May Ad Data Shows GOP Continues to Outspend Democrats on Immigration

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 twelve battleground states (AZ, FL, GA, MI, MT, NC, NV, PA, OH, TX, VA, WI). In May 2024, Republican and right-wing candidates and groups continued to outspend Democrats on immigration ads, spending over $15 million on television broadcast ads in eleven battleground states and Montana (the amount does not reflect online or other paid communications, such as mailers and text messages).

• From January 2024 to May 2024, Republican and Democratic candidates, PACS, and other groups have spent $66,345,573 on immigration-focused television ads. Over 95%, or $63,332,912, of the total spend was from the GOP.
• In May of 2024, GOP candidates, PACs, and other groups spent $15,643,975 to fund 89 anti-immigrant TV ads across federal, state, and down-ballot races in eleven battleground states (AZ, FL, GA, MI, NC, NV, OH, PA, TX, VA, WI) and Montana.
• The right-wing ads aired 41,344 times in critical battleground states and were viewed 700 million times.
• “Border” remained the top buzzword employed in the ads, with 82 mentions, followed by  “crime” (33 mentions), “wall” (8 mentions), “fentanyl” (5 mentions), and “invasion” (4 mentions).
• Across the twelve states in the analysis, Democratic candidates and groups spent $2,133,466 on 5 ads that aired a total of 8,048 times in Montana, Ohio, and Texas. Collectively, the ads garnered over 83 million views. 
• Across party lines, the states that saw the highest proportion of immigration-related ads were Virginia (13 ads, 43%), Montana (13 ads, 33%), Texas (35 ads, 31%), North Carolina (4 ads, 27%), and Arizona (4 ads, 22%). 
• In Arizona and Nevada, where immigration is a top issue for voters, Republican candidates and right-wing groups spent $516,922 (AZ) and $1,309,275 (NV) in May, while Democrats did not air any immigration-related TV ads during the month of May.

As Democrats across the country increase their immigration-focused television ad spending, up by 143% from their total spend in April, they have yet to achieve anything close to parity with right-wing advertisers. Republicans continued doubling down on anti-immigrant messaging in May, investing 91% more than their April television ad buys. Even in the presidential race alone, where immigration is now only second to abortion in terms of overall ad spending, right-wing anti-immigrant ads make up almost the entirety of immigration-related spending. Still, as President Biden is reportedly considering following up his executive action on the border with another focused on legal pathways for long-term undocumented immigrants, a move largely popular with the American electorate, Democrats may have a critical opportunity to lean in more aggressively on the issue.
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.)