrationhub.org.)