President Trump has spent $2.4 million to advertise on Spanish-language television over the past month as part of a comprehensive campaign to woo Hispanic voters in Arizona, Florida, and Pennsylvania.
The spending is double that of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who has devoted $1.2 million to advertise on Spanish-language television in Arizona and Florida since June 19.
Since June 26, the Trump campaign has invested $587,000 in Arizona, $1.8 million in Florida, and $10,000 in Pennsylvania to run a series of different spots targeting Hispanic voters on Spanish-language television.
In 2016, Trump won 28% of the Hispanic voters, compared to 66% for Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to exit polls, continuing the GOP’s trend of underperforming with this demographic in presidential elections. Biden is on track for another big win, polls show. But some recent surveys suggest the former vice president could fall short of recent Democratic nominees, a vulnerability the Trump campaign is hoping to exploit through an aggressive media campaign and its Latinos for Trump coalition.
To reach different segments of the Hispanic population, the Trump campaign has run at least nine different Spanish-language ads and two radio spots. Simultaneously, Trump’s team continues to build an army of Hispanic volunteers to target voters in their community while using its vast field team and data analytics operation generally to identify, persuade, and turn out Hispanic voters.
“While Biden is focused on winning over American socialists, appeasing Latin American dictators, and taking the Latino vote for granted, President Trump will continue to build on his record of success,” Trump campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso said.
Some liberal Biden supporters are concerned the former vice president is not putting enough resources into turning out this crucial community. The Biden campaign said nothing could be further from the truth. Citing one example of its commitment, an official explained that the campaign is tailoring Spanish-language advertising such that spots airing in Arizona have a Mexican accent, ads airing in Miami have a Cuban accent, and those airing in Tampa are spoken with a Puerto Rican accent.
“We know that Latinos can be the difference-makers in this upcoming election,” Biden campaign spokesman Cristobal Alex said. “The campaign is not taking any Latino voter for granted.”
The Spanish-language advertising expenditures by the Biden and Trump campaigns were provided by Medium Buying, a firm that tracks political advertising.
