Beto O’Rourke has spent over $5.4 million on Facebook ads, trails Ted Cruz in all of the October polls
From May 1 through Oct. 20, a total of $256,392,363 was spent on Facebook ads for political campaigns or issues of national importance, covering 1,677,184 ads, according to the social network’s new Ad Archive Report, which was released Tuesday.
U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke of Texas has spent more than any other U.S. politician this election cycle. The Democratic challenger to incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz forked over more than $5.4 million on Facebook ads since May—more than 10 times the amount the Republican spent on his re-election bid over that same time period.
CNN’s SSRS poll shows Cruz leading his Democrat challenger by 7%. More here. Real Clear Politics has moved the race away from tossup to a secured win for Cruz, who has led O’Rourke in all of the October polls by at least 5%. More here
To close out September RCP noted “The latest Quinnipiac puts Cruz ahead by a comfortable 54-45 margin. If you look at the polling data as a whole, the polls with more undecideds tend to show a close race, while pollsters who push undecideds harder show a Cruz lead. This is consistent with a storyline suggesting that there are a large number of undecideds, perhaps intrigued by the Beto phenomeon, but who nevertheless lean Republicans. But in this chaotic environment, we should still consider the race a tossup overall.”
Vox reports that “A single-digit difference is still a huge feat for a Democrat in Texas, where Republicans have a stronghold on every facet of government. Cruz won the state in 2012 by 16 points. But if O’Rourke has any chance of winning the seat, he has a lot of work to do with less than a month until Election Day. How O’Rourke chooses to spend his massive war chest will be a major factor.”
Facebook has spent almost $12.5 million in the past six months to promote its own election integrity products, including the ad archive itself, which shows users who paid for what political ads.
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