Americans are heading to the polls today in droves after weathering endless campaign ads designed to influence their votes — especially in presidential battleground states such as Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Here’s what you need to know about the advertising assault:
Team Clinton aired three times more ads than Team Trump
More than 500,000 broadcast and national cable TV ads have aired in the presidential race during the general election, and Team Hillary Clinton accounted for 75 percent of them.
Source: Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from ad tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG of TV ads aired in the presidential race from June 12, 2016, through Nov. 6, 2016. Note: Kantar Media/CMAG tracks ads on broadcast television and national — but not local — cable.
That’s according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data provided by ad tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG, which showed that the Democratic presidential nominee and her allies combined to air more than 383,000 TV ads from June 12 through Nov. 6, while Republican Donald Trump and those supporting his presidential bid combined to air about 125,000.
Clinton’s own campaign, which raised $513 million versus the $255 million raised by Trump, was alone responsible for more than 282,000 ads — about 55 percent of all the TV ads in the race since mid-June.
During this period, Priorities USA Action — the main pro-Clinton super PAC, which raised more than $175 million — nearly aired as many TV ads than Trump’s own campaign. Priorities USA Action aired about 77,000 TV ads, according to Kantar Media/CMAG. Trump’s campaign aired about 85,000.
The Republican nominee’s biggest ally on the airwaves was the National Rifle Association, which aired about 14,000 pro-Trump or anti-Clinton TV ads since mid-June.
Source: Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from Kantar Media/CMAG covering TV ads broadcast from June 12, 2016, through Nov. 6, 2016. Team Trump aired 71 ads in Georgia during this period.
Note: Kantar Media/CMAG tracks ads on broadcast television and national — but not local — cable.
Battleground: Florida
No state endured more presidential TV ads than Florida, the electoral prize worth 29 Electoral College votes, which Democrat Barack Obama carried in 2012 by just 0.9 percent.
Since June 12, more than presidential 121,000 TV ads targeted residents of Florida, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from Kantar Media/CMAG.
Team Clinton accounted for more than 75 percent of the presidential-focused TV ads in the Sunshine State. Since Oct. 1 alone, Team Clinton aired more than 39,500 TV ads there — an average of about one pro-Clinton or anti-Trump TV ad every 90 seconds.
Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Nevada round out the top five states with the most presidential-focused TV ads.
In all of them, Team Clinton aired more TV ads than Team Trump.
Clinton and her supporters aired two TV ads, on average, every five minutes in Ohio since Oct. 1, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from Kantar Media/CMAG.
Meanwhile, Team Clinton aired one TV ad, on average, every three minutes since Oct. 1 in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. And in Nevada, Clinton and her allies aired one TV ad, on average, about every five minutes since Oct. 1.
Waging the ad war en español
Latino voters could be one of the most decisive voting blocs this election — a contest in which Clinton has endorsed comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway for citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the country illegally.
Trump, for his part, has advocated that the United States build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. He also wants to prohibit children born in the United States to foreign parents from automatically gaining U.S. citizenship.
Against this backdrop, Clinton’s campaign and her supporters have aggressively courted Latino voters, including airing thousands of Spanish-language TV ads.
Clinton’s own campaign aired about 3,200 TV ads in Spanish during the general election, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data provided by Kantar Media/CMAG.
The number sponsored by Trump’s campaign? About 100, the first of which aired on Nov 4.
Meanwhile, pro-Trump groups only aired another 400 Spanish-language ads, according to Kantar Media/CMAG. Pro-Clinton groups aired more than 12,000 of their own TV ads.
In Nevada alone — a battleground state with one of the highest proportions of Latino voters — about one of every nine TV ads sponsored by Team Clinton since June 12 was in Spanish. None of Team Trump’s ads in the Silver State during that time were in Spanish.
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